‘Cleared JEE At 17, Still Fixated On It At 40?’: AI Founder’s Post Sparks Debate | Education and Career News
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In a now viral post on X, AI founder Mayukh Panja questioned “..why are we fixated so much on an exam taken during adolescence?”.
Mayukh Panja post on X has sparked a debate over India’s continued fascination with JEE ranks and UG college credentials. (Image: mayukh_panja)
In India, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) is considered a major achievement and a matter of pride. But should a rank earned during adolescence continue to matter decades later, when a person’s career is already well established? A recent post by professional and researcher Mayukh Panja on X (formerly Twitter) has sparked a debate over India’s continued fascination with JEE ranks and undergraduate college credentials.
Panja, who left engineering after completing his master’s degree to pursue pure science, has been living in Germany for the past 10 years. During a recent professional visit to Bengaluru, he said he was surprised to find that even successful professionals in their 40s continued to bring up their JEE ranks or subtly try to find out which college someone had attended.
The experience made Panja question why an examination taken during adolescence continues to be used as a marker of professional achievement so many years later. His post has since triggered a wider discussion on X about academic credentials, social status, privilege and how success is measured in India.
Mayukh Panja says he had ‘almost forgotten’ JEE was a big deal
Sharing his experience, Panja is the found of Populations AI and an ex-Computational Astrophysicist at Max Planck Society, said that after spending several years in Germany, his undergraduate education had gradually become a distant memory. He observed that people in Europe generally did not distinguish between Indian undergraduate institutions such as IITs, NITs and Goa University.
Panja explained that after moving to Germany, he gradually lost contact with many of his undergraduate classmates, several of whom had moved to the US. He was also no longer surrounded by people from India’s traditional Tier-1 engineering institutions after switching from engineering to pure science.
According to Panja, many of the Indian PhD students he met came from institutions such as Delhi University and IISERs rather than the engineering colleges that are typically associated with India’s competitive entrance-exam culture.
“I had almost forgotten that the JEE was a big deal,” Panja wrote.
He said that for much of the past decade, the professional metrics that mattered in his environment were different. These included the reputation of one’s graduate school, invited talks, conferences, research publications and other academic achievements.
Why are 40-year-olds still talking about JEE ranks?
Panja said he was surprised when he returned to Bengaluru in a professional context and found that people still brought up their JEE ranks or tried to determine which college others had attended.
He acknowledged that getting a strong JEE rank is a significant achievement and said that highlighting one’s credentials can be useful, particularly early in a career. According to him, discussing college credentials or JEE performance during the first five years of a career is understandable because educational qualifications can help people secure initial opportunities.
However, he questioned why professionals who are already around 40 and successful in their fields would continue to mention an examination they took roughly two decades earlier.
“But why are 40-year-olds bringing up the JEE?” he asked.
Panja added that the professionals he encountered were already highly accomplished, making him question whether their continued reference to JEE was connected to insecurity. Instead, he wondered whether it could be related to the intense pressure surrounding competitive examinations during adolescence.
“I wonder if it is the regret of a missed childhood that still haunts them,” he wrote at the end of his post.
I left India after my Masters.I have been in Germany since, and people here don’t really know of, or at least in 2016 didn’t know of, any of the Indian undergrad colleges. NIT, IIT, Goa University: here it is all the same.
Also, when I came here, there were not many Indians,…
— Mayukh (@mayukh_panja) August 27, 2026
Panja’s post received mixed reactions on X, with users offering different perspectives on the value of JEE and elite college credentials.
One user pushed back against the comparison between India’s competitive examination system and the opportunities available through foreign universities and international academic networks. The user wrote, “Anyone with rich parents can attend foreign universities and attend tons of conferences around the world. JEE nikalne ke liye dimag lagta hai aur paper leak bhi nahi hota.”
Another user agreed with Panja’s argument and said that the continued emphasis on traditional academic credentials reflects a generational mindset. “No, it should not matter. This is generational mind stuck up in measuring success conventionally. It’s changing with new generation discussing more about which protest they participated in rather than the college they went to,” the user commented.
Another X user suggested that the importance attached to JEE may depend largely on an individual’s professional circle. The user wrote, “Those are just immature adults with kids mindset. In my career, I haven’t met this kind of people yet because almost all of my mates are busy in building something new and grabbing high package jobs or startups. So it depends upon your group circle.”
However, not everyone agreed that JEE becomes irrelevant once a person moves further into their career. One user argued that the difficulty and intellectual demands of the examination itself explain why the achievement can remain meaningful even decades later.
“Tell me one thing frankly. After reading so much, is it possible to solve JEE Advanced within 2 minutes, even basic questions on units and dimensions, without any help from anyone? This answer should help you why it matters even after 60 also,” the user wrote.
Ultimately, the debate sparked by Panja’s post is less about whether JEE is difficult or whether an IIT education has value, and more about how long an achievement from the age of 17 or 18 should continue to define a person’s identity and success.
Quick Answers
Ask News18People encountered abroad are generally unfamiliar with Indian undergraduate institutions like the IITs, NITs, and Goa University. Some users on social media have shared similar experiences, noting that Indian college rankings and prestige hold less significance outside of India.
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August 31, 2026, 10:23 IST
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