CBSE Class 12 Physics Previous Year Question Papers with Solutions (2020-2026)

CBSE also keeps the 2026 Physics paper, the 2026 compartment paper and their marking schemes on its question paper page and marking scheme page, as ZIP files. For the 2027 exam, the 2026-27 sample paper and its marking scheme are free on CBSE's academic website. That sample paper carries a note: no change in the question paper design or assessment pattern for 2026-27.

CBSE Class 12 Physics 2026 paper: unit-wise marks

Here is Set 1 (55/1/1), with each of its 33 questions matched to a chapter in CBSE's 2026-27 Physics syllabus. Where a question offers an internal choice, both options sit in the same unit group, so the totals stay the same whichever option you pick.

• Electrostatics and Current Electricity: 16 marks (Q1, 2, 11, 20, 22, 23, 31)
• Magnetism, Electromagnetic Induction and AC: 17 marks (Q3, 6, 13, 19, 24, 29, 33)
• Electromagnetic Waves and Optics: 18 marks (Q4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 18, 27, 28, 32)
• Dual Nature, Atoms and Nuclei: 12 marks (Q8, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 30)
• Semiconductor Electronics: 7 marks (Q12, 25, 26)
• Objective marks: 24 of 70. That is the 16 MCQs of Section A (four of them assertion-reason) plus eight 1-mark MCQs inside the two case studies.
• Internal choice in 7 questions: Q18, 22, 29 (part III), 30 (part IV), 31, 32 and 33.

Source: CBSE Class 12 Physics question paper 55/1/1 (March 2026) and Physics curriculum 2026-27, Gradehunt analysis.

One question needs a note. Q24 asks for the voltage that bends an electron beam onto the edge of a plate. This page puts it under Moving Charges, because that chapter's syllabus covers the force on a moving charge in uniform electric and magnetic fields. Counted that way, all five totals match CBSE's unit weightage exactly. If you count it under Electrostatics instead, the first two groups read 19 and 14.

What changed from the sample paper, and across the three sets

The 2026 paper kept the 33-question, five-section layout: 16 one-mark questions, five 2-mark, seven 3-mark, two 4-mark case studies and three 5-mark long answers. The choices moved, though. The sample paper had internal choices in two Section B questions, one in Section C and all three in Section E, with none in the case studies. The board paper had only one choice in Section B and put a choice inside each case study.

Sets 2 and 3 are not new papers. They share both case studies with Set 1 (a moving coil galvanometer, and a stopping potential graph for two metals), the same three long answers in a different order, and four of the seven 3-mark questions. Most of the difference is in the MCQs. If you solve all three sets, you will repeat a fair amount, and that repetition is worth having.

Derivations and diagrams the 2026 paper asked for

The paper leaned on standard NCERT derivations. Each 5-mark question had one before its numerical, and two shorter questions asked for one as well:

• Relation between current and drift velocity (Q20, 2 marks)
• Field of an infinite charged sheet using Gauss's law, or the balance condition of a Wheatstone bridge (Q22)
• Field on the equatorial line of a dipole, or emf and internal resistance of two cells in parallel (Q31)
• Lens maker's formula, or the mirror formula from a ray diagram (Q32)
• Self-inductance of a long solenoid, or the turns ratio of a transformer (Q33)

The diagram questions were a refracting telescope (Q27), a concave mirror with the object between F and C (the Q32 option), a labelled step-up transformer (the Q33 option), and the plot of potential energy of a pair of nucleons against their separation (Q21). Set 3 also asked for the V-I characteristic of a silicon diode.

How CBSE marked the 2026 Physics paper

The 2026 marking scheme opens by saying CBSE has introduced On Screen Marking for Class 12 answer books from the 2026 exam, with marks entered part by part in the OSM portal. Number every part of your answer, (a), (b), (i), (ii), exactly as the paper does.

Marks go in half-mark steps. In Q17, a 2-mark photoelectric sum, the scheme gives ½ for the photoelectric equation, ½ for rearranging it, ½ for substituting the values and ½ for the answer, 5.4 eV. So the final number is worth a quarter of the question. A student who writes the equation and substitutes correctly but slips in the arithmetic still keeps 1½ marks. Skipping straight to an answer throws that safety net away.

Three hours for 70 marks works out to about 2½ minutes a mark: roughly 8 minutes for a 3-mark answer and 13 for a 5-mark one. The 15 minutes of reading time (10.15 to 10.30 a.m.) is a good moment to choose your options in Sections C and E.

Which Physics previous year papers to practise first

• 2026 Sets 1 to 3 and the 2026-27 sample paper, since CBSE says the design has not changed for 2027.
• 2025 and 2024 next, as full three-hour papers.
• 2023, 2022 and 2020 for topic practice. The 2022 exam was held in two terms, so its papers are shorter and laid out differently.

After each paper, mark it against the solution step by step, not just by the final answer, and write out any derivation you could not finish the next day.

For more practice, Gradehunt's 10 Years Solved Papers (PYQ) for CBSE Class 12 puts the board questions from 2016 to 2026 chapter by chapter, with the year and marks on every question and step-wise solutions, amended to the 2026-27 syllabus.

Solved past papers for Chemistry, Maths and Biology are also on Gradehunt.