NEET UG · Biology · Organisms and Populations

Population Attributes: NEET previous year questions

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

Asked in 10 years: 12; about 1.2 per paper
Years asked: 9/10; last asked 2026
Chance of a question next paper: 84%; historical rate, how we compute it
Weighted estimate: 1.2; model; history: 1.2 a paper on average, typically 1–2

Key findings

01
Asked in 9 of 10 papers, 12 questions in all: #57 of 204 topics by ten-year total. It comes back every 1.1 years on average.
02
82% 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 Per Capita Birth/Death Rates, asked 2 times (2022, 2026), usually as “numerical”.
04
NEET has asked 10 of the 81 ideas in this topic; 67 have never been asked, directly or indirectly.
05
Mostly asked as one-line MCQ (58%); 92% easy, 0% hard.

Questions per year

Up to 2023: 1.1; per paper
Since 2024: 1.3; 0.2
Usual gap: 1.1 yrs; between papers asking it
Swing: ±0.8; questions, year to year

Revise first

Per Capita Birth/Death Rates (2022 2026); J-shaped vs S-shaped Growth Curves (2026); Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth Equation (2017 2025)

How it is asked

Difficulty, format and skill

Across all 12 questions on Population Attributes since 2017.

Difficulty

QUESTIONS

Easy11 · 92%
Medium1 · 8%
Hard0 · 0%

Format

One-line MCQ · 7 Q58%
Numerical · 3 Q25%
Assertion–reason · 1 Q8%
Match the lists · 1 Q8%

Skill tested

Recall · 6 Q50%
Concept · 4 Q33%
Calculation · 2 Q17%

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 10 of the 81 ideas in this topic. 67 have never been asked yet.

1067

Asked directly10 · 12%
Touched inside another question4 · 5%
Never asked67 · 83%

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

Repeated2 · 17%17%2/10
- 2026 · Q161
  Consider a population of 10 million cells. Given the per-capita birth rate of 0.002 (per unit time) and the per-capita death rate of 0.002…
  easyNumerical
- 2022 · Q156
  If '8' Drosophila in a laboratory population of '80' died during a week, the death rate in the population is ______ individuals per…
  easyNumericalNew idea
Repeated2 · 17%17%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

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

Ideas

Every idea inside this topic

10 different ideas were tested; 2 came more than once. Exponential Growth Equation is the foundation for 35 other ideas in the syllabus.

Per Capita Birth/Death Rates2×
numerical
Numerical · 6% next · foundation for 16
Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth Equation2×
graph interpretation of logistic growth
Numerical · 6% next · foundation for 17
J-shaped vs S-shaped Growth Curves1×
assertion-reason on population growth models
Assertion–reason · 6% next · foundation for 4
Carrying Capacity (K)1×
definition recall
One-line MCQ · 6% next · foundation for 1
Age Pyramid Interpretation1×
match list on population growth and age pyramids
Match the lists · 4% next · foundation for 11
Exponential Growth Equation1×
definition recall
One-line MCQ · 4% next · foundation for 35
Individual vs. Population Attributes1×
odd-one-out among population attributes
One-line MCQ · 4% next
Breeding Frequency Strategies1×
identify organism by life-history feature
One-line MCQ · 4% next · foundation for 2
Natality (B) Definition1×
definition recall
One-line MCQ · 4% next
Triangular Age Pyramid1×
true statement selection on age structure
One-line MCQ · 4% next

Idea	Times	Format	Chance next	Foundation for
Per Capita Birth/Death Ratesnumerical	2	NumericalCalculation	6%	16 ideas
Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth Equationgraph interpretation of logistic growth	2	NumericalConcept	6%	17 ideas
J-shaped vs S-shaped Growth Curvesassertion-reason on population growth models	1	Assertion–reasonConcept	6%	4 ideas
Carrying Capacity (K)definition recall	1	One-line MCQRecall	6%	1 ideas
Age Pyramid Interpretationmatch list on population growth and age pyramids	1	Match the listsRecall	4%	11 ideas
Exponential Growth Equationdefinition recall	1	One-line MCQRecall	4%	35 ideas
Individual vs. Population Attributesodd-one-out among population attributes	1	One-line MCQConcept	4%	–
Breeding Frequency Strategiesidentify organism by life-history feature	1	One-line MCQRecall	4%	2 ideas
Natality (B) Definitiondefinition recall	1	One-line MCQRecall	4%	–
Triangular Age Pyramidtrue statement selection on age structure	1	One-line MCQConcept	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

Population Attributes 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

Q161
Consider a population of 10 million cells. Given the per-capita birth rate of 0.002 (per unit time) and the per-capita death rate of 0.002…
Idea: Per Capita Birth/Death Rates
EasyNumerical
Q163
Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R. Assertion A: The logistic growth…
Idea: J-shaped vs S-shaped Growth Curves
New ideaEasyAssertion–reason

NEET 20251 question

Q180
Which one of the following equations represents the Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth of population?
Idea: Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth Equation
EasyNumerical

NEET 20241 question

Q115
The equation of Verhulst-Pearl logistic growth is $\frac{dN}{dt} = rN\left[\frac{K-N}{K}\right]$ . From this equation, $K$ indicates:
Idea: Carrying Capacity (K)
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20231 question

Q187
Match List I with List II. List I | List II A. Logistic growth | I. Unlimited resource availability condition B. Exponential growth | II.…
Idea: Age Pyramid Interpretation
New ideaEasyMatch the lists

NEET 20221 question

Q156
If '8' Drosophila in a laboratory population of '80' died during a week, the death rate in the population is ______ individuals per…
Idea: Per Capita Birth/Death Rates
New ideaEasyNumerical

NEET 20211 question

Q150
In the exponential growth equation $N_t = N_oe^{rt}$ , e represents :
Idea: Exponential Growth Equation
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20201 question

Q1
Which of the following is not an attribute of a population ?
Idea: Individual vs. Population Attributes
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20183 questions

Q107
Which of the following flowers only once in its life-time ?
Idea: Breeding Frequency Strategies
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ
Q111
Natality refers to
Idea: Natality (B) Definition
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ
Q156
In a growing population of a country,
Idea: Triangular Age Pyramid
New ideaEasyOne-line MCQ

NEET 20171 question

Q143
Asymptote in a logistic growth curve is obtained when :
Idea: Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth Equation
MediumOne-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.