Across the seven complete NEET papers we hold (2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, the 2026 paper being the 21 June re-examination), Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure carried the most Chemistry questions: 24, or 3.4 a paper. Ten of the 30 Chemistry chapters together carried 54% of all 330 Chemistry questions. By branch, physical chemistry carried 35%, organic 31% and inorganic 24%, with 10% in chapters that belong to more than one.
Below are the full numbers, what they mean, how we counted them, and what to do with them.
Which Chemistry chapters carry the most marks in NEET?
This is every Chemistry chapter, ranked by the number of questions it carried across the seven papers. "Share" is the chapter's part of all 330 Chemistry questions. The last column is the average over the three most recent papers only (2024, 2025 and 2026).
| # | Chapter | Branch | Questions in 7 papers | Average per paper | Share of Chemistry | Papers it appeared in | Average, 2024–2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure | Shared | 24 | 3.4 | 7% | 7 of 7 | 3.3 |
| 2 | Coordination Compounds | Inorganic | 20 | 2.9 | 6% | 7 of 7 | 4.0 |
| 3 | Hydrocarbons | Organic | 20 | 2.9 | 6% | 7 of 7 | 3.0 |
| 4 | p-Block Elements | Inorganic | 20 | 2.9 | 6% | 7 of 7 | 2.3 |
| 5 | Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids | Organic | 16 | 2.3 | 5% | 7 of 7 | 2.7 |
| 6 | d- and f-Block Elements | Inorganic | 16 | 2.3 | 5% | 7 of 7 | 2.7 |
| 7 | Organic Chemistry: Some Basic Principles and Techniques | Organic | 16 | 2.3 | 5% | 7 of 7 | 3.3 |
| 8 | Thermodynamics | Physical | 16 | 2.3 | 5% | 7 of 7 | 2.7 |
| 9 | Chemical Kinetics | Physical | 15 | 2.1 | 5% | 7 of 7 | 2.3 |
| 10 | Equilibrium | Physical | 14 | 2.0 | 4% | 7 of 7 | 2.3 |
| 11 | Amines | Organic | 12 | 1.7 | 4% | 7 of 7 | 2.0 |
| 12 | Electrochemistry | Physical | 12 | 1.7 | 4% | 7 of 7 | 1.7 |
| 13 | Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry | Physical | 12 | 1.7 | 4% | 7 of 7 | 2.3 |
| 14 | Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers | Organic | 11 | 1.6 | 3% | 5 of 7 | 1.0 |
| 15 | Biomolecules | Organic | 11 | 1.6 | 3% | 7 of 7 | 1.7 |
| 16 | Solutions | Physical | 11 | 1.6 | 3% | 5 of 7 | 2.3 |
| 17 | Structure of Atom | Physical | 11 | 1.6 | 3% | 7 of 7 | 1.7 |
| 18 | Classification of Elements and Periodicity | Inorganic | 10 | 1.4 | 3% | 6 of 7 | 2.0 |
| 19 | Haloalkanes and Haloarenes | Organic | 9 | 1.3 | 3% | 5 of 7 | 1.0 |
| 20 | Redox Reactions | Physical | 8 | 1.1 | 2% | 7 of 7 | 1.0 |
| 21 | Solid State | Physical | 6 | 0.9 | 2% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 22 | States of Matter | Physical | 6 | 0.9 | 2% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 23 | Isolation of Metals | Inorganic | 5 | 0.7 | 2% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 24 | s-Block Elements | Inorganic | 5 | 0.7 | 2% | 3 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 25 | Surface Chemistry | Physical | 5 | 0.7 | 2% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 26 | Environmental Chemistry | Shared | 4 | 0.6 | 1% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 27 | Hydrogen | Inorganic | 4 | 0.6 | 1% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 28 | Polymers | Organic | 4 | 0.6 | 1% | 4 of 7 | 0.0 |
| 29 | Principles Related to Practical Chemistry | Shared | 4 | 0.6 | 1% | 3 of 7 | 1.3 |
| 30 | Chemistry in Everyday Life | Organic | 3 | 0.4 | 1% | 3 of 7 | 0.0 |
Shares are rounded to whole numbers, so they do not add to exactly 100.
The first thing the table shows is how evenly Chemistry is spread. The top chapter carries 3.4 questions a paper; nothing carries four. Nine chapters together make up 49% of the subject and ten make up 54%. To get half of NEET Chemistry you need ten chapters, drawn from all three branches.
The second thing is the block at the bottom: nine chapters that appeared in the 2018 to 2023 papers and not at all in 2024, 2025 or 2026. We come back to them below.
How is NEET Chemistry split between physical, organic and inorganic?
