NID DAT 2026 Paper Analysis - Section-wise Difficulty Level, Student Feedback, Expected Cutoff

NID DAT Exam Analysis 2026

NID DAT 2026 Prelims exam for MDes and BDes courses will be conducted in January 2026. Candidates who appear in the exam can check the detailed NID DAT paper analysis 2026 and students' reactions below. The detailed review will cover the NID DAT 2026 question paper, providing insights into factors such as the difficulty level of each section, overall paper difficulty, topic weightage, ideal attempts, and the predicted cutoff. In the previous NID DAT exam, the candidates mentioned that the M.Des. paper was of a moderate length, although it seemed a bit long. The B.Des exam was easy to moderate, with a few students also suggesting it took a bit more time to solve the entire paper. The exam analysis will also feature real-time updates from the NID DAT 2026 exam centre, highlighting procedures like security checks and smooth exam conduct. 

NID DAT (Prelims) 2025 Exam Overview

Here’s a brief overview of the NID DAT entrance exam for better understanding:

Section-wise NID DAT Exam Analysis 2025

The NID DAT 2025 Prelims exam consists of two distinct sections. Here's a detailed breakdown and section-wise exam analysis to give you a clear idea of what to expect in NID DAT 2025 Prelims results and cutoffs.

NID DAT Paper Analysis 2025 (Student Reviews)

Let us consider the following reactions by the students in response to the NID DAT 2025 Prelims, such as question type, difficulty, and experience during the examination.

General Observations

• Many students found the exam well-structured and balanced across sections.
• Questions were divided into several parts in order to check various skills.

Feedback from First-Time Test-Takers

• A student described the paper as well-balanced and informed that it was her first time appearing for the NID DAT.
• Another first-time candidate said that the Poster and Scene Tasks were moderately difficult.
• The tasks involved creating posters and describing specific situations.
• The majority of the questions were easy, except for one, which was not attempted.

Challenges in the Drawing Section

• Most of the students faced a significant challenge in drawing.
• A candidate stated that the questions were pretty general and called for original answers.
• One student commented on a drawing prompt in which one was asked to create a game from a given paragraph.
• The other started to make a poster for a crow drinking juice as it was a strange assignment, but not hard.

Difficulty and Time Management

• A student remarked that the question paper was long, but she finished 5-10 minutes before time.
• Math-related questions were fewer in number and logo-based and logic was present in larger numbers.
• Another student stated that it was moderately tough but completely within her preparations since she was practising the NID DAT previous years' question paper and NID DAT 2025 mock test.

Distinctive Features of Question Paper

• In particular, some students enjoyed the creative questions.
• Tasks like poster designing and game designing presented individualized design possibilities.

In conclusion, while the exam was differentially challenging for design students, overall, most responded that it had a balanced type of questions. The drawing was the most challenging as well as being an essential element.

NID DAT 2025 Prelims Exam Pattern

The NID DAT 2025 Prelims was held offline on 5 January 2025, marking a milestone in the career of any aspirant designer. Two stages make this selection process very competitive. Since the exam is quite tough, it will challenge your creativity and design knowledge and also innovative thinking in addition to all these artistic skills.

NID DAT 2025 Prelims Exam Pattern for B.Des 

NID DAT 2025 Prelims Exam Pattern for M.Des 

What will NID 2025 Paper Analysis Cover?

Here's a breakdown of what you should expect in the NID DAT 2025 exam analysis:

• Overall Difficulty Level: The difficulty level at which the examination has been set will be shared so that one will know where he or she stands.
• Section Wise Difficulty: It will separately rate each section to understand what all areas have been tougher as compared to the rest.
• Reasons for Difficulty: Understand the reasons that made the paper tough—whether it was difficult questions, unexpected topics, or something else.
• Paper Length: Get an idea of how long the paper was and how it affected time management.
• Good Attempts: Understand what is a good number of attempts to remain competitive.
• Expected Cutoff Marks: Find out the expected cut-off scores to understand where you stand.
• New Trends or Changes in Pattern: Any changes observed in the Pattern, new questions trends, or something unique added on the test paper.

NID DAT Exam Analysis 2024

According to the exam analysis of NID DAT 2024, the overall difficulty level of the exam was considered moderate. The NID DAT 2024 Prelims exam comprised two parts, with Part A lasting for 15 minutes and Part B allocated 135 minutes, which included 9 questions. The total marks for the Aptitude and Drawing sections were 25 and 75 respectively. The table presented below explains the sectional and overall difficulty levels of the NID DAT 2024 exam: 

According to feedback from students who took the NID DAT 2024 exam, there have been changes to the NID exam pattern. The revised NID exam pattern for 2024 indicates an increase in the proportion of the drawing section and a decrease in the aptitude section. Students also indicated that self-preparation is sufficient for success in the NID DAT exam.

