NEET UG · Physics · Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance

Electrostatic Potential: NEET previous year questions

9 questions in ten years of NEET, in 6 of 10 papers. Pattern: Every year. Here is how it is asked and which ideas come back.

Asked in 10 years: 9; about 0.9 per paper
Years asked: 6/10; last asked 2026
Chance of a question next paper: 64%; historical rate, how we compute it
Weighted estimate: 1.1; model; history: 0.9 a paper on average, typically 0–2

Key findings

01
Asked in 6 of 10 papers, 9 questions in all: #88 of 204 topics by ten-year total. It comes back every 1.8 years on average.
02
63% of its questions since 2018 tested an idea never asked before; none repeated an idea from the year before.
03
The most repeated idea is Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere, asked 3 times (2024, 2026), usually as “numerical”.
04
NEET has asked 0 of the 7 ideas in this topic; 0 have never been asked, directly or indirectly.
05
Mostly asked as numerical (33%); 56% easy, 11% hard, and up from 0.7 to 1.3 questions a paper since 2024.

Questions per year

Up to 2023: 0.7; per paper
Since 2024: 1.3; +0.6
Usual gap: 1.8 yrs; between papers asking it
Swing: ±0.8; questions, year to year

Revise first

Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere (2024 2026); Potential of an Electric Dipole (2020 2024); Potential of Point Charges (2023)

How it is asked

Difficulty, format and skill

Across all 9 questions on Electrostatic Potential since 2017.

Difficulty

QUESTIONS

531

Easy5 · 56%
Medium3 · 33%
Hard1 · 11%

Format

Numerical · 3 Q33%
Figure-based · 3 Q33%
One-line MCQ · 2 Q22%
Assertion–reason · 1 Q11%

Skill tested

Concept · 3 Q33%
Calculation · 3 Q33%
Multi-step · 2 Q22%
Recall · 1 Q11%

Repeats

New idea, or one asked before?

Each column is a paper. Blue questions tested an idea NEET had not asked before; navy ones went back to an idea from an earlier paper. 2017 is the first paper, so everything in it counts as new.

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Idea asked for the first time
Idea asked in an earlier paper

Coverage of the topic

NEET has asked 0 of the 7 ideas in this topic. 0 have never been asked yet.

Asked directly0 · 0%
Touched inside another question7 · 100%
Never asked0 · 0%

Ideas come from Lumi’s syllabus map of NCERT. A never-asked idea is not a safe skip: most new questions come from exactly these.

Drill down

Idea, year, question

Every idea NEET tested in this topic, with its ten papers. Open one to read the questions.

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

Repeated3 · 33%33%2/102
- 2026 · Q21
  A unit positive point charge is taken slowly through an infinitesimally thin tube that is inside a charged dielectric sphere of radius R,…
  hardNumerical
- 2026 · Q34
  Consider a fixed uniformly charged insulating sphere with radius R and total charge +Q. A point charge $-q$ ( $q<<Q$ ) with mass m is…
  mediumNumerical
- 2024 · Q6
  A thin spherical shell is charged by some source. The potential difference between the two points $C$ and $P$ (in V) shown in the figure…
  easyFigure-basedNew idea
Repeated2 · 22%22%2/10
1 · 11%11%1/10
1 · 11%11%1/10
1 · 11%11%1/10
1 · 11%11%1/10

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

Ideas

Every idea inside this topic

6 different ideas were tested; 2 came more than once.

Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere3×
numerical
Numerical · 11% next
Potential of an Electric Dipole2×
numerical
Assertion–reason · 6% next
Potential of Point Charges1×
numerical
Figure-based · 4% next
Equipotential Surfaces1×
angle between field lines and equipotential
One-line MCQ · 4% next
Relation between E and V1×
field from uniform potential region
One-line MCQ · 4% next
Work and Potential Difference1×
work between equipotentials from diagrams
Figure-based · 4% next

Idea	Times	Format	Chance next	Foundation for
Potential and Energy near a Charged Spherenumerical	3	NumericalMulti-step	11%	–
Potential of an Electric Dipolenumerical	2	Assertion–reasonCalculation	6%	–
Potential of Point Chargesnumerical	1	Figure-basedCalculation	4%	–
Equipotential Surfacesangle between field lines and equipotential	1	One-line MCQRecall	4%	–
Relation between E and Vfield from uniform potential region	1	One-line MCQConcept	4%	–
Work and Potential Differencework between equipotentials from diagrams	1	Figure-basedConcept	4%	–

Chance next is the historical rate at which an idea with this record came back in the following paper. It is low for every idea, which is why learning the topic beats memorising past questions. All repeated ideas

Every question

Electrostatic Potential questions, year by year

The opening words of each question as it appeared in the official paper, with the idea it tested.

NEET 20262 questions

Q21
A unit positive point charge is taken slowly through an infinitesimally thin tube that is inside a charged dielectric sphere of radius R,…
Idea: Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere
HardNumerical · figure
Q34
Consider a fixed uniformly charged insulating sphere with radius R and total charge +Q. A point charge $-q$ ( $q<<Q$ ) with mass m is…
Idea: Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere
MediumNumerical

NEET 20242 questions

Q6
A thin spherical shell is charged by some source. The potential difference between the two points $C$ and $P$ (in V) shown in the figure…
Idea: Potential and Energy near a Charged Sphere
New ideaEasyFigure-based · figure
Q23
Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R. Assertion A : The potential ( $V$ ) at…
Idea: Potential of an Electric Dipole
MediumAssertion–reason

NEET 20231 question

Q49
An electric dipole is placed as shown in the figure. The electric potential (in $10^2$ V) at point P due to the dipole is ( $\epsilon_0$ =…
Idea: Potential of Point Charges
New ideaMediumFigure-based · figure

NEET 20221 question

Q25
The angle between the electric lines of force and the equipotential surface is :
Idea: Equipotential Surfaces
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20202 questions

Q152
In 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…
Idea: Relation between E and V
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ
Q170
A 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…
Idea: Potential of an Electric Dipole
New ideaEasyNumerical

NEET 20171 question

Q12
The diagrams below show regions of equipotentials. A positive charge is moved from A to B in each diagram.
Idea: Work and Potential Difference
EasyFigure-based · figure

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