NEET 2026 question paper with solutions

Answer: D. C only

With upward taken as positive, v = u - gt, so the v-t graph is one straight line of constant slope -g that crosses from positive to negative velocity.

After release, the only acceleration of the ball is gravity, which is constant and downward. Taking upward as positive gives a = -g and therefore v(t) = u - gt. A linear equation in t must produce a straight v-t line with y-intercept u and constant negative slope -g. The velocity becomes zero only at the highest point and then becomes negative during the fall, so the graph does not turn around or become curved. Plot C has exactly this behaviour, hence option 4 is correct.

Answer: D. 200 nm

Photoemission needs photon energy E = 1240/lambda(nm) eV to reach or exceed the work function.

Photoelectric emission happens only when a photon's energy meets or exceeds the metal's work function of 6.6 eV. Using the handy relation E(eV) = 1240/wavelength(nm), a 50 nm photon carries about 24.8 eV, 100 nm gives about 12.4 eV, and 150 nm gives about 8.3 eV, all comfortably above 6.6 eV so emission occurs. At 200 nm the energy works out to about 6.2 eV, which falls short of the 6.6 eV threshold, so no electrons are ejected. Since photon energy falls as wavelength grows, 200 nm is the longest (and only) wavelength among the choices that fails to trigger the effect.

Answer: C. 19.6 kW

Average power equals work done against gravity divided by time, with work = mgh.

Lifting a mass at constant speed requires doing work against gravity equal to mgh. Plugging in m = 1000 kg, g = 9.8 m/s^2 and h = 20 m gives work of 196,000 J. Dividing this work by the 10 s taken gives a power of 19,600 W. Converting to kilowatts by dividing by 1000 gives 19.6 kW as the crane's power output.

Answer: B. DNA possesses a double strand helix structure and contains thymine as one of the four bases.

DNA is a double-stranded helix built from A, G, C and T, while RNA is single-stranded and uses U instead of T.

DNA is made of two antiparallel polynucleotide chains wound into a double helix and held together by hydrogen bonding between paired bases, giving it four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. RNA, by contrast, is normally found as a single polynucleotide chain that can fold back on itself but does not form a long regular duplex, and it carries uracil in place of thymine. Checking each choice against these two facts eliminates any option pairing DNA with uracil or a single strand, and any option pairing RNA with thymine or a double helix. Only the statement describing a double-stranded DNA containing thymine survives this check, so that is the correct description.

Answer: B. A-II, B-III, C-IV, D-I

The orbital label is fixed by writing n first and converting l to its letter (s,p,d,f for l = 0,1,2,3).

Each orbital name is obtained by writing the principal quantum number n followed by the subshell letter that corresponds to the azimuthal quantum number l, using the sequence s, p, d, f for l = 0, 1, 2, 3. A set with n = 2, l = 1 gives 2p; n = 4, l = 0 gives 4s; n = 5, l = 3 gives 5f; and n = 3, l = 2 gives 3d. Working through each (n, l) pair in List-I this way and matching it to its orbital label in List-II produces the assignment A-II, B-III, C-IV, D-I.

Answer: A. Covalent form to ionic form

Fusing the compound with sodium breaks its covalent bonds and produces water-soluble ionic sodium salts.

Elements such as nitrogen, sulphur and halogens are held in organic molecules by covalent bonds, which do not ionize readily in water, so they cannot be detected directly. In Lassaigne's test the compound is strongly heated with metallic sodium, and this fusion breaks the covalent linkages, converting nitrogen into sodium cyanide, sulphur into sodium sulphide, and halogens into sodium halides. When the fused mass is extracted with water, these species exist as free ions such as cyanide, sulphide and halide, which can then be tested with characteristic reagents. The overall transformation is therefore from covalently bonded elements in the starting compound to ionic species in the sodium extract, matching the covalent-to-ionic description.

Answer: B. A, B and D only

Biodiversity loss is usually described through habitat destruction, over-harvesting, invasive species, and co-extinction, and each statement must be checked against these categories.

