Electrostatics - NEET Previous Year Questions with Complete Solutions

eSaral › NEET › Neet test-series› Electrostatics - NEET Previous Year Questions with Complete Solutions

🩺 Explore NEET Courses

Why electrostatics is critical for NEET Physics

Electrostatics is the foundation of all electricity and magnetism in the NEET syllabus. Every concept here — charge, field, potential, capacitance — reappears in Current Electricity, Magnetism, and Electromagnetic Induction.

Students who master electrostatics effectively study three chapters at once. That compounding return makes it the smartest chapter to prioritise early in your NEET preparation.

💡 Expert tip · Saransh Gupta, IIT Bombay AIR-41

"Electrostatics is where 90% of students lose marks they never expected to lose. Solve at least 10 PYQs per sub-topic before moving on — not for speed, but for pattern recognition."

NEET PYQs with step-by-step solutions

NEET 2022 · Coulomb's Law

Q:Two point charges +3 μC and −3 μC are placed 10 cm apart in vacuum. What is the electric force between them?

F = k × |q₁ × q₂| / r² F = (9×10⁹) × (3×10⁻⁶) × (3×10⁻⁶) / (0.1)² F = (9×10⁹) × (9×10⁻¹²) / 0.01 F = 8.1 N (attractive)

Key concept: Force is attractive because charges are opposite. Direction matters for vector superposition problems.

NEET 2021 · Electric Field

Q:An electric dipole of moment p is placed in a uniform field E. What is the torque when it makes angle θ with the field?

τ = pE sinθ θ = 90° → τ = pE (maximum) θ = 0° → τ = 0 (stable equilibrium) θ = 180° → τ = 0 (unstable equilibrium)

Key concept: θ = 0° is stable equilibrium. θ = 180° is unstable. NEET asks this distinction regularly.

NEET 2023 · Gauss's Law

Q:A spherical shell of radius R carries a surface charge density σ. What is the electric field inside the shell?

Enclosed charge for Gaussian surface inside = 0 ∮ E · dA = Q_enc / ε₀ = 0 ∴ E = 0 (inside the shell)

Key concept: E inside a charged spherical shell is always zero. One of the most frequently tested Gauss's law results.

NEET 2019 · Capacitance

Q:Two capacitors of 4 μF and 6 μF are connected in series. What is the equivalent capacitance?

1/C_eq = 1/4 + 1/6 = 3/12 + 2/12 = 5/12 C_eq = 12/5 = 2.4 μF

Key concept: A series always gives a smaller equivalent capacitance than the smallest individual capacitor.

💡 Expert tip · Saransh Gupta, IIT Bombay AIR-41

"In NEET, capacitor problems almost always involve series-parallel combinations, energy stored, or the effect of a dielectric. Master these three question types and you will answer every capacitor question confidently."

How to solve electrostatics questions quickly in NEET?

NEET gives you roughly 80 seconds per Physics question. Here is the 3-step method used by eSaral's top-scoring students:

• 1
  Identify the formula class (10 sec) — Is this Coulomb's law? Gauss's law? Capacitor energy? The first line of the question almost always gives this away.
• 2
  Write known values with units (20 sec) — List q₁, q₂, r, ε₀ etc. explicitly. Unit errors are the #1 cause of wrong answers in numerical electrostatics questions.
• 3
  Substitute and simplify (40 sec) — Use powers of 10 arithmetic. Most NEET answers are clean numbers — if you're getting a messy decimal, recheck units first.

Common mistakes to avoid in electrostatics

• Treating potential as a vector: Electric potential is scalar. Add potentials algebraically, not as vectors.
• Confusing E = 0 inside conductor with V = 0: E is zero but V equals the surface potential — it is non-zero.
• Wrong sign in work done: W = q(V₁ − V₂). Flipping this gives the wrong sign on every subsequent step.
• Series-parallel capacitor mix-up: In series, charge is equal. In parallel, voltage is equal.
• Ignoring permittivity of medium: In a medium with dielectric constant K, force becomes F/K and field becomes E/K.