LUCKNOW, June 2 -- Riddhesh Anant Bendale who notched All India Rank 18, has emerged as topper from IIT Kanpur zone in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Advanced exam 2026, the results of which were announced late Sunday night. He along with Parth Maheshwary (AIR 55) and Lucknow's Anvesh Patel (AIR 68) from the zone made it in top 100 in overall JEE advanced results. Total 5,552 candidates from IIT-K zone have cracked the exam. Quite a few commonalities exist between Riddhesh and Parth. They are from Madhya Pradesh and looking forward to studying computer science from IIT Bombay, their childhood dream. "I'm happy with my rank and presently looking forward to taking part in the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2026 scheduled in July," said Riddhesh, who scored 304 out of 360. A native of Bhusawal, Riddhesh prepared for JEE while staying in Indore for the last two years. He said, "I prepared hard for JEE Mains January session and scored 99.992 percentile. Thereafter I only focussed on CBSE class 12 Board and JEE Advanced. My parents are doctors-father is a pediatrician and mother is an ENT specialist." Parth Maheshwary (AIR 55) said it is a proud moment for his family. "My father is a software engineer, hence I gradually got interested in computer science. My mother is a housewife," he said. Anvesh Patel is quite satisfied with his AIR 68 rank by scoring 281 marks out of 360. Like other toppers he too wants to study computer science from IIT Bombay or Delhi. His success mantra is simple: set a daily target, adhere strictly to it. He said, "Self-study is important but coaching prepares you for time management. Regular mock tests help in completing the paper on time. I divided equal time for all three subjects. No magic, only hard work and practice," he said. His father Dr Ashish Kanaujiya is a doctor at SGPGIMS and his mother, Dr Kanti Singh is a doctor at ESI. Shashank Kumar Singh (AIR 455) scored 235 out of 360 and is eyeing a BTech in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science from IIT Madras. He obtained 92.8 percent in class 12. His father is Indian Air Force Sergeant NK Singh and mother Vandana Singh is a housewife. Other IIT-Kanpur zone toppers Arsh Jain (AIR 131) is a person with disability and Aarav Soni (AIR 155) are among top 200 from the zone. Anushka Agarwal (AIR 859) topped among female candidates from IIT-K zone, according to a detailed report shared by IIT Roorkee that conducted JEE Advanced this year. According to the results, IIT Madras zone recorded the highest number of qualified candidates at 14,294, followed by IIT Bombay with 12,389 and IIT Delhi with 10,697. IIT Roorkee zone recorded 5,637 qualified candidates, IIT Kanpur had 5,552, IIT Bhubaneswar 5,428 and IIT Guwahati 2,883....