As per the instructions mentioned on the admit card, candidates are strictly prohibited from carrying the NID DAT question paper 2024 booklet outside the exam hall. Any attempt to do so may result in criminal proceedings.

NID DAT Paper Analysis 2024 (Student Reviews)

The NID DAT Prelims paper analysis 2024 for the B.Des and M.Des programs is provided below.

NID DAT 2024 Paper Analysis (B.Des): Student Reaction 

• One test taker shared that her overall experience was okay. She felt content with the paper and performed her best. The multiple-choice questions (MCQ) part was easy, with topics including people living in the mountains and designer models. However, she wasn't clear on the expected cut-off. 
• Another test taker mentioned that his overall experience was okay, but the exam was easy yet lengthy. The creative section proved to be time-consuming, and he speculated that the cut-off might be high due to the paper's easiness. 
• A student described the overall experience as great, finding all sections quite easy. The question revolved around product design, and he acknowledged the strict evaluation criteria, making it uncertain about the expected cut-off. 
• Another student noted that compared to the previous year, the question paper was not as lengthy. Both the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and drawing sections were manageable, with questions covering visual interpretation, statements, various forms of artwork, and material knowledge. The expected cut-off could increase, considering it was 50 last year. 
• A candidate expressed that the overall experience was okay, and the question paper was not excessively lengthy. Students had the freedom to showcase creativity in their responses, and she suggested that the expected cut-off might be average as the paper was moderate.

NID DAT 2024 Paper Analysis (M.Des): Student Reaction 

According to the NID DAT 2024 paper analysis from students who took the exam, there were some surprising elements in the question paper, similar to previous years. Overall, many students found the questions to be easy and easily understandable, but the paper was lengthy.

An M.Des aspirant, who took the "Textile" section, rated the overall difficulty level of the exam as 8 out of 10. The first paper included questions on General Knowledge and Reasoning, covering topics like Sustainable Development and the G20 summit. In the subjective paper, there was a question on posture drawing related to slow fashion and conscious buying. The candidate suggested that individuals from a design background may not need coaching classes, but those not from a design background might find them helpful. She also recommended reading a lot of General Knowledge and staying updated with current affairs.

Another student, who appeared for M.Des Prelims, described the overall difficulty level as easy to moderate. She anticipated a high cut-off, around 70-80 out of 100. Both papers were at a moderate difficulty level, with questions covering topics like northern pole star branding, log design, weaving, features of mobile phones, and posture drawing in a rural background setup.

NID DAT Exam Analysis 2023

The NID DAT 2023 prelims exam, held on January 8, 2023, presented a moderately challenging level of difficulty overall. While some sections were considered easier than others, the exam comprehensively assessed candidates' design aptitude and problem-solving skills. 

NID DAT 2023 Exam Overview

The NID DAT prelims exam 2023 was considered moderately challenging by experts and students alike. The exam, which is conducted for over 125+ seats, presented a mix of subjective and objective questions, with a total duration of 3 hours and a maximum of 26 questions. Most students found the pictorials and diagrams section to be tricky, while the GK section ranged from easy to moderate in difficulty. One student commented that the English section was easy, but the pictorial and diagrams section had some challenging questions.

Here's a breakdown of the NID DAT 2023 exam analysis:

NID DAT Exam Analysis 2022

NID DAT 2022 Prelims was successfully conducted on January 02, 2022. Candidates can look at the NID DAT 2022 exam analysis below to know all about the questions that were asked in the exam, the difficulty level of the exam, the weightage given to each topic etc.

NID DAT 2021 was conducted on March 14 from 10 am-1 pm in pen and paper mode. NID DAT 2021 exam analysis has been given below. The paper had 36 questions and the overall difficulty level of the exam was moderately difficult. It included both MCQ and Subjective type questions.

NID DAT Exam Analysis 2021

According to CollegeDekho's NID DAT 2021 exam analysis, the general knowledge section was challenging, but non-verbal and logical questions were manageable. Candidates completed the exam within the given time. The NID DAT Prelim paper comprises two parts: Part 1 with multiple-choice questions totalling 30 marks, and Part 2 with subjective questions, including two 15-mark questions and four others with marks 10, 12, 13, and 5. Part 1 focused on general and history questions, while Part 2 followed a specific pattern.

NID DAT (Prelims) Exam Analysis 2020

Given here is the detailed paper analysis of NID DAT (prelims) 2020 exam which was conducted on December 29th for B.Des and M.Des programmes offered at all the three campuses of NID. The exam was conducted to assess the creative instinct of the test-takers, which is a must-have in design aspirants to pursue their dream design programme from any of the three NID campuses - NID Ahmedabad (Main Campus), NID Gandhinagar and NID Bengaluru. The following section will provide in-depth analysis of the NID DAT prelims exam which was conducted during the last week of December 2019.

