Ranchi: Shaurya Shekhar, an engineering aspirant from the city, emerged as the state topper by securing an all-India rank (AIR) of 414 in JEE (Advanced) 2026, whose results were declared on Monday.Shaurya, a student of Central Academy School, scored 239 out of 360 marks. He had earlier secured 99.90 percentile in JEE (Main) and scored 97.2% in CBSE Class 12 examination. Preparing for the JEE since Class 11, Shaurya said, “I now hope to pursue computer science with a focus on artificial intelligence at an IIT. My interest has always been in computer science and AI, and I’m looking forward to the counselling process now.”Among city schools, Delhi Public School said that more than 50 students have qualified in JEE (Advanced) so far. Snehal Raj Singh emerged among the top performers with an AIR 635 and a score of 225. Snehal said, “I cut down social media during preparation and followed a fixed study schedule.”DPS Ranchi principal Jaya Chauhan said the results reflected discipline, consistency and academic commitment. From Loyola Convent School, two students — Arpan Chaudhary and Shlok Tanmay — secured AIRs of 17,728 and 17,694, respectively. Principal Parmita Saha said, “The achievement is the result of consistent hard work, discipline, strong determination and the collective support of parents and teachers.”From Brother’s Academy, over 112 students cleared the exam, said its director Paras Kumar Agarwal. Retired IAS officer KK Khandelwal, mentor of Shaurya and Snehal, said, “Jharkhand’s students are consistently proving themselves nationally. Performance of students from cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Bokaro shows the strength of focused preparation,” he said.Based on estimates from coaching institutes and schools, around 4,000 to 5,000 students from the state appeared for the exam this year, with more than 1,500 expected to have qualified.From Bokaro, more than 30 students from leading schools qualified in the exam. DPS Bokaro reported that 16 students qualified; while Chinmaya Vidyalaya’s 8 students cleared the exam. From Pentecostal Assembly School, Arpan Kumar emerged as the topper with common rank of 12,156 and EWS rank of 1,593.