Trends
NDA Maths, 2017 to 2026: how 15 principles shifted across 2,280 questions
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
- 2,280
- 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 jumped in 2023 and has stayed there for four paper-sets
The biggest principle drift in the 10-year window. 2017–22 averaged ~6 modulus questions per paper-set; 2023–26 averaged ~14. The 2023 paper-set carried 17, up from 4 the year before, and it has not come back down — the completed 2026 pair carries 12. Note this row now counts modulus ALONE: greatest-integer and piecewise definitions have their own rows (2 and 2 in 2026), so the whole non-smooth family runs higher still. If you only practiced 2017–22 papers, you are undertrained on |x|, ⌊x⌋ and defined-by-cases questions.
- Vieta's 2025 collapse was a one-year dip, not a decline
Read on the 2026 NDA-1 paper alone, Vieta looked like it was being retired: 9 questions in 2017, a 5–8 baseline through 2024, then 2 in 2025. The completed 2026 pair carries 5, back inside that long-run baseline. This is the clearest case on the page of a half-year reading inverting a trend — the previous version of this guide called it a plunge, and the September paper refuted it. Treat single-sitting moves in a 2–9 range as noise.
- Cube roots of unity spiked 2023–24 and is easing off
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, and it has eased since: 4 in 2025, 3 across the full 2026 pair. Still worth the drill — the ω-Vieta compound remains a paper-setter favourite — but it is no longer accelerating.
- Determinants have fully recovered from their 2024–25 trough
Determinant Properties hit 11 q in the 2021 paper-set, then fell to 3 and 4 in 2024 and 2025. The completed 2026 pair carries 9 — not the early signal the NDA-1 half suggested, but a confirmed return to the 2021–23 level. Matrices & Determinants as a whole is the bank's largest chapter at 181 q and a dependable 8–11 q/paper; what moves is the principle mix inside it, and right now determinant evaluation is back on top.
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 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 17 | 16 | 11 | 12 |
| Greatest integer / floor | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| Piecewise definitions | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Vieta / sum-product of roots | 9 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 5 |
| Binomial-coefficient identities | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Inclusion-exclusion | 4 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| Compound angle | 3 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Sine / cosine rules | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 5 |
| Double / half-angle | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
| AP three-term (2b = a + c) | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| AM-GM family | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Cube roots of unity (ω) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Conditional probability / Bayes | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Determinants | 7 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| Limits / L'Hôpital | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Extrema (max/min) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 6 |
Every paper, side by side
The year view averages each year’s two papers together. This one doesn’t — every column is a single 120-question sitting. Under each year, 1 is NDA-1 (April) and 2 is NDA-2 (September); 2020 and 2026 show only NDA-1 (NDA-2 2020 was COVID-cancelled, NDA-2 2026 isn’t written yet). Cells are tinted by each chapter’s row, and the bottom row confirms every paper sums to 120.
The two sittings have different personalities. April papers front-load Statistics and Trigonometric Identities — together ~5 questions heavier than September. September papers lean Probability and differential calculus (Differentiation, Limits): NDA-2 is reliably a 10-question Probability paper, NDA-1 only ~7–8. Matrices & Determinants (~9–10) and 3D Geometry / Vectors (~5) hold steady in both — the metronome regardless of sitting.
| Chapter | '17 | '18 | '19 | '20 | '21 | '22 | '23 | '24 | '25 | '26 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matrices & Determinants | 12 | 11 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| Probability | 8 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 13 | 7 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
| Statistics | 11 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 5 |
| Trigonometric Identities | 10 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 15 | 9 | 16 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 7 |
| Functions | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Lines | 7 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| Vectors | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| 3D Geometry | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Sequence & Series | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Differentiation | 4 | 8 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
| Limits & Continuity | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| Permutation & Combination | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Application of Derivatives | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Complex Numbers | 6 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Sets & Relations | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Definite Integration | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| Differential Equations | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Quadratic Equations | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| Binomial Theorem | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Properties of Triangle | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Indefinite Integration | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Conics | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Inverse Trigonometry | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Trigonometric Equations | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Binomial Distribution | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Circles | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Applications of Integration | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Logarithms | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Height & Distance | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Binary Numbers | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Linear Inequalities | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Paper total | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 120 |
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.