Trends
NDA Chemistry, 2017 to 2026: 262 questions and a paper that did not harden
The most important pattern in NDA Chemistry trends is the ABSENCE of one — UNLIKE Physics (which hardened 22× per question), Chemistry has stayed remarkably stable. %HARD oscillates 0–14% with no trajectory. Chapter mix has shifted (Industrial grew, Mole Concept faded), but the paper's overall character is the same. Drill all 10 years equally.
- years analysed
- 10
- papers
- 18
- questions tagged
- 262
- chapters tracked
- 12
The headline: %HARD by year (no trend)
Each year’s HARD share, with the paper-set size for context. 2020 had only NDA-1 (COVID), 2026 has only NDA-1 so far. Notice the oscillation — high years (2019, 2026) and zero-HARD years (2018, 2025) alternate. No upward trend.
| Year | Questions | HARD count | % HARD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 29 | 2 | 7% |
| 2018 | 27 | 0 | 0% |
| 2019 | 28 | 4 | 14% |
| 2020 | 15 | 1 | 7% |
| 2021 | 27 | 1 | 4% |
| 2022 | 29 | 1 | 3% |
| 2023 | 32 | 3 | 9% |
| 2024 | 30 | 2 | 7% |
| 2025 | 29 | 0 | 0% |
| 2026 | 31 | 3 | 10% |
Per-question, the 2026 paper is no harder than the 2017 paper. Translation: don’t over-weight recent papers. Drill 2017 papers as seriously as 2024 papers; the difficulty floor is stable. The Recall + Rule + Calculate strands are tested in roughly the same proportions year-to-year.
The 4 biggest shifts
%HARD is flat, but chapter mix isn’t. These four shifts come on top of the stable difficulty — drill the called-out cohorts.
- The headline: paper has NOT hardened — drill all 10 years equally
The most important pattern in NDA Chemistry trends is the absence of a pattern. %HARD oscillates 0% (2018, 2025) to 14% (2019) with no trajectory; the completed 2026 pair sits at 10%. Average across 10 years: ~6%. Contrast NDA Physics (2% → 37% over the same window). Translation: drill 2017 papers as seriously as 2024 papers. The 2026 paper is no harder per question than the 2017 paper. There's no 'recent papers are the new normal' calibration to worry about here — Chemistry's recall-heavy character keeps the difficulty floor stable.
- Industrial and Applied Chemistry grew — 2 q/yr → 4 q/yr post-2024
Through 2017–2022 the Industrial chapter held 1–4 q/year (avg ~2). 2024 jumped to 5, and 2026 carries 6 across both papers (5 in NDA-1, 1 in NDA-2). The growth concentrated in Paints and Coatings (a 4-q HARD-heavy subtopic added post-2024) and Industrial Gases (paper-pulp manufacture, gas applications). If your prep is from a coaching-class syllabus that pre-dates 2024, you're under-investing in this chapter by ~50%.
- Mole Concept faded after 2019 — Calculate strand is genuinely small
2017 + 2018 + 2019 carried 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 of the chapter's 9 q. Since 2020 it's been 0–1 q/yr (4 total across 6 years). The Calculate strand has shrunk to a single q most papers — don't over-invest. 2 hours of prep is enough; the bigger marks are in Recall + Rule.
- Metals and Non-Metals — 2023 spike (6 q) then silence (0 q since)
2023 carried 6 of the chapter's 17 q in a single year — a freak high. 2024 + 2025 + 2026 NDA-1 each carried ZERO, and NDA-2 2026 brought it back with just 1. Pattern is genuinely noisy, but the answer to the open question is: it returns, thinly. Drill it for marks-on-the-table (zero HARD), but don't expect it as a guaranteed 2 q/paper.
Year-by-year drift
Counts per year (NDA-1 + NDA-2 combined; 2020 NDA-2 COVID-cancelled, 2026 is now complete (NDA-2 written 2026-09-14) — so only 2020 holds ~half a normal year). Cells are tinted by row magnitude.
| Chapter | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon and Its Compounds | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Atomic Structure and Periodic Classification | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Acids, Bases and Salts | 3 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Matter and Its States | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Chemical Reactions | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Industrial and Applied Chemistry | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| Metals and Non-Metals | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hydrogen and Water | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Chemical Bonding | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Chemistry in Everyday Life | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Mole Concept and Stoichiometry | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Practical Chemistry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Recommendation: drill across ALL 10 years
UNLIKE Physics, NDA Chemistry doesn’t reward a ‘recent-only’ drill plan. Old papers test the same recall-heavy material at the same difficulty. The one exception: the Industrial chapter (and Paints subtopic specifically) is a 2024+ phenomenon — drill those recently. Everything else, balance the cohort.