JEE Advanced Syllabus 2026: Subject-Wise Breakdown, Preparation Tips

Mechanics

Kinematics in one and two dimensions (Cartesian coordinates only), projectiles; Uniform circular motion; Relative velocity.

Newton’s laws of motion; Inertial and uniformly accelerated frames of reference; Static and dynamic friction; Kinetic and potential energy; Work and power; Conservation of linear momentum and mechanical energy.

Systems of particles; Centre of mass and its motion; Impulse; Elastic and inelastic collisions. Rigid body, moment of inertia, parallel and perpendicular axes theorems, moment of inertia of uniform bodies with simple geometrical shapes; Angular momentum; Torque; Conservation of angular momentum; Dynamics of rigid bodies with fixed axis of rotation; Rolling without slipping of rings, cylinders and spheres; Equilibrium of rigid bodies; Collision of point masses with rigid bodies. Forced and damped oscillation (in one dimension), resonance.

Linear and angular simple harmonic motions.

Hooke’s law, Young’s modulus.

Law of gravitation; Gravitational potential and field; Acceleration due to gravity; Kepler’s law,

Geostationary orbits, Motion of planets and satellites in circular orbits; Escape velocity.

Pressure in a fluid; Pascal’s law; Buoyancy; Surface energy and surface tension, angle of contact, drops, bubbles and capillary rise. Viscosity (Poiseuille’s equation excluded), Modulus of rigidity and bulk modulus in mechanics. Stoke’s law; Terminal velocity, Streamline flow, equation of continuity, Bernoulli’s theorem and its applications. Wave motion (plane waves only), longitudinal and transverse waves, superposition of waves; Progressive and stationary waves; Vibration of strings and air columns; Resonance; Beats; Speed of sound in gases; Doppler effect (in sound)

General 

General Units and dimensions, dimensional analysis; least count, significant figures; Methods of measurement and error analysis for physical quantities pertaining to the following experiments: Experiments based on using Vernier callipers and screw gauge (micrometre), Determination of g using simple pendulum, Young’s modulus - elasticity of the material Surface tension of water by capillary rise and effect of detergents. Specific heat of a liquid using a calorimeter, focal length of a concave mirror and a convex lens using u-v method, Speed of sound using a resonance column, Verification of Ohm’s law using a voltmeter and ammeter, and specific resistance of the material of a wire using meter bridge and post office box.

Thermal Physics

Thermal expansion of solids, liquids and gases; Calorimetry, latent heat; Heat conduction in one dimension; Elementary concepts of convection and radiation; Newton’s law of cooling; Ideal gas laws; Specific heats (Cv and Cp for monoatomic and diatomic gases); Isothermal and adiabatic processes, bulk modulus of gases; Equivalence of heat and work; First law of thermodynamics and its applications (only for ideal gases); Second law of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, Carnot engine and its efficiency; Blackbody radiation: absorptive and emissive powers; Kirchhoff’s law; Wien’s displacement law, Stefan’s law.

Electricity and Magnetism

Coulomb’s law; Electric field and potential; Electrical potential energy of a system of point charges and of electrical dipoles in a uniform electrostatic field; Electric field lines; Flux of electric field; Gauss’s law and its application in simple cases, such as, to find field due to infinitely long straight wire, uniformly charged infinite plane sheet and uniformly charged thin spherical shell. Capacitance; Parallel plate capacitor with and without dielectrics; Capacitors in series and parallel; Energy stored in a capacitor.

Electric current; Ohm’s law; Series and parallel arrangements of resistances and cells; Kirchhoff’s

laws and simple applications; Heating effect of current.

Biot–Savart’s law and Ampere’s law; Magnetic field near a current-carrying straight wire, along the axis of a circular coil and inside a long straight solenoid; Force on a moving charge and on a current-carrying wire in a uniform magnetic field.

Magnetic moment of a current loop; Effect of a uniform magnetic field on a current loop; Moving coil galvanometer, voltmeter, ammeter and their conversions.

