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Home / Insights / NDA I 2026 vs NDA I 2025

NDA I 2026 vs NDA I 2025 — what changed

146 vs 150 questions · answer-keyed 146/146 vs 150/150 · NDA

Executive summary

  • Question style: 35% of NDA I 2026 was analytical (multi-statement) vs 21% in 2025 — a marked shift toward multi-statement reasoning.
  • Subject mix was broadly stable year on year (no subject moved beyond normal variation).
  • 12 concepts recurred from 2025; 12 appeared that were absent in 2025.

Conceptual vs factual

Analytical (multi-statement) questions: 21% in 2025 → 35% in 2026 — a marked shift toward multi-statement reasoning.
Show evidence — how this is measured
Analytical = statement-based, assertion-reason, match-the-following, pairs, how-many-correct and sequence questions; factual = single-fact recall. NDA I 2026: 51 analytical / 95 factual. NDA I 2025: 31 analytical / 119 factual.

Subject distribution

Subject20252026Δ
Science & Technology5250-2stable
English Language5046-4stable
Geography1720+3stable
History88+0stable
Polity & Governance68+2stable
Art & Culture52-3stable
Current Affairs & Static GK43-1stable
Economy23+1stable
International Relations13+2stable
Agriculture31-2stable
Environment & Ecology21-1stable
Defence & Military Studies01+1stable
"Gained/declined" is flagged only where the change is ≥3 questions and ≥3 percentage points; smaller moves are normal year-to-year variation (shown as stable).

Concept-level changes

Recurring — in both papers

KinematicsGravitationIndustrial RevolutionDefence Research and Development OrganisationThermodynamicsSeismic wavesIndiaLand use classificationRock formationNITI AayogPlant tissuesOxidation

New this year

Ideal Gas ★Work-Energy Theorem ★MomentumImpulseRefractive indexColloidsPaint chemistry ★RespirationGaseous exchange ★RussiaUnited NationsSimple Harmonic Motion

Not tested this year

Sentence SequencingClozeGrammarNarrationPanchsheelRefraction of lightIndus Valley CivilisationMahajanapadasVajjiSanchi Stupa
★ = first appearance in the corpus. Not tested this year ≠ dropped — concepts often return. Click any concept for its full cross-exam history (your evidence). Tagging is provisional, so this layer is directional.

Cross-exam connections

Recurring concepts here that also travel across other UPSC exams — the same idea, reframed. Click any for its full timeline.
Industrial Revolutionallied → CSE
CDS 2014 → NDA 2020 → CSE 2020
India
CSE 1980 → CDS 2014 → CAPF 2014 → EPFO 2020 → NDA 2021 → CISF 2021 → LDCE 2023 → GEO 2025 → ESE 2026
NITI Aayog
CSE 2015 → CDS 2015 → CAPF 2018 → EPFO 2020 → GEO 2021 → ESE 2022 → LDCE 2023 → CISF 2024 → NDA 2025
Defence Research and Development Organisation
CSE 2007 → CDS 2016 → GEO 2021 → ESE 2022 → LDCE 2023 → NDA 2024 → CAPF 2024
Gravitation
CSE 1979 → CDS 2014 → CAPF 2014 → NDA 2023 → GEO 2023
Thermodynamics
CSE 1986 → CDS 2017 → CAPF 2020 → GEO 2024 → NDA 2025

Preparation takeaways

  • If this style shift persists, prioritise multi-statement reasoning practice over single-fact recall — but confirm against a third year before treating it as a trend.
Methodology & caveats
All figures are computed from CrispUPSC's verified PYQ corpus — no opinions, no predictions, no AI-written analysis. A single paper per year is a small, noisy sample, so a two-year difference is a change, not a trend; a subject is flagged as moved only when it shifts ≥3 questions and ≥3 percentage points. Concept tagging is provisional, so concept lists are directional. "Not tested this year" never means a concept was dropped. This page explains how UPSC has changed; it does not predict future papers.
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