We put each chapter into a branch where the chapter makes that clear. Three chapters do not belong cleanly to one: Chemical Bonding, which is taught as either physical or inorganic depending on the teacher; Principles Related to Practical Chemistry, which mixes salt analysis, preparations and titrations; and Environmental Chemistry. We kept those three separate rather than force them.
| Branch | Chapters | Questions in 7 papers | Average per paper | Share of Chemistry | Average, 2024–2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | 11 | 116 | 16.6 | 35% | 16.3 |
| Organic | 9 | 102 | 14.6 | 31% | 14.7 |
| Inorganic | 7 | 80 | 11.4 | 24% | 11.0 |
| Shared or mixed | 3 | 32 | 4.6 | 10% | 4.7 |
The physical branch here is Some Basic Concepts, Structure of Atom, States of Matter, Thermodynamics, Equilibrium, Redox Reactions, Solutions, Electrochemistry, Chemical Kinetics, Solid State and Surface Chemistry. Organic is the basic principles chapter, Hydrocarbons, Haloalkanes, Alcohols, Aldehydes and Ketones, Amines, Biomolecules, Polymers and Chemistry in Everyday Life. Inorganic is Periodicity, Hydrogen, s-Block, p-Block, d- and f-Block, Coordination Compounds and Isolation of Metals.
The split is close to a third each, and it has been stable: the averages for the last three papers are within half a question of the seven-paper figures for every branch. If you put Chemical Bonding with physical chemistry, as many students do, physical rises to 140 questions, or 42%.
What this means in practice: no branch can be your "safe" one at the expense of another. A student strong in organic and weak in physical is choosing to play on about two-thirds of the subject.
Which topics inside the chapters come up most?
These are the topics that carried the most Chemistry questions across the seven papers:
| Topic | Chapter | Questions in 7 papers |
|---|---|---|
| Transition element properties | d- and f-Block Elements | 10 |
| Nucleophilic addition | Aldehydes, Ketones and Carboxylic Acids | 8 |
| Arrhenius equation | Chemical Kinetics | 8 |
| Alkenes and alkynes | Hydrocarbons | 7 |
| Alkanes | Hydrocarbons | 7 |
| Entropy and Gibbs energy | Thermodynamics | 7 |
| Electrochemical cells | Electrochemistry | 7 |
| Preparation and properties | Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers | 7 |
| Molecular orbital theory | Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure | 6 |
| Crystal field theory | Coordination Compounds | 6 |
| Group 17 and 18 elements | p-Block Elements | 6 |
A few patterns are worth noticing. Chemical Kinetics carried 15 questions, and 8 of them were on the Arrhenius equation. Electrochemistry carried 12, and 7 were on cells. Chemical Bonding is broad, but molecular orbital theory, dipole moment and Fajans' rule, and VSEPR theory together carried 16 of its 24. Coordination Compounds was dominated by crystal field theory, valence bond theory and isomerism.
These are topics that the NCERT text explains well and that produce a fairly small number of standard question shapes. Our post on whether NCERT is enough for NEET explains how that differs between inorganic, where the book's lines are the questions, and physical, where the book's ideas are tested through calculations it rarely sets.
Which NEET Chemistry chapters have not been asked since 2024?
Nine chapters carried 42 questions between them in the 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023 papers, an average of 10.5 a paper, and none at all in the 2024, 2025 and 2026 papers. They are Solid State, States of Matter, Isolation of Metals, s-Block Elements, Surface Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Hydrogen, Polymers and Chemistry in Everyday Life.
At the same time, Principles Related to Practical Chemistry appeared for the first time in these papers in 2024 and has been in every paper since, with 4 questions across the three.
A clean break at the same year across nine chapters looks like a change in the syllabus rather than chance, but the syllabus is the place to check, not this table. The NEET page lists the chapters we currently prepare against, and the National Medical Commission publishes the syllabus each cycle. The practical point is about old papers: when you practise on a 2018 to 2023 paper, about one Chemistry question in five of those years came from these nine chapters, and you should check each against the current syllabus before spending time on it.
Which chapters have grown recently?
With the same caution as always (three papers is very few), the chapters whose recent average stands clearly above their seven-paper average are:
- Coordination Compounds: 2.9 a paper over seven papers, 4.0 over the last three, with six questions in 2026 alone.
- Organic Chemistry: Some Basic Principles and Techniques: 2.3 over seven, 3.3 over the last three. It carried one or two questions a paper from 2018 to 2023 and three or four in each paper since.
- Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry and Solutions both rose to 2.3 a paper over the last three.
