AP Biology · 24 questions from 4 exams
Past free-response questions
Practice released AP Biology free-response questions from 2023 to 2026. Each one opens College Board's own question beside a space to write your answer, part by part, and then College Board's scoring guidelines so you can score it yourself.
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2026
- Question 1 · Long answer · 9 points Plant stress signals and gene expression Interpret experiments on nucleotide signals and receptor activity in plants responding to stress and defense signals. Unit 1, Unit 4, Unit 6
- Question 2 · Long answer · 9 points Small RNA and mRNA cleavage Graph gene expression data and analyze how interfering RNA and AGO2 affect the abundance of target messenger RNAs. Unit 6
- Question 3 · Short answer · 4 points Cyanide and cellular respiration Evaluate control groups and predict how cyanide affects electron transport, ATP production and lactic acid formation. Unit 3
- Question 4 · Short answer · 4 points Meiosis and chromosome number Describe chromosome movement in meiosis and explain how changes in chromosome number affect sexual reproduction. Unit 5
- Question 5 · Short answer · 4 points Anole toe pads and storms Interpret lizard trait data and explain how storm conditions can affect the frequency of inherited toe pad sizes. Unit 7, Unit 5
- Question 6 · Short answer · 4 points Raptor populations and farmland Analyze data relating conversion of natural habitat to farmland with the abundance of raptors in African ecosystems. Unit 8
2025
- Question 1 · Long answer · 9 points Transporting proteins into the ER Analyze experiments on protein synthesis and transport into the endoplasmic reticulum under different inhibitor treatments. Unit 6, Unit 2
- Question 2 · Long answer · 9 points Pheromone signaling in moths Graph moth activity data and analyze how receptor signaling and gene expression affect responses to pheromones. Unit 4, Unit 6
- Question 3 · Short answer · 4 points Buffelgrass and saguaro cactus Evaluate an experiment testing native grasses as a way to limit an invasive species threatening a keystone cactus. Unit 8
- Question 4 · Short answer · 4 points Marine populations separated by an isthmus Explain how geographic separation and evolutionary processes can produce distinct marine populations and species. Unit 7
- Question 5 · Short answer · 4 points Feedback in an amino acid pathway Use a metabolic pathway model to analyze enzyme activity and the regulation of amino acid synthesis. Unit 3, Unit 4
- Question 6 · Short answer · 4 points Fruit fly meiosis and chromosome alignment Analyze data on a protein involved in chromosome alignment and predict effects on gamete chromosome numbers. Unit 5
2024
- Question 1 · Long answer · 9 points Crossing over in yeast meiosis Interpret experiments on chromosome sites and proteins involved in meiotic crossing over and assess effects of mutations. Unit 5, Unit 6
- Question 2 · Long answer · 9 points Temperature and toad cell metabolism Graph metabolic measurements and compare how temperature changes oxygen consumption and ATP production in toad liver cells. Unit 3, Unit 1
- Question 3 · Short answer · 4 points Glucose uptake by aging red blood cells Evaluate a study comparing glucose uptake by blood cells of different ages and predict effects of disrupted transport. Unit 2
- Question 4 · Short answer · 4 points Invasive oats, aphids and viruses Explain ecological interactions among invasive oats, aphids, plant viruses and native grasses in California. Unit 8
- Question 5 · Short answer · 4 points Speciation and the origin of new genes Relate reproductive isolation to speciation and analyze regulatory sequences that allow a noncoding DNA region to produce a gene. Unit 7, Unit 6
- Question 6 · Short answer · 4 points Translation rates at different codons Interpret ribosome profiling data to compare codon translation rates and explain how codon changes can affect proteins. Unit 6
2023
- Question 1 · Long answer · 9 points Phosphate signaling in yeast Analyze mutations in a phosphate signaling pathway and interpret measurements of enzyme activity and gene expression. Unit 4, Unit 6
- Question 2 · Long answer · 9 points Carbon dioxide and plant mitochondria Graph mitochondrial abundance in plants at two carbon dioxide levels and interpret its relationship to photosynthesis and respiration. Unit 3, Unit 2
- Question 3 · Short answer · 4 points Climate conditions and sand lance survival Design and evaluate an experiment on how temperature and carbon dioxide affect embryos of a coastal keystone fish. Unit 8
- Question 4 · Short answer · 4 points Electron flow in photosynthesis Compare cyclic and noncyclic electron flow and predict consequences for chloroplast energy conversion when a pathway changes. Unit 3
- Question 5 · Short answer · 4 points Ruminant evolution and digestive traits Use anatomical and molecular evidence to reason about shared ancestry and the evolution of digestion in ruminants. Unit 7, Unit 6
- Question 6 · Short answer · 4 points Expression of housekeeping genes Interpret gene expression measurements and assess whether commonly used reference genes are consistently expressed across tissues. Unit 6
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