Detailed Analysis of NID DAT Prelims 2020 

As per the latest exam pattern of NID DAT, the prelims paper was divided into two segments - Segment I comprising of a total of 21 questions for a maximum mark of 30 and Segment II comprising of a total of 07 questions for a maximum mark of 70. Let us learn more about both the segments of the NID DAT 2020 prelims exam.

NID DAT 2020 (Prelims) Analysis of Segment-I

• There were a total of 21 questions in this segment which were in MCQ format

• Questions in Segment-I of NID DAT 2020 (Prelims) exam were observation-based questions, general & aesthetic-awareness questions, reasoning-type questions and a quantitative question

• One of the questions in this section asked for the name of 2019 Nobel winner in Economics

NID DAT 2020 (Prelims) Analysis of Segment-II

• The maximum mark of this segment was 70

• This segment comprised of six questions in total

• This segment was comparatively lengthier than the NID DAT 2020 (Prelims) segment-II 

• The aim of this section was to gauge certain skills of the test-takers like technical drawing skills, creative visualizations, social responsibility, critical thinking and ability to comprehend

NID DAT 2020 (Mains) Pre-Exam Analysis

With the help of the pre-exam analysis of the NID DAT 2020 mains exam, the candidates will be able to gear themselves up for the upcoming challenge. The mains exam of NID DAT 2020 will be taken by those candidates who will qualify the prelims exam with the minimum cutoff scores. 

The NID DAT 2020 mains exam will be conducted for 100 marks and will comprise of group discussions, studio set up sketching/drawing, presentations or hand-made model making. English will be the medium of instruction of the 2020 NID DAT mains exam. The exam will be conducted over a time duration of two days. The difficulty level of the mains exam of NID DAT 2020 is expected to remain between moderate and difficult if the previous year stats are taken into consideration.

NID DAT 2019 Exam Analysis

The National Institute of Design - Design Aptitude Test, popularly referred to as the NID DAT 2019 Prelims paper was successfully conducted on 6th January 2019 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm across various cities and exam centres in India. Applicants who clear the NID DAT 2019 Prelims will be eligible to sit for the NID DAT Mains 2019 exam and then further seek admission in the Bachelor of Design and Master of Design courses at the NID Ahmedabad campus. Apart from that, candidates will also be eligible to pursue other Design courses at the different campus of NID in Vijayawada and Kurukshetra.

NID DAT Prelims 2019 marking scheme was detailed out by the institute earlier which highlighted that the B.Des paper would consist of mainly objective type questions for a total of 70 marks while the remaining 30 marks were to be for the subjective type and drawing-based questions. However, this time, NID DAT Prelims 2019 was completely opposite with 70 marks worth questions being subjective while the remaining 30 marks were for objective based questions. The NID DAT Prelims 2019 carried 100 marks in total. Hence, as per the first-hand reactions from the students who took the NID DAT Prelims 2019 today, they said that there were some unexpected changes in the NID DAT Exam Pattern 2019.

NID DAT Prelims 2019 Student Reactions for B.Des Paper

• Most students felt that the questions were unexpected as the total number of drawing questions asked were 6 this time instead of 3, as per the trend of previous years. However, the questions were termed as of medium difficulty level and a little challenging.
• Students also said that the aptitude section was easy to comprehend.
• Majority of the students were able to complete the paper on time.

NID DAT Prelims 2019 Section Wise Analysis for BDes Courses

You can check the detailed analysis of the NID DAT Prelims 2019 for B.Des courses here below:

NID DAT Prelims 2019 Student Reactions for M.Des Paper

• Students reported changes in the exam pattern of NID DAT Prelims 2019 for M.Des courses as well. The aptitude section carried a weightage of 25 marks while the drawing section carried 75 marks.
• Some students found the paper to be a little longer than usual.
• The paper also consisted of theory questions which were to be finished within 30 minutes, terming them as pretty easy. It comprised a total of 12 questions as per the students.
• Students also exclaimed that the descriptive test was a bit strange, challenging and interesting at the same time. They felt that most questions were open to interpretation and they could not really figure out how well they have performed.

NID DAT Prelims 2019 Section Wise Analysis for MDes Courses

You can check the detailed analysis of the NID DAT Prelims 2019 for M.Des courses here below:

NID DAT Prelims 2019 analysis will be further updated here! Stay tuned!

