Aryan · Founder, Ready Aviator · 14 June 2026

Here's how many students appear for DGCA CPL exams every year

We counted every CPL exam result DGCA published from 2024 to early 2026. The exam-hall crowd grew by a third in a single year, and most of it is people coming back for another attempt.

Directorate General of Civil AviationEvery published result

The queue

Wrote a paper in 202522,933
Growth in one yearA third more
Three years running4,483
The queue stacksMost are back for another paperStill growing
17,397 studentsWrote at least one paper in 2024.
22,933 studentsDid the same in 2025, a third more.
14,867In the first four months of 2026 alone.
Two-thirds returnedOf 2024's students, still working through papers.
Year by year

A third more people in one year

Students sitting DGCA CPL exams, year by yearUnique students who wrote at least one paper

17,397

2024

22,933

2025

+31.8% in one year

14,867

2026

first 4 months only

Unique students who wrote at least one DGCA CPL paper, counted from every published result sheet from 2024 to April 2026.

Who is in it

The queue stacks rather than empties

Two-thirds of 2024's students were back again in 2025, still working through their papers, and 4,483 have now written papers in all three years. 11,305 sat their first DGCA exam in 2025, joining a line where most of the people ahead of them were already on attempt two or three of something.

The other end

Fourteen times bigger than the door

2025 set an all-time record for new CPLs at 1,628 issued, against 22,933 students sitting exams. They are not the same people, because the licence takes years of exams, hours and paperwork. The size of the gap is what the queue is.

Practise the real papers

The queue moves at the speed of your prep

Five per chapter, open, with the working underneath.

Question 5 of 20Answer shown

What is the highest latitude listed below at which the sun will reach an altitude of 90⁰ above the horizon at some time during the year?
a23⁰b45⁰c66⁰

How the answer is reached

  1. The sun is overhead somewhere on the earth every day, and that point moves north and south with the seasons.
  2. Because the axis is tilted 23½°, the point stops at 23½° north in June and 23½° south in December. It never goes past either.
  3. 45⁰ and 66⁰ are both outside that band, so the sun never stands at 90⁰ over them.

Answer 23⁰the only latitude in the list inside the band

Open the question bank
Keep reading
The DGCA question bankThe syllabus, paper by paperMock tests under the clockThe Pariksha exam guide