Electromagnetic induction: Faraday’s law, Lenz’s law; Self and mutual inductance; RC, LR, LC and LCR(in series) circuits with d.c. and a.c. sources.

Electro-Magnetic Waves

Electromagnetic waves and their characteristics. Electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays) including elementary facts about their uses.

Optics

Rectilinear propagation of light; Reflection and refraction at plane and spherical surfaces; Total internal reflection; Deviation and dispersion of light by a prism; Thin lenses; Combinations of mirrors and thin lenses; Magnification.

Wave nature of light: Huygen’s principle, interference limited to Young’s double slit experiment. Diffraction due to a single slit. Polarization of light, plane polarized light; Brewster's law, Polaroids.

Modern Physics 

Atomic nucleus; α, β and γ radiations; Law of radioactive decay; Decay constant; Half-life and mean life; Binding energy and its calculation; Fission and fusion processes; Energy calculation in these processes.

Photoelectric effect; Bohr’s theory of hydrogen-like atoms; Characteristic and continuous X-rays,

Moseley’s law; de Broglie wavelength of matter waves.

General Topics

Concept of atoms and molecules; Dalton’s atomic theory; Mole concept; Chemical formulae; Balanced chemical equations; Calculations (based on mole concept and stoichiometry) involving common oxidation-reduction, neutralisation, and displacement reactions; Concentration in terms of mole fraction, molarity, molality and normality.

States of Matter: Gases and Lights

Gas laws and ideal gas equation, absolute scale of temperature; Deviation from ideality, van der Waals equation; Kinetic theory of gases, average, root mean square and most probable velocities and their relation with temperature; Law of partial pressures; Diffusion of gases. Intermolecular interactions: types, distance dependence, and their effect on properties; Liquids: vapour pressure, surface tension, viscosity.

Atomic Structure

Bohr model, the spectrum of hydrogen atom; Wave-particle duality, de Broglie hypothesis; Uncertainty principle; Qualitative quantum mechanical picture of hydrogen atom: Energies, quantum numbers, wave function and probability density (plots only), shapes of s, p and d orbitals; Aufbau principle; Pauli’s exclusion principle and Hund’s rule.

Chemical Bonding & Molecular Structure

Orbital overlap and covalent bond; Hybridisation involving s, p and d orbitals only; Molecular orbital energy diagrams for homonuclear diatomic species (up to Ne2); Hydrogen bond; Polarity in molecules, dipole moment; VSEPR model and shapes of molecules (linear, angular, triangular, square planar, pyramidal, square pyramidal, trigonal bipyramidal, tetrahedral and octahedral).

Chemical Thermodynamics 

Intensive and extensive properties, state functions, First law of thermodynamics; Internal energy, work (pressure-volume only) and heat; Enthalpy, heat capacity, standard state, Hess’s law; Enthalpy of reaction, fusion and vapourization, and lattice enthalpy; Second law of thermodynamics; Entropy; Gibbs energy; Criteria of equilibrium and spontaneity.

Chemical Ionic Equilibrium 

Law of mass action; Significance of ∆

Sets, Relations and Functions

Sets and their representations, different kinds of sets (empty, finite and infinite), algebra of sets, intersection, complement, difference and symmetric difference of sets and their algebraic properties, De-Morgan’s laws on the union, intersection, the difference (for a finite number of sets) and practical problems based on them. Cartesian product of finite sets, ordered pair, relations, domain and codomain of relations, equivalence relation Function as a special case of relation, functions as mappings, domain, codomain, range of functions, invertible functions, even and odd functions, into, onto and one-to-one functions, special functions (polynomial, trigonometric, exponential, logarithmic, power, absolute value, greatest integer etc.), sum, difference, product and composition of functions.

