Trends
NDA Mathematics 2026 is not the NDA Mathematics from 2017
The bank's principle distribution drifts year over year. A 10-year window shows the real inflections; the most recent papers are the more accurate forecast of the next one.
- years analysed
- 10
- papers
- 18
- questions tagged
- 2,160
- principles tracked
- 15
The 4 biggest shifts
Four principles have visibly moved across the 2017–2026 window — two on the rise, two in decline. If you only practiced one cohort of papers, you have a blind spot.
- Modulus tripled in 2023 and stayed elevated
The single biggest principle drift in the 10-year window. 2018–22 averaged ~8 q/paper-set; 2023–25 averaged ~17. The 2023 paper-set alone had 20 modulus-tagged questions, up from 7 the year before. If you only practiced 2017–22 papers, you are undertrained on |x| and ⌊x⌋ questions.
- Vieta plunged to 2 q/paper-set in 2025–26
Vieta peaked at 9 q in 2017 and held a 5–8 q baseline through 2024. The last two paper-sets dropped to 2 q each — NDA is moving away from "roots of equation" framings. Still tested, but no longer the dominant trick it was a decade ago.
- Cube roots of unity spiked 2023–24
ω held a 2–3 q baseline through 2017–22 (it was always present — earlier guide claims of "appeared post-2022" were wrong on the longer window). Then 2023+2024 broke out to 5+7 q, and 2025–26 settled at 3–4. The ω-Vieta compound is now paper-setters' favourite.
- Determinants peaked in 2021 — and recovered in 2026
Determinant Properties hit 11 q in the 2021 paper-set (the highest single-year count for any principle on this page). Settled to 3–4 q in 2024–25. The 2026 NDA-1 alone has 7 — early signal that determinant evaluation is making a comeback. M&D as a whole is still ~9 q/paper, but the principle mix inside it is shifting.
Year-by-year drift
Counts per paper-set (240 q each for 2017–2019 and 2021–2025; 120 q for 2020 because NDA-2 was COVID-cancelled and for 2026 because NDA-2 hasn’t been written yet). Cells are tinted by row magnitude — your eye picks up the slope without a chart.
| Principle | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modulus / absolute value | 14 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 20 | 15 | 17 | 5 |
| Vieta / sum-product of roots | 9 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Binomial-coefficient identities | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Inclusion-exclusion | 4 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 4 |
| Compound angle | 3 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
| Sine / cosine rules | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| Double / half-angle | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| AP three-term (2b = a + c) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| AM-GM family | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Cube roots of unity (ω) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Differentiability conditions | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Conditional probability / Bayes | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Determinants | 7 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Limits / L'Hôpital | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Extrema (max/min) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
Recommendation: practice 2025 and 2026 papers first
The 2017–2020 papers reveal the longer trend but pre-date the modulus and ω spikes that defined the 2023–24 era. 2025 was softer; 2026 NDA-1 is trending back up with determinants. Calibrate against the recent two years before working backwards.