NEET UG · Physics · Class 12

Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance: NEET previous year questions

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

Asked in 10 years: 23; 9 of 10 papers
10-year average: 2.2; a paper · 2.5 since 2024 +0.5
Typical range: 1–4; questions a paper; fewest 0, most 4
Weighted estimate: 2.5; model, recent papers count more · about 10 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 Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance

Priority

Should do

Among the chapters that took NEET from half to 80% of its questions. How bands are set

Past questions: 23in 9 of 10 papers
Study plan gives it: 18 hover 12 months; 14 h over 6

Study this chapter →Practise →

Ideas asked most often

Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere3×
Parallel Plate Capacitor Formula2×
Potential of an Electric Dipole2×
Charge Sharing and Common Potential2×
Capacitance of an Isolated Spherical Conductor2×

71 of the 87 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

Calculation30%
Figure-based30%
Concept17%
Application13%
Recall4%
Assertion–reason4%

Most common asks: numerical (12); dependence of plate force on separation (1); field from uniform potential region (1).

Profile

This chapter in numbers

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

Rank, all NEET chapters: #30; of 80 by weighted estimate
Rank in Physics: #5; of 27 chapters
Share of the paper: 1.2%; ten-year average
Busiest year: 2021; 4 questions
Year to year: Some swing; varies by about 1.2 questions
Long-run direction: +0.14; questions per paper, per year
Easy questions: 48%; 73% of ideas rated hard
With a figure: 39%; graph, diagram or structure
Study time: 18 h; 14 h on a 6-month plan
Marks per study hour: 0.56; #39 of 80 chapters
Foundation for others: 61%; of its ideas are used in other chapters

Difficulty, year by year

Each question rated easy, medium or hard against NCERT.

20172
20181
2019
20203
20214
20223
20232
20244
20251
20263

Easy
Medium
Hard

What it asks you to do

SHARE OF QUESTIONS

Calculation30%
Concept26%
Application22%
Multi-step17%
Recall4%

Coverage

How much of the chapter NEET has used

We split the chapter into 87 ideas. In ten years NEET built a question around 11 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: 11
Touched on in a question: 5
Never asked: 71

Topics

What repeats, topic by topic

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

Capacitance · Every year14
111421211
Electrostatic Potential · Every year9
121122

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Topic	2017	’18	2019	’20	2021	’22	2023	’24	2025	’26	Total
CapacitanceEvery year	1	1	·	1	4	2	1	2	1	1	14
Electrostatic PotentialEvery year	1	·	·	2	·	1	1	2	·	2	9

04+questions in that year’s paper

Capacitance
Expect a short numerical problem (one or two formula steps, four numeric options) about Capacitance; a diagram-based item (read or label a figure/graph, then answer) is the next most likely shape. Past framings centre on: numerical; dependence of plate force on separation.

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

Open14 · 61%61%9/10422
11 ideas inside
- Repeated2 · 14%14%2/10
- Repeated2 · 14%14%2/10
- Repeated2 · 14%14%2/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
Open9 · 39%39%6/10222

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, 17 different ideas were tested. These came more than once, or are new since 2024.

Potential and Energy near a Charged SphereNew3×
numerical
Parallel Plate Capacitor Formula2×
numerical
Potential of an Electric Dipole2×
numerical
Charge Sharing and Common Potential2×
numerical
Capacitance of an Isolated Spherical Conductor2×
compare potential of two charged spheres
Energy Stored in CapacitorNew1×
numerical
Capacitance with Partial Dielectric SlabNew1×
numerical
Wheatstone Bridge of CapacitorsNew1×
numerical

Idea	Times	Usually asked as
Potential and Energy near a Charged Spherenumerical	3	NumericalNew
Parallel Plate Capacitor Formulanumerical	2	Numerical
Potential of an Electric Dipolenumerical	2	Assertion–reason
Charge Sharing and Common Potentialnumerical	2	Numerical
Capacitance of an Isolated Spherical Conductorcompare potential of two charged spheres	2	Numerical
Energy Stored in Capacitornumerical	1	Figure-basedNew
Capacitance with Partial Dielectric Slabnumerical	1	NumericalNew
Wheatstone Bridge of Capacitorsnumerical	1	Figure-basedNew

Every question

Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance questions, year by year

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

NEET 20263 questions

Q9Three identical capacitors P, Q and S, each of the capacitance C, are connected to a battery of voltage V, as shown in the figure. If the…Figure-based · figure
Q21A unit positive point charge is taken slowly through an infinitesimally thin tube that is inside a charged dielectric sphere of radius R,…Numerical · figure
Q34Consider a fixed uniformly charged insulating sphere with radius R and total charge +Q. A point charge $-q$ ( $q<<Q$ ) with mass m is…Numerical

NEET 20251 question

Q20The plates of a parallel plate capacitor are separated by $d$ . Two slabs of different dielectric constant $K_1$ and $K_2$ with thickness…Numerical

NEET 20244 questions

Q6A thin spherical shell is charged by some source. The potential difference between the two points $C$ and $P$ (in V) shown in the figure…Figure-based · figure
Q13In the following circuit, the equivalent capacitance between terminal $A$ and terminal $B$ is :Figure-based · figure
Q23Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R. Assertion A : The potential ( $V$ ) at…Assertion–reason
Q39If the plates of a parallel plate capacitor connected to a battery are moved close to each other, then A. the charge stored in it,…Other

NEET 20232 questions

Q30The equivalent capacitance of the system shown in the following circuit is :Figure-based · figure
Q49An electric dipole is placed as shown in the figure. The electric potential (in $10^2$ V) at point P due to the dipole is ( $\epsilon_0$ =…Figure-based · figure

NEET 20223 questions

Q25The angle between the electric lines of force and the equipotential surface is :One-line MCQ
Q34Two hollow conducting spheres of radii $R_1$ and $R_2$ ( $R_1 >> R_2$ ) have equal charges. The potential would be :One-line MCQ
Q42A capacitor of capacitance C = 900 pF is charged fully by 100 V battery B as shown in figure (a). Then it is disconnected from the battery…Numerical · figure

NEET 20214 questions

Q5The equivalent capacitance of the combination shown in the figure is :Figure-based · figure
Q16Two charged spherical conductors of radius $R_1$ and $R_2$ are connected by a wire. Then the ratio of surface charge densities of the…One-line MCQ
Q29A parallel plate capacitor has a uniform electric field ' $\vec{E}$ ' in the space between the plates. If the distance between the plates is…One-line MCQ
Q40Twenty seven drops of same size are charged at 220 V each. They combine to form a bigger drop. Calculate the potential of the bigger drop.Numerical

NEET 20203 questions

Q152In a certain region of space with volume 0.2 m $^3$ , the electric potential is found to be 5 V throughout. The magnitude of electric field…One-line MCQ
Q166The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor with air as medium is 6 $\mu$ F. With the introduction of a dielectric medium, the…Numerical
Q170A short electric dipole has a dipole moment of $16\times10^{-9}$ C m. The electric potential due to the dipole at a point at a distance of…Numerical

NEET 20181 question

Q23The electrostatic force between the metal plates of an isolated parallel plate capacitor C having a charge Q and area A, isOne-line MCQ

NEET 20172 questions

Q12The diagrams below show regions of equipotentials. A positive charge is moved from A to B in each diagram.Figure-based · figure
Q17A capacitor is charged by a battery. The battery is removed and another identical uncharged capacitor is connected in parallel. The total…One-line MCQ

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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