NEET UG · Physics · Class 12

Atoms: NEET previous year questions

13 questions in ten years of NEET, asked in 9 of 10 years. Here is what this chapter tests and how.

Asked in 10 years: 13; 9 of 10 papers
10-year average: 1.3; a paper · 1.9 since 2024 +1.0
Typical range: 1–2; questions a paper; fewest 0, most 2
Weighted estimate: 1.6; model, recent papers count more · about 6 marks

Typical range (fact)
10-year average (fact)
Weighted estimate (model)

Typical range: questions per paper in the middle eight of the ten papers, leaving out the single highest and lowest year (about the 10th to 90th percentile), each paper scaled to 180 questions. The ten-year average and the range are historical fact. The weighted estimate is a model: each paper's share, with recent papers counting more (half-life three years), and dropped syllabus removed. It is a guide to effort, not a forecast.

What to do

How to spend time on Atoms

Priority

Lower priority

Among the chapters that shared the last fifth of the questions. How bands are set

Past questions: 13in 9 of 10 papers
Study plan gives it: 13 hover 12 months; 10 h over 6

Study this chapter →Practise →

Ideas asked most often

Orbit Radius Calculation2×
Kinetic and Potential Energy Ratios2×

72 of the 85 ideas in Lumi’s map of this chapter have not been asked or touched in ten years. New questions often come from ideas like these, so learn the whole chapter, not just the list above.

Questions per year

Kind of question

SHARE OF 10 YEARS

Calculation62%
Recall15%
Match the lists8%
Two statements8%
Figure-based8%

Most common asks: numerical (9); identify species where theory is valid (1); match list on hydrogen spectral lines (1).

Profile

This chapter in numbers

Where it ranks, how steady it is, and what it costs to study.

Rank, all NEET chapters: #61; of 80 by weighted estimate
Rank in Physics: #17; of 27 chapters
Share of the paper: 0.7%; ten-year average
Busiest year: 2023; 2 questions
Year to year: Steady; varies by about 0.6 questions
Long-run direction: +0.14; questions per paper, per year
Easy questions: 54%; 61% of ideas rated hard
With a figure: 8%; graph, diagram or structure
Study time: 13 h; 10 h on a 6-month plan
Marks per study hour: 0.46; #76 of 80 chapters
Foundation for others: 94%; of its ideas are used in other chapters

Difficulty, year by year

Each question rated easy, medium or hard against NCERT.

20171
20181
20191
20201
2021
20221
20232
20242
20252
20262

Easy
Medium
Hard

What it asks you to do

SHARE OF QUESTIONS

Calculation46%
Recall23%
Concept15%
Data or graph8%
Multi-step8%

Coverage

How much of the chapter NEET has used

We split the chapter into 85 ideas. In ten years NEET built a question around 9 of them. Most of the chapter has never been asked, which is why learning it whole beats memorising past questions.

Asked as the main idea: 9
Touched on in a question: 4
Never asked: 72

Topics

What repeats, topic by topic

Questions per topic in each year's paper. Topics that come every year are worth learning first.

Bohr's Atomic Model · Every year13
111112222

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Topic	2017	’18	2019	’20	2021	’22	2023	’24	2025	’26	Total
Bohr's Atomic ModelEvery year	1	1	1	1	·	1	2	2	2	2	13

02+questions in that year’s paper

Bohr's Atomic Model
Expect a short numerical problem (one or two formula steps, four numeric options) about Bohr's Atomic Model. Past framings centre on: numerical; identify species where theory is valid.

Drill down

Topic, idea, question

Open a topic to see every idea NEET tested inside it, then open an idea to read the questions. Each row shows its ten papers.

topicAskedShareYears’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Open13 · 100%100%9/102222
11 ideas inside
- Repeated2 · 15%15%2/10
- Repeated2 · 15%15%2/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10
- 1 · 8%8%1/10

Squares are the ten papers, 2017 to 2026; darker means more questions. Share is of the level above.

Ideas

The exact ideas NEET has asked

Inside the topics, 11 different ideas were tested. These came more than once, or are new since 2024.

Orbit Radius Calculation2×
numerical
Kinetic and Potential Energy Ratios2×
numerical
Rutherford Alpha ScatteringNew1×
graph interpretation of alpha scattering
Angular Momentum QuantizationNew1×
numerical
De Broglie Wavelength in Bohr OrbitNew1×
numerical
Atomic Neutrality and Emission SpectraNew1×
statement i/ii on atomic structure
Balmer Series Visible SpectrumNew1×
match list on hydrogen spectral lines

Idea	Times	Usually asked as
Orbit Radius Calculationnumerical	2	Numerical
Kinetic and Potential Energy Ratiosnumerical	2	Numerical
Rutherford Alpha Scatteringgraph interpretation of alpha scattering	1	Figure-basedNew
Angular Momentum Quantizationnumerical	1	One-line MCQNew
De Broglie Wavelength in Bohr Orbitnumerical	1	NumericalNew
Atomic Neutrality and Emission Spectrastatement i/ii on atomic structure	1	Two statementsNew
Balmer Series Visible Spectrummatch list on hydrogen spectral lines	1	Match the listsNew

Every question

Atoms questions, year by year

The opening words of each question as it appeared in the official paper.

NEET 20262 questions

Q35In Geiger-Marsden experiment, the number of scattered $\alpha$ -particles $N(\theta)$ is plotted as a function of scattering angle…Figure-based · figure
Q40Consider that an electron is revolving in an excited state of Hydrogen atom with velocity $\sqrt{25.6}\times10^5$ ms $^{-1}$ . The radius of…Numerical

NEET 20252 questions

Q30A particle of mass $m$ is moving around the origin with a constant force $F$ pulling it towards the origin. If Bohr model is used to…One-line MCQ
Q34De-Broglie wavelength of an electron orbiting in the $n$ = 2 state of hydrogen atom is close to (Given Bohr radius = 0.052 nm)Numerical

NEET 20242 questions

Q5Match List I with List II. List I (Spectral Lines of Hydrogen for transitions from) | List II (Wavelengths (nm)) A. $n_2 = 3$ to $n_1 = 2$ …Match the lists
Q26Given below are two statements : Statement I : Atoms are electrically neutral as they contain equal number of positive and negative…Two statements

NEET 20232 questions

Q11In hydrogen spectrum, the shortest wavelength in the Balmer series is $\lambda$ . The shortest wavelength in the Bracket series is :Numerical
Q36The radius of inner most orbit of hydrogen atom is $5.3\times10^{-11}$ m. What is the radius of third allowed orbit of hydrogen atom?Numerical

NEET 20221 question

Q3Let $T_1$ and $T_2$ be the energy of an electron in the first and second excited states of hydrogen atom, respectively. According to the…Numerical

NEET 20201 question

Q136For which one of the following, Bohr model is not valid ?One-line MCQ

NEET 20191 question

Q27The total energy of an electron in an atom in an orbit is −3.4 eV. Its kinetic and potential energies are, respectively :Numerical

NEET 20181 question

Q11The ratio of kinetic energy to the total energy of an electron in a Bohr orbit of the hydrogen atom, isOne-line MCQ

NEET 20171 question

Q13The ratio of wavelengths of the last line of Balmer series and the last line of Lyman series is :Numerical

Questions from the official NEET UG papers published by NTA (CBSE before 2019). Topic and idea tags, counts and notes are Lumi’s.

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