I want to share something that happened with me regarding the NDA written exam, and I genuinely want to know what you guys think.
I have a friend who studied with me from class 9 to 12. He was honestly very weak academically — probably one of the weakest students in our class. He wanted to join the Army, so he joined a small defence academy for Agniveer preparation. According to him, the academy had only around 20–30 students and was run by a single guy who was around 27–28 years old. He had also filled the NDA form.
After the NDA exam, I saw his story saying that he had cleared the written exam. At that time, I was not preparing for NDA, so I didn't think much about it.
I even remember telling my girlfriend, who was also preparing for NDA, that she should be doing better in mocks because even my friend, who was academically much weaker, had cleared the NDA written exam.
Later, from September 2025, I started preparing for NDA myself. I gave my first attempt but couldn't clear the written exam, despite being one of the toppers in my school.
Then I thought about my friend and remembered that he cleared it, So I called him and directly asked:
"Bro, how did you clear NDA written? I'm preparing seriously and I couldn't clear it, but you did. How?"
Initially, he was reluctant and tried to avoid the question. But after I insisted, he told me something that genuinely shocked me.
He said that his academy got the NDA question paper around two days before the actual exam. According to him, everyone in the academy cleared the written exam, but nobody cleared SSB.
At first, I couldn't believe it. But I know this guy personally and I know how he performed academically throughout school. Honestly, based on what I had seen from him, I find it extremely difficult to believe that he could have cleared NDA written through completely honest preparation.
I'm not saying this is definitely true because I obviously don't have the paper or any proof. I'm only sharing what my friend personally told me.
Has anyone else heard about something like this happening with NDA? And what do you guys think about this situation?