NEET UG · Biology · Biotechnology: Principles and Processes

Polymerase Chain Reaction: NEET previous year questions

6 questions in ten years of NEET, in 5 of 10 papers. Pattern: Every year. Here is how it is asked and which ideas come back.

Asked in 10 years: 6; about 0.6 per paper
Years asked: 5/10; last asked 2026
Chance of a question next paper: 50%; historical rate, how we compute it
Weighted estimate: 0.7; model; history: 0.6 a paper on average, typically 0–1

Key findings

01
Asked in 5 of 10 papers, 6 questions in all: #127 of 204 topics by ten-year total. It comes back every 2.0 years on average.
02
83% 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 Exponential DNA Amplification, asked 2 times (2022, 2025), usually as “assertion-reason on biotechnology technique”.
04
NEET has asked 4 of the 78 ideas in this topic; 69 have never been asked, directly or indirectly.
05
Mostly asked as one-line MCQ (83%); 83% easy, 0% hard.

Questions per year

Up to 2023: 0.5; per paper
Since 2024: 0.7; 0.1
Usual gap: 2.0 yrs; between papers asking it
Swing: ±0.6; questions, year to year

How it is asked

Difficulty, format and skill

Across all 6 questions on Polymerase Chain Reaction since 2017.

Difficulty

QUESTIONS

Easy5 · 83%
Medium1 · 17%
Hard0 · 0%

Format

One-line MCQ · 5 Q83%
Assertion–reason · 1 Q17%

Skill tested

Recall · 4 Q67%
Concept · 2 Q33%

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 4 of the 78 ideas in this topic. 69 have never been asked yet.

Asked directly4 · 5%
Touched inside another question5 · 6%
Never asked69 · 88%

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

2 · 33%33%1/102
- 2021 · Q107
  Which of the following is a correct sequence of steps in a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) ?
  easyOne-line MCQNew idea
- 2021 · Q164
  During the process of gene amplification using PCR, if very high temperature is not maintained in the beginning, then which of the…
  easyOne-line MCQNew idea
Repeated2 · 33%33%2/10
1 · 17%17%1/10
1 · 17%17%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

4 different ideas were tested; 2 came more than once. DNA Denaturation Step is the foundation for 54 other ideas in the syllabus.

Exponential DNA Amplification2×
assertion-reason on biotechnology technique
Assertion–reason · 6% next · foundation for 16
DNA Denaturation Step2×
order of steps in a process
One-line MCQ · 6% next · foundation for 54
Primer Annealing Step1×
identify pcr step by event
One-line MCQ · 6% next · foundation for 46
Chronological Sequence of PCR Steps1×
order of steps in a process
One-line MCQ · 4% next

Idea	Times	Format	Chance next	Foundation for
Exponential DNA Amplificationassertion-reason on biotechnology technique	2	Assertion–reasonConcept	6%	16 ideas
DNA Denaturation Steporder of steps in a process	2	One-line MCQConcept	6%	54 ideas
Primer Annealing Stepidentify pcr step by event	1	One-line MCQRecall	6%	46 ideas
Chronological Sequence of PCR Stepsorder of steps in a process	1	One-line MCQRecall	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

Polymerase Chain Reaction questions, year by year

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

NEET 20261 question

Q162
During PCR, primers bind to the DNA strands in the ___ step.
Idea: Primer Annealing Step
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20251 question

Q92
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifies DNA following the equation.
Idea: Exponential DNA Amplification
EasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20221 question

Q111
Given below are two statements : one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R). Assertion (A) : Polymerase…
Idea: Exponential DNA Amplification
New ideaMediumAssertion–reason

NEET 20212 questions

Q107
Which of the following is a correct sequence of steps in a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) ?
Idea: DNA Denaturation Step
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ
Q164
During the process of gene amplification using PCR, if very high temperature is not maintained in the beginning, then which of the…
Idea: DNA Denaturation Step
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20181 question

Q101
The correct order of steps in Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is
Idea: Chronological Sequence of PCR Steps
New ideaEasyOne-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.