Algebra

Algebra of complex numbers, addition, multiplication, conjugation, polar representation, properties of modulus and principal argument, triangle inequality, cube roots of unity, geometric interpretations. Statement of the fundamental theorem of algebra, Quadratic equations with real coefficients, relations between roots and coefficients, formation of quadratic equations with given roots, symmetric functions of roots. Arithmetic and geometric progressions, arithmetic and geometric means, sums of finite arithmetic and geometric progressions, infinite geometric series, sum of the first n natural numbers, sums of squares and cubes of the first n natural numbers. Logarithms and their properties, permutations and combinations, binomial theorem for a positive integral index, properties of binomial coefficients

Matrices

Matrices as a rectangular array of real numbers, equality of matrices, addition, multiplication by a scalar and product of matrices, transpose of a matrix, elementary row and column transformations, determinant of a square matrix of order up to three, adjoint of a matrix, inverse of a square matrix of order up to three, properties of these matrix operations, diagonal, symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices and their properties, solutions of simultaneous linear equations in two or three variables. 

Probability and Statistics

Random experiment, sample space, different types of events (impossible, simple, compound), addition and multiplication rules of probability, conditional probability, independence of events, total probability, Bayes Theorem, computation of probability of events using permutations and combinations. Measure of central tendency and dispersion, mean, median, mode, mean deviation, standard deviation and variance of grouped and ungrouped data, analysis of the frequency distribution with the same mean but different variance, random variable, mean and variance of the random variable.

Trigonometry

Trigonometric functions, their periodicity and graphs, addition and subtraction formulae, formulae involving multiple and sub-multiple angles, and general solutions of trigonometric equations. Inverse trigonometric functions (principal value only) and their elementary properties.

Analytical Geometry

Two dimensions: Cartesian coordinates, the distance between two points, section formulae, shift of origin. Equation of a straight line in various forms, angle between two lines, distance of a point from a line; Lines through the point of intersection of two given lines, equation of the bisector of the angle between two lines, concurrency of lines; Centroid, orthocentre, incentre and circumcentre of a triangle. Equation of a circle in various forms, equations of tangent, normal and chord. Parametric equations of a circle, the intersection of a circle with a straight line or a circle, the equation of a circle through the points of intersection of two circles and those of a circle and a straight line. Equations of a parabola, ellipse and hyperbola in standard form, their foci, directrices and eccentricity, parametric equations, equations of tangent and normal. Locus problems. 

Three dimensions: Distance between two points, direction cosines and direction ratios, equation of a straight line in space, skew lines, shortest distance between two lines, equation of a plane, distance of a point from a plane, angle between two lines, angle between two planes, angle between a line and the plane, coplanar lines.

Differential Calculus

Limit of a function at a real number, continuity of a function, limit and continuity of the sum, difference, product and quotient of two functions, L’Hospital rule of evaluation of limits of functions. Continuity of composite functions, intermediate value property of continuous functions. Derivative of a function, derivative of the sum, difference, product and quotient of two functions, chain rule, derivatives of polynomial, rational, trigonometric, inverse trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic functions. Tangents and normals, increasing and decreasing functions, derivatives of order two, maximum and minimum values of a function, Rolle’s theorem and Lagrange’s mean value theorem, geometric interpretation of the two theorems, derivatives up to order two of implicit functions, geometric interpretation of derivatives

Integral Calculus

Integration is the inverse process of differentiation, indefinite integrals of standard functions, definite integrals as the limit of sums, definite integral and their properties, the fundamental theorem of integral calculus. Integration by parts, integration by the methods of substitution and partial fractions, and application of definite integrals to the determination of areas bounded by simple curves. Formation of ordinary differential equations, solution of homogeneous differential equations of first order and first degree, the separation of variables method, and linear first-order differential equations. 

Vectors

Addition of vectors, scalar multiplication, dot and cross products, scalar and vector triple products, and their geometrical interpretations.

Physics

Mechanics

30–35%

Electrostatics & Current Electricity

15–20%

Magnetism & Electromagnetic Induction

10–15%

Optics (Ray & Wave)

10%

Thermodynamics & Heat

10–12%

Modern Physics

10–15%

Waves & Oscillations

5–8%

Units, Dimensions & Errors

2–3%

Experimental/Practical Physics

2–3%