Devdutta Majhi from the IIT Kharagpur zone has emerged as the top female topper in the JEE Advanced, bagging an All India Rank of 16, scoring 312 marks in the Common Rank List.

Hailing from Katwa, her success comes as no surprise: she has consistently excelled at academic milestones. In 2023, she was the West Bengal Madhyamik topper, followed by a perfect 100 percentile and AIR 1 in JEE Main 2025 (Session 2). “For the last two years, I have been studying for this day. I wish I could have done a bit better,” she said.

A student of Katwa Durgadasi Chaudhurani Girls’ High School, Devdutta studied for 10-12 hours daily. Her dream is to join IISc Bangalore to pursue a BTech in Computing, followed by research in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

Over 1.8 lakh candidates appeared for the JEE Advanced this year.

Her mother, Shelly Dan, a physics teacher, expressed pride and surprise. “I am very happy for her. I had expected a good rank, but not this. She is the female topper. We were waiting for this day. She studied under my guidance. She never took tuitions, just self-study and online guidance. Many students go to Kota or Delhi, but she didn’t,” Dan said.

Majhi, who enjoys playing chess, caring for stray animals, and playing the violin, credited her preparation strategy to a disciplined study plan. “I focused on theory in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics first, then practiced problem-solving. I had a lot of books for that,” she said. She also occasionally took online guidance from teachers based in Delhi and Kolkata.

For aspirants, she advised that one needs hard work, discipline, and dedication.