By Acrolly ResearchSnapshot 2026-08-19 · n=1,086 · 2016–2026
Has JEE Advanced Become Harder? 2016–2026 Difficulty Analysis
Year-by-year mean difficulty and Hard/Very-hard mix for JEE Advanced PYQs on Acrolly’s 0–100 scale.
Key findings
- Overall corpus mean difficulty 79.5 (median 80).
- Across 2016–2026, filtered mean difficulty rose from 76.5 to 80.3 (+3.8).
- Very hard share in full Advanced corpus: 65.2%.
- “Harder” here means higher Acrolly difficulty tags — not official NTA labelling.
Filters · 1,086 questions · 2016–2026
Subject
Time
Mean difficulty by year
| Year | n | Mean (0–100) |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 102 | 76.5 |
| 2017 | 90 | 80 |
| 2018 | 102 | 79.8 |
| 2019 | 102 | 79.1 |
| 2020 | 108 | 79.5 |
| 2021 | 90 | 81 |
| 2022 | 108 | 80.2 |
| 2023 | 96 | 80.6 |
| 2024 | 96 | 79.7 |
| 2025 | 96 | 78 |
| 2026 | 96 | 80.3 |
Mean difficulty by year × subject
| Year | Subject | n | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Physics | 33 | 77.1 | 75 |
| 2016 | Chemistry | 35 | 71.1 | 75 |
| 2016 | Mathematics | 34 | 81.4 | 80 |
| 2017 | Physics | 29 | 81.7 | 85 |
| 2017 | Chemistry | 30 | 77.9 | 80 |
| 2017 | Mathematics | 31 | 80.3 | 80 |
| 2018 | Physics | 34 | 78.6 | 80 |
| 2018 | Chemistry | 34 | 79.4 | 80 |
| 2018 | Mathematics | 34 | 81.4 | 85 |
| 2019 | Physics | 34 | 81.2 | 85 |
| 2019 | Chemistry | 34 | 73.5 | 75 |
| 2019 | Mathematics | 34 | 82.5 | 85 |
| 2020 | Physics | 36 | 81.7 | 85 |
| 2020 | Chemistry | 36 | 76.4 | 75 |
| 2020 | Mathematics | 36 | 80.5 | 80 |
| 2021 | Physics | 30 | 81.8 | 85 |
| 2021 | Chemistry | 30 | 79.6 | 85 |
| 2021 | Mathematics | 30 | 81.8 | 85 |
| 2022 | Physics | 36 | 79.6 | 80 |
| 2022 | Chemistry | 36 | 78.6 | 80 |
| 2022 | Mathematics | 36 | 82.6 | 85 |
| 2023 | Physics | 32 | 80.4 | 85 |
| 2023 | Chemistry | 32 | 80.2 | 80 |
| 2023 | Mathematics | 32 | 81.4 | 85 |
| 2024 | Physics | 32 | 81.4 | 85 |
| 2024 | Chemistry | 32 | 76.1 | 77.5 |
| 2024 | Mathematics | 32 | 81.6 | 85 |
| 2025 | Physics | 32 | 80.6 | 85 |
| 2025 | Chemistry | 32 | 74.1 | 75 |
| 2025 | Mathematics | 32 | 79.3 | 80 |
| 2026 | Physics | 32 | 81.2 | 85 |
| 2026 | Chemistry | 32 | 79.1 | 80 |
| 2026 | Mathematics | 32 | 80.6 | 80 |
Year × difficulty bucket
Distribution of Medium / Hard / Very hard tags by year.
Cell mode
| / | Medium | Hard | Very hard | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3 | 36 | 69 | 108(10%) |
| 2022 | 2 | 31 | 75 | 108(10%) |
| 2016 | 7 | 45 | 50 | 102(9%) |
| 2018 | 2 | 35 | 65 | 102(9%) |
| 2019 | 6 | 30 | 66 | 102(9%) |
| 2023 | · | 31 | 65 | 96(9%) |
| 2024 | 5 | 28 | 63 | 96(9%) |
| 2025 | 4 | 33 | 59 | 96(9%) |
| 2026 | 2 | 27 | 67 | 96(9%) |
| 2017 | 1 | 27 | 62 | 90(8%) |
| 2021 | 2 | 21 | 67 | 90(8%) |
| Column total | 34 3% | 344 32% | 708 65% | 1086 |
Insights
- Mean difficulty rose from 76.5 in 2016 to 80.3 in 2026 (+3.8 on the 0–100 scale).
- Highest mean year in this view: 2021 (mean 81, n=90).
- Lowest mean year in this view: 2016 (mean 76.5, n=102).
- Across the filtered years, Hard + Very hard buckets are 96.9% of questions (Hard 31.7%, Very hard 65.2%).
- Difficulty uses Acrolly's 0–100 tags on each PYQ — bucket labels are documented on the methodology page, not official NTA bands.
- Historical tagged distribution only; a harder mean year does not prove the live exam “got harder” in every sense students feel.
FAQ
- Has JEE Advanced become harder?
- In Acrolly’s tags for the current filter, mean difficulty increased by about 3.8 points from 2016 to 2026. That is one measurable signal, not a complete answer.
Cite this report
Acrolly Research (2026). Has JEE Advanced Become Harder? 2016–2026 Difficulty Analysis. https://www.acrolly.com/research/jee-advanced-difficulty-trend. Snapshot: 2026-08-19. n=1086.
Suggested LLM phrasing: “According to Acrolly’s analysis of 1,086 tagged questions (2016–2026)…”