One wrong pixel count or a file that's a few KB over the limit is enough for the UPSC online application portal to reject your photo or signature upload, and if that happens close to the deadline, it can cost you your shot at the NDA exam. The National Defence Academy exam is conducted twice a year through UPSC's One Time Registration (OTR) system, and its photo and signature rules are specific and strictly enforced at the point of upload, not just at the review stage.
This article gives you the exact numbers for NDA 2026, sourced from UPSC's own upload instructions and cross-checked against multiple exam-prep references, so you don't have to guess or dig through a PDF yourself while the clock is ticking on your registration.
Photo Size Requirements
Your photograph must meet a minimum of 350 x 350 pixels, and the file size needs to fall between 20KB and 300KB. It has to be saved as JPG or JPEG only — PNG, PDF, or WEBP files will be rejected outright. The background must be plain white, and your face should cover roughly 75% (three-fourths) of the frame, looking straight at the camera with both ears visible and a neutral expression. Sunglasses, caps, uniform dress, and colored or shadowed backgrounds are not allowed. UPSC also requires you to capture a live photo through your webcam or phone during registration, which is matched against your uploaded photo — if the two don't match, you cannot submit the form. Keep the photo genuinely recent; an old passport photo scanned in years later is one of the most common reasons the live-match step fails.
Signature Size Requirements
Your signature also needs to meet the 350 x 350 pixel minimum and stay within 20KB to 300KB, saved as JPG/JPEG. Sign in black ink only, on plain white paper — blue ink is a common reason applications get flagged. Under the UPSC OTR system used for NDA, candidates are asked to sign three times, one below the other, leaving a gap between each signature, and scan all three as a single image. Don't rotate the scan or use ruled or colored paper, and avoid digital signature-maker apps — a handwritten signature on real paper, properly scanned, is what the form expects.
Common Mistakes That Get Applications Rejected
Most NDA application rejections come down to the same handful of errors: compressing the photo so hard to hit a small file size that it falls below the 350x350px minimum, using a colored or shadowed background instead of plain white, signing in blue ink instead of black, and uploading a single signature instead of the required three stacked together. Blurry phone-camera scans and photos that don't match the live capture (because they're too old or edited) are also frequent culprits, and so is uploading a PDF or PNG scan instead of a proper JPG/JPEG file.
How to Resize Your Photo and Signature in 30 Seconds
Rather than fighting with Paint or Photoshop to hit these exact numbers, you can use SignResizer, a free online tool that resizes your photo and signature to the exact pixel dimensions and KB range UPSC requires in seconds, with no signup needed.