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Sunday, 25 October

JEE Main · 196 topics · 2017–2026

JEE Main topics: what comes, and how often

Every topic JEE Main asked in the 108 shifts Lumi analysed, from 7,720 topic-tagged questions. See which topics came in every year analysed, which come in cycles, and which have gone quiet.

Topics asked
196
across 77 chapters
In all eight years
43
124 in seven or more
Top 25 topics
29%
of topic-tagged questions
Ideas inside them
2,809
See which ones repeat

Key findings

  1. 01

    Half of all topic-tagged questions come from just 51 of 196 topics; the top 25 carry 29%.

  2. 02

    43 topics were asked in all eight years with analysed shifts, and 124 in at least seven. The 43 hold 36% of the questions.

  3. 03

    The fastest riser is Lines in 3D: 0.3 questions a shift up to 2023 (of the 25 in its subject), 1.3 since 2024.

  4. 04

    22% of the 2,421 questions from 2024 to 2026 tested an idea no earlier year had asked. The topic comes back, and most exact ideas had been asked in an earlier year too.

  5. 05

    13 topics came at a fairly even gap, three or four years out of the eight; 16 have gone quiet, 11 of them in chapters the 2026 syllabus drops or cuts back.

  6. 06

    Inside these topics JEE Main has never asked 66% of the ideas in Lumi’s syllabus map, in the shifts analysed.

Repeat patterns

Four ways a topic comes back

Each topic is sorted by its rhythm across the eight years with analysed shifts. The chance shown is the average calibrated chance that a topic with that rhythm has at least one question in a shift.

  • Asked most years

    Asked in five or more of the eight years. The backbone of the paper.

    Topics
    170
    Questions
    95%
    In a shift
    34%

  • Frequent

    Asked in three or four years, at uneven gaps.

    Topics
    5
    Questions
    0%
    In a shift
    13%

  • Comes in cycles

    Asked in three or four years at a fairly even gap.

    Topics
    19
    Questions
    5%
    In a shift
    10%

  • Occasional

    Asked in one or two years, the last in 2022 or later.

    Topics
    2
    Questions
    0%
    In a shift
    9%

Topic-wise weightage

Every topic, year by year

Filter by subject, unit or pattern. Each strip is the eight years from 2017 to 2026; darker means more questions a shift that year, so a year with more analysed shifts (1 to 24 a year) does not look darker.

180 topics · 7103 questions asked since 2017

Right: weighted estimate of questions a shift, of the 25 in its subject (model), and the calibrated chance of at least one in a shift.

All eight years

The topics in every year analysed

43 topics in the current syllabus came in all eight years. These are the twelve with the highest weighted estimate, in questions a shift of the 25 in their subject.

Comes in cycles 13

Asked in three or four of the eight years at a fairly even gap. All 13 were not asked in the 9 analysed 2026 shifts; a small topic can miss that many by chance.

Gone quiet 16

Barely asked in the 2024–26 shifts, or not since 2021.

New since 2024 0

First asked in 2024 or later.

None in the analysed shifts.

Rising fastest 6

Most extra questions a shift since 2024, against 2017–2023.

By subject

Every topic, most questions first

The full list, subject by subject. Each topic opens with its questions, the years it came and the ideas inside it.

Physics
80 topics
Chemistry
60 topics
Maths
56 topics

Method

How to read this

What is a topic?
A topic is a named part of a chapter, such as a law, a reaction type or a class of problems. 7,720 of the 9,241 scored questions in the analysed shifts map cleanly to one; the rest are counted at chapter level only.
What does the chance in a shift mean?
The calibrated chance that a topic has at least one question in a given shift. It comes from the weighted estimate and is checked against what past shifts actually asked. It is a rate, not a promise about the next paper.
What is the weighted estimate?
A model, not a fact: the topic’s share of past questions, with recent years counting more, scaled to the 25 questions each subject has in a shift. Read it as a guide to effort, not a forecast.
What is the strip of squares?
One square per year with analysed shifts, 2017 to 2026. Darker squares mean more questions; a dashed square means none in that year’s analysed shifts. Years with more analysed shifts (up to 24) can hold more questions, so compare a topic with others in the same year rather than across years.
Why “gone quiet” and not “dropped”?
NTA publishes a chapter-level syllabus. A topic is marked quiet when the 2024–26 shifts asked it (near) never against its earlier rate: read from the papers, not from a notice. 11 of the 16 quiet topics sit in chapters the 2026 syllabus drops or cuts back.