And two organic chapters fell: Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers carried no questions in 2025 or 2026, and Haloalkanes and Haloarenes none in 2026. Do not read that as permission to skip them. Both are links in the chain of organic reactions, and the chapters that did rise, such as the basic principles chapter, test exactly the reasoning those chapters build.
Part of the reason the top chapters look bigger lately is arithmetic: with nine chapters out of recent papers, their questions went somewhere. The top ten chapters carried 46% to 53% of Chemistry in the 2018 to 2023 papers and 56% to 67% in 2024 to 2026.
What kind of Chemistry questions does NEET ask?
Of the 330 Chemistry questions, 263 (80%) were plain single-correct. Statement-based questions were 35 (11%), match-the-following 24 (7%), and assertion-reason 8 (2%).
That is a larger share of statement and matching questions than in Physics, and they cluster in the inorganic and descriptive chapters. p-Block Elements had 5 statement-based and 3 matching questions out of 20. These questions are slower to read and punish half-learned facts, because one wrong statement among four changes the answer. Practise them as a kind, not just as a chapter.
How we counted
Each question in each complete NEET paper we hold was classified to the NCERT-based chapter and topic it tests. We then counted the questions in each chapter, by paper and in total. Papers with pages missing from the official file are excluded, which is why our set is these seven: 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, one paper for each year. The 2026 paper is the re-examination held on 21 June 2026, after the 3 May paper was cancelled. The branch labels are our grouping of those chapters.
Before you rely on these numbers:
- The papers are not all the same size. The 2021, 2023 and 2024 papers had an optional Section B, so each subject printed 50 questions, of which a student answered 45. The others had 45 Chemistry questions. We counted every printed question, so the total is 330 and the average across all chapters is 47.1 a paper. See the NEET pattern and what changed for the Section B years.
- Seven papers is a small sample. A chapter's count moves by one or two from year to year. Read differences of a few tenths of a question as noise.
- The classification is ours. A question on the basicity of an amine via its electronic effects could be filed under either chapter. The broad picture would not change; individual counts might move by one.
- The mix changes year to year. Nothing here predicts the next paper. It describes the papers that have been set.
How should I use NEET Chemistry weightage in my preparation?
- Cover all three branches to the same standard. Each is roughly a third of the subject. Your weakest branch is where your Chemistry score is decided.
- Start with the ten chapters that make half the subject: Chemical Bonding, Coordination Compounds, Hydrocarbons, p-Block, Aldehydes and Ketones, d- and f-Block, the organic basic principles chapter, Thermodynamics, Chemical Kinetics and Equilibrium. All ten appeared in every paper we counted.
- Learn the organic basic principles chapter early, and properly. It has risen in recent papers, and every later organic chapter leans on it.
- For inorganic, read NCERT line by line, then turn it into statement questions. p-Block, d- and f-Block and Coordination Compounds together carried 56 questions, 17% of Chemistry.
- For physical, do numbers every week. Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Equilibrium, Electrochemistry and Solutions are calculation chapters. Read once, then practise.
- Weight revision by weightage times weakness. Our guide to analysing a mock test shows how to get your accuracy by chapter; the mistake book is where the wrong ones go.
The Nikaalle 52-week plan weights revision by how many marks each chapter carries, and chapter tests come before full papers; the plans page has the details. The companion posts cover Physics and Biology the same way.
Frequently asked questions
Which chapter has the highest weightage in NEET Chemistry?
Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure, with 24 questions across the seven papers we counted, or 3.4 a paper, about 7% of Chemistry. Coordination Compounds, Hydrocarbons and p-Block Elements follow at 20 each.
Is physical, organic or inorganic chemistry most important for NEET?
They are close. Physical chemistry carried 35% of Chemistry questions, organic 31% and inorganic 24%, with 10% in chapters we did not assign to one branch. None can be skipped.
How many chapters make up half of NEET Chemistry?
Ten. The top ten chapters carried 54% of all Chemistry questions in seven papers, and the top nine carried 49%. All ten appeared in every paper.
Which NEET Chemistry chapters were not asked in 2024, 2025 and 2026?
Solid State, States of Matter, Isolation of Metals, s-Block Elements, Surface Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, Hydrogen, Polymers and Chemistry in Everyday Life had no questions in those three papers. Check the current syllabus before studying them.
Is Coordination Compounds important for NEET?
Yes, and increasingly. It averaged 2.9 questions a paper over seven papers and 4.0 over the last three, with six in 2026. Crystal field theory was its most-asked topic.
Sources
- Nikaalle analysis of 7 previous-year NEET papers: 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 (method above)
- National Testing Agency, NEET (UG): https://neet.nta.nic.in
- National Medical Commission (syllabus): https://www.nmc.org.in
- NCERT: https://ncert.nic.in
Checked against the official sources on 25 October 2026.