Clearing Amazonian forest for soy farming directly destroys the natural habitat of countless species, which is a straightforward case of habitat loss, making statement A correct. Steller's sea cow and the passenger pigeon are textbook examples of species hunted to extinction by humans, so over-exploitation explains statement B. The Nile perch is a predatory fish that, once introduced to Lake Victoria, drove many native cichlid species toward extinction rather than helping them thrive, so statement C is false. Water hyacinth spreads aggressively outside its native range and chokes water bodies, so it is correctly labeled invasive in statement D. Statement E is wrong because losing a species typically triggers a ripple effect, since dependent parasites, pollinators, or symbiotic partners tied to it can also decline or disappear, a phenomenon called co-extinction. The correct statements are therefore A, B and D.

Answer: B. A, B, C, D and E

A transcription unit is fully described by its promoter, coding region, and terminator, and every listed detail about their positions and roles is accurate.

A transcription unit is organized into three functional parts: a promoter that starts the process, the structural gene that gets copied into RNA, and a terminator that ends it, which supports statement A. The promoter sits upstream, at the 5' side of the gene as referenced on the coding strand, and it is precisely where RNA polymerase attaches to begin transcription, covering statements B and C. Because the promoter's position and orientation fix the reading direction, it effectively determines which of the two DNA strands serves as template and which serves as the coding strand, supporting statement D. The terminator lies downstream, near the 3' end relative to the coding strand, and its role is to signal transcription's stop point, matching statement E. Since all five statements hold up, the answer includes all of them.

Answer: A. A, B, C and E only

Honeybee sex depends on ploidy: fertilized diploid eggs become female and unfertilized haploid eggs become male, which also decides how sperm is made.

In honeybees, fertilization determines chromosome number and sex: a fertilized egg carries a full diploid set and develops into a female, whether queen or worker, matching statement A. An egg that is never fertilized still develops through parthenogenesis and becomes a male drone, supporting statement B. Because the male arises from an unfertilized egg, it carries only half the chromosome number of a female, confirming statement C. This whole arrangement, where sex is set by whether an egg is fertilized or not, is called the haplodiploid system, matching statement E. Statement D is false, however, because a drone is already haploid, so it cannot undergo a reduction division like meiosis to make sperm; instead it produces sperm through mitosis, keeping the same chromosome number. So statements A, B, C, and E are true while D is not.

Answer: A. Aptenodytes

This asks for the genus of penguins, birds whose wings evolved into swimming flippers.

The description of a flightless bird whose forelimbs form paddle-like swimming structures points directly to penguins. Aptenodytes is the genus containing the large penguins, such as the emperor penguin, whose wings have become rigid flippers for propulsion underwater rather than organs of flight. Neophron refers to the Egyptian vulture, a fully flighted scavenging raptor, so it does not fit. Psittacula names a group of parakeets that fly normally using typical wings. Struthio, the ostrich, is flightless but its adaptation for speed lies in its powerful running legs, not paddle-shaped forelimbs, so only Aptenodytes matches every part of the description.

Answer: A. Petromyzon sp.

A circular sucking mouth combined with a cartilaginous, finless, scaleless body identifies a jawless cyclostome.

A cartilaginous skeleton rules out bony fishes, and the circular sucking mouth used to attach to a host is the hallmark of jawless ectoparasites rather than true jawed fishes. The absence of paired fins and scales together with multiple gill slit pairs further narrows this to the cyclostomes. Petromyzon, the lamprey, fits every point: it has a cartilaginous skeleton, lacks jaws, scales, and paired fins, and is well known for attaching to host fish with a sucking oral disc. Branchiostoma is a filter-feeding cephalochordate with no sucking mouth, Scoliodon is a jawed cartilaginous shark with fins and scales, and Exocoetus is a bony, scaled flying fish, so none of these match as well as Petromyzon.

Answer: D. Ribosomes

Only ribosomes lack a membrane and occur in every type of living cell.

Mitochondria are enclosed by a double membrane and exist only in eukaryotic cells, so they fail both criteria. Lysosomes are single-membrane vesicles restricted to eukaryotic, mainly animal, cells, so they also fail. Centrosomes lack a membrane but are limited to eukaryotic animal cells and play no role in prokaryotes. Ribosomes, by contrast, are built purely from RNA and protein without any surrounding membrane, and because every cell needs to synthesize proteins to survive, ribosomes occur universally in prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike, making them the correct answer.