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Sunday, 25 October

JEE Main · Maths · Trigonometric Functions

General Solutions: JEE Main previous year questions

42 questions in the 108 JEE Main shifts Lumi analysed, in 7 of 8 years. Pattern: Asked most years. 14 came in 2024–26. Here is how it is asked and which ideas come back.

Questions
42
in 40 of 108 shifts
Years asked
7/8
last asked 2026
Chance in a shift
47%
calibrated model, how we compute it
Weighted estimate
0.4
model; history: 0.3 a shift on average, typically 0.1–0.5

Key findings

  1. 01

    Asked in 7 of 8 years with analysed shifts and in 40 of 108 shifts: 42 questions, #78 of 196 topics.

  2. 02

    60% of its questions since 2020 tested an idea no earlier year had asked; 14 repeated an idea from the year before.

  3. 03

    The most repeated idea is Quadratic Substitution in Trigonometry, asked 12 times in 12 shifts (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025), most often as “count solutions of trig equation in interval”.

  4. 04

    JEE Main has asked 23 of the 61 ideas in this topic; 32 have never been asked, directly or inside another question.

  5. 05

    Mostly asked as single correct (64%); 36% need a numerical answer, 7% are easy and 31% hard. It went up from 0.2 to 0.4 questions a shift since 2024.

  6. 06

    The skill tested most is multi-step (79%), then application (14%).

Questions a shift, year by year

Out of the 25 Maths questions in a shift. Years differ in how many shifts Lumi analysed, so each year is scaled to one shift.

00.510’170.2’200.4’210.5’220.1’230.2’240.8’250.3’26

Raw count: 2017: 0 in 1 shift · 2020: 2 in 12 shifts · 2021: 11 in 24 shifts · 2022: 13 in 24 shifts · 2023: 2 in 12 shifts · 2024: 5 in 18 shifts · 2025: 6 in 8 shifts · 2026: 3 in 9 shifts.

Up to 2023
0.2
a shift, of 25
Since 2024
0.4
0.2
Usual gap
1.0 yrs
between years asking it
Shifts with it
40/108
37% of analysed shifts

How it is asked

Difficulty, format and skill

Across all 42 questions on General Solutions since 2017.

Difficulty

QUESTIONS
2613
  • Easy3 · 7%
  • Medium26 · 62%
  • Hard13 · 31%

Format

SHARE
  • Single correct · 27 Q64%
  • Numerical value · 15 Q36%

Skill tested

SHARE
  • Multi-step · 33 Q79%
  • Application · 6 Q14%
  • Data or graph · 3 Q7%

Repeats

New idea, or one asked before?

Each column is a year. Blue questions tested an idea no earlier year had asked; navy ones went back to an idea from an earlier year. 2017 is the first year, so everything in it counts as new. Heights are question counts, and Lumi analysed 1 to 24 shifts a year, so compare the split inside a column rather than heights across years.

2
11
13
2
5
6
3
’17’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
  • Idea asked for the first time
  • Idea asked in an earlier year

Coverage of the topic

JEE Main has asked 23 of the 61 ideas in this topic. 32 have never been asked yet.

23632
  • Asked directly23 · 38%
  • Touched inside another question6 · 10%
  • Never asked32 · 52%

Ideas come from Lumi’s JEE syllabus map. A never-asked idea is not a safe skip: across all of JEE Main, 22% of questions since 2024 tested an idea no earlier year had asked.

Drill down

Chapter, idea, question

Every idea JEE Main tested in this topic, with its eight years. Open one to read the questions.

  • Open41 · 98%211132553

    22 ideas inside

    • OpenRepeated12 · 29%23223
    • OpenRepeated4 · 10%
    • OpenRepeated3 · 7%2
    • OpenRepeated2 · 5%
    • OpenRepeated2 · 5%
    • OpenRepeated2 · 5%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
    • Open1 · 2%
  • Open1 · 2%

Squares are the 8 years with analysed shifts, 2017 to 2026. A number is the questions that year when there is more than one; the shade is scaled to one shift, so a year with more analysed shifts (1 to 24 a year) does not look darker. Share is of the level above.

Ideas

Every idea inside this topic

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

Times and shifts count every analysed shift. Across JEE Main, 78% of questions since 2024 went back to an idea an earlier year had asked; the rest were new. All repeated ideas

Every question

General Solutions questions, year by year

The newest 40 show their opening words as they appeared in the official paper; older ones name the idea they tested. Open one for its options and the official answer.

JEE Main 20263 questions in 3 shifts

JEE Main 20256 questions in 6 shifts

JEE Main 20245 questions in 5 shifts

JEE Main 202213 questions in 12 shifts

JEE Main 202111 questions in 10 shifts

Questions from the official JEE Main Paper 1 shifts published by NTA (CBSE for 2017). Questions NTA dropped are left out. Topic and idea tags, counts and notes are Lumi’s.

More topics in Trigonometric Functions

ChapterTrigonometric Functions114 questions in all; General Solutions is 37% of them. Weightage, every topic and every question.Also tagged inComplex Numbers and Quadratic EquationsSome General Solutions questions sit in this chapter too.All topics196 JEE Main topicsFilter by subject, unit and repeat pattern