NID DAT 2018 Exam Analysis

The NID DAT 2018 Prelims paper was conducted on January 7, 2018 across 23 test centres across India between 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. The NID DAT 2017 exam is conducted for admission to both Bachelor of Design courses as well as Master of Design courses for admission to National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Basis NID DAT 2018 exam score, 100 B. Design seats & 275 M. Design seats are up for grabs at the main campus of National Institute of Design Ahmedabad. With a valid DAT 2018 score, students can also pursue Graduate Diploma Programme in Design (GDPD) at NID Vijaywada campus & NID Kurukshetra campus. Please note that both NID Viyawada & NID Kurukshetra are "independent autonomous institutes under the DIPP, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India and offer four-year long Graduate Diploma Programme in Design (GDPD)", according to the official website of NID.

About Design Aptitude Test

Design Aptitude Test (DAT) seeks evidence of Knowledge, Comprehension, Analysis, Reasoning, Problem Solving and Creativity in the applicant.

The candidates were questioned on the topics such as Colour Terminology, Design Theory, Elements & Principles of Design, Innovation in Design, Creative thinking & writing, Visual Logic, Optical Illusion, Usage of colour in Compositions, 3D Visualization, etc.

NID Entrance Exam Pattern: In order to secure admissions in design programmes on offer at NID, aspirants need to clear two stages which are:

Stage 1: NID DAT (Prelims) - Pen & paper-based written test

Stage 2: NID DAT (Mains) - Studio Test and Personal Interview

The question paper of NID DAT (Prelims) was of 3 hours duration and in English. The question paper carried a total of 100 marks, out of which Section A carried 70 marks comprising of multiple choice objective type questions and Section B carried 30 marks comprising of subjective type questions. All questions were compulsory. There was no negative marking.

Students shared that NID DAT (Prelims) for admissions 2018-2019 was easy and students who took the exam for B.Des course admissions shared that they were able to attempt all the questions in the time allotted.

Read the complete NID Entrance Exam 2018 Student Reaction here.

NID DAT (Prelims) 2018

NID DAT (Prelims) 2018 was expected to have a slight change in pattern and so was the case with the written test conducted for admissions in various design courses on offer at different NID campuses.

The paper was of 3 hours duration wherein aspirants will be evaluated from a total of 100 marks. NID DAT test paper was divided into two parts. Section A consisted of 88 questions and Section B had 3 questions.

NID DAT Prelims consisted of two parts:

Part I: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) marked out of 70 points. The responses of this part will be recorded on an OMR sheet and evaluated digitally.

Part II: Subjective questions marked out of 30 points, with responses to be provided in visual and/or written formats.

Majority of the questions in Section B were time-consuming and really tested an aspirant’s creativity and thought process. Section A was more objective in nature and evaluated aspirants around their general awareness and required them to be quick with their analytical abilities.

NID Entrance Exam 2018: Test Pattern Analysis

NID DAT 2018 did not hold any surprises for aspirants. The difficulty level of Section A questions ranged from ‘Easy to Moderate and tested general awareness of candidates. Questions related to probability and design solutions were put to students.

On the other hand, the difficulty level of Part B of NID DAT 2018 was above average. The question paper evaluated the creativity skills of candidates and one had to be quick and extremely creative in order to fare well in this section.

Overall since the exam was not very difficult so aspirants should expect the cut-offs to go high.

NID DAT 2017 Paper Analysis

National Institute of Design had conducted the Design Aptitude Test (NID DAT) in 2017 January across 22 exam centres across India. The 2017 NID DAT was conducted in two phases – NID DAT 2017 Prelims and the NID Design Aptitude Test 2017 Mains. NID DAT Prelims 2018 is a written entrance test, followed by NID DAT 2018 Mains, which comprises of a Studio Test & an Interview Round.

Known by the same name, NID DAT exam is conducted separately for admission to B. Design courses and M. Design courses as well.

While the NID exam 2016 had witnessed a slight change in the 2016 NID paper pattern in the written part, Design Aptitude Test 2017 was just an adoption of the previous year. The NID exam paper constituted of a total of 100 marks over 3 hours duration. The 2017 NID DAT exam was divided into 2 parts – Section A and Section B and the NID DAT marking scheme was as follows:

While the NID DAT (Mains) exam is conducted for admission to the 100 covetable seats in the elite National Institute of Design – Ahmedabad (main campus). With a valid NID DAT 2018 score, a student can secure admission to Bachelor in Design (B. Des) course, Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design/ Communication Design/ Textile, Apparel & Lifestyle Accessory Design and Master of Design (M. Des) courses.

NID DAT 2017 tested the students on the following parameters:

The NID DAT 2017 Paper 1 or NID DAT 2017 Prelims exam paper was not very different from the 2016 NID DAT exam.

NID DAT 2017 Paper Analysis for UG courses:

Some of the sample questions asked in the National School of Design’s Design Aptitude Test 2017 (DAT 2017) for UG courses included:

NID DAT 2017 Paper Analysis for PG courses:

Some of the sample questions asked in the National School of Design’s Design Aptitude Test 2017 (DAT 2017) for PG courses included: