CBSE Class 10 · Artificial Intelligence, code 417 · Marking scheme explained, 2026-27

Class 10 AI marking scheme, explained on real answers: where each mark is won and where it slips away.

The class 10 AI marking scheme that CBSE gives examiners lists value points: the ideas an answer must contain, and how many marks each is worth. We read the official schemes for the 2025 and 2026 board papers and the 2025-26 sample paper, and describe below, in our own words, how they split the marks. Then each kind of question is answered in full, annotated half mark by half mark, beside a weaker version that loses marks. In our live batch, every mock is marked this way on screen.

Book a free demo class Book a priority demo Ask on WhatsApp

Live online · marking rules in plain words · annotated model answers · weak answers marked down · mocks marked to the scheme · first class free

Start here

Courses behind this answer practice

The 417 course whose batch writes and marks these answers, the Python course for the practical half the theory scheme does not cover, and the Orange course for the no-code tools named in objective items.

CBSE Computational Thinking and AI for Teens course thumbnail

The batch / 417 Class 10

CBSE AI for Class 9 to 12

The full 417 course, with written answers marked against the value points after every unit and in each full mock.

Open the course →
Python for Teens course thumbnail

Practical half / Python

Python for Teens

The 50 practical marks have their own assessment: NumPy, Pandas and Matplotlib programs for the file and the practical exam.

Open the course →
Visual Machine Learning with Orange for Teens course thumbnail

No-code tools / Orange

Visual ML with Orange

The no-code workflows behind several one-mark items and the practical units, built and explained.

Open the course →

Ans. The short version

The class 10 AI marking scheme for CBSE 417 gives examiners value points, not full answers: any correct wording earns the mark if the point is there. In the 2025 and 2026 schemes, objective items carry 1 mark each with no negative marking, 2-mark answers usually split into two 1-mark points or a point plus two half-mark examples, and 4-mark answers into named parts such as 1 per step or half a mark per formula and per substitution. Modern Age Coders marks practice answers this way live in a Monday and Wednesday 9:00 PM IST batch, or one to one.

Q1. How is the class 10 AI paper marked?

How the class 10 AI marking scheme is laid out

The 417 theory paper is 50 marks in two hours: 24 objective marks in Section A and 26 written marks in Section B. The 2025 and 2026 board schemes and the 2025-26 sample paper scheme all use this shape.

Part of the paperChoiceMarks eachTotalHow the scheme marks it
Section A, employability skillsany 4 of 614Right or wrong; often an option letter or its text is accepted
Section A, AI items (four questions)any 5 of 6 in each120Same; no negative marking
Section B, employability skillsany 3 of 5, 20 to 30 words26Usually 1 per relevant point
Section B, AI short answersany 4 of 6, 20 to 30 words28Two points, or a point plus examples
Section B, AI long answersany 3 of 5, 50 to 80 words412Split into named parts, steps or calculations

The rules on the front pages, in plain words

  • Value points are a guide. The scheme says its answers are not complete answers; a student's own wording earns the marks if the point is correct.
  • Competency questions are read generously. If an answer shows the skill being tested, examiners are told to credit it even when it is not the scheme's wording.
  • One error, one penalty. A mistake carried into later parts is not punished again.
  • Extra questions. If you answer more than the choice allows, the higher-scoring answer is kept.
  • Full marks are allowed. Examiners are told to use the whole scale, so a complete answer gets everything.

What this means for the way you write

Examiners look for the points, so make each point easy to find: one idea per line, the key term written exactly (precision, data acquisition, justice), and the example labelled "Example:". An answer that is right but buried in a paragraph risks a point being missed.

A note on sources: we read set 4 of the 2025 and 2026 papers and the sample paper scheme. Other sets have other questions but the same marking style. The 2025 paper still carried some older topics, such as AI bias and data science applications; 2026 follows the current units. Unit-by-unit weightage is on the exam date and paper pattern page.

Q2. How are one-mark items marked?

How AI answers are marked in Section A

Every objective item is one mark, all or nothing, with no negative marking. The schemes accept either the option letter or the option text, and some items list more than one acceptable answer.

Letter or words

The 2026 scheme writes answers as "(C) OR the option's text". Writing both is safest: a letter alone can be misread, and the words show you knew it.

More than one right answer

In 2026, a two-statement item about overfitting accepted two options, because each statement was true on its own. In 2025, a chatbot item accepted several names for a smart bot.

Half marks can appear

The 2025 chatbot item gave half a mark when a student named only an example product instead of the type. So even a one-mark item can be partly credited when the scheme allows it.

Three original one-mark items, with how they would be marked

  1. A gate camera reads car number plates. Which AI domain is this?
    Marking Computer Vision [1]. "CV" also earns it. "Image processing" alone is a narrower idea, and a scheme may not list it.
  2. Assertion: Precision is the share of predicted positives that were correct. Reason: Precision uses TP and FN.
    Marking Assertion true, reason false [1]. Precision uses TP and FP. No working is needed or marked.
  3. Fill in the blank: the stage of the AI project cycle that puts a model into real use is ______.
    Marking Deployment [1]. Naming any other stage, such as evaluation, earns nothing.

Thirty-six more objective items with answers are on Class 10 AI MCQ questions.

Q3. How are 2-mark answers split?

Two-mark answers: where each mark sits

A 2-mark answer is almost always worth two separate points. The schemes use four splits again and again, and knowing which one a question uses tells you what to write.

SplitWhere we saw itWhat to write
1 + 1, two pointsTwo characteristics of a classification model (2026); two stages explained (2025-26 SQP)Two separate lines, each a complete point
1 for a difference + ½ + ½ for examplesSector-based against value-based frameworks (2026)One clear difference, then one example of each, labelled
1 for a difference + ½ + ½ for applying itStemming against lemmatisation on a plural word (2026)The difference, then the stem and the lemma of the given word
Graded by how many pointsThe 7 Cs of communication (2026): all seven for 2, fewer for 1½, 1 or ½Every item in the list, even if short of time

Q. Differentiate classification and regression, with one example of each. (2)

Full-mark answer. Classification predicts a label or category from fixed classes, while regression predicts a continuous number [1]. Example of classification: sorting emails into spam or not spam [½]. Example of regression: predicting tomorrow's temperature in degrees [½].

Answer that gets 1. "Classification puts things in groups and regression is for numbers, e.g. house price." The difference earns its mark; there is only one example, and it is not labelled as regression, so at most half more is likely.

Q. What is model evaluation, and why is it needed? (2)

Full-mark answer. Model evaluation is checking how well a trained model performs, using metrics such as accuracy, precision and recall on data it has not seen [1]. It is needed because the scores show the model's weak points, so it can be improved before people rely on it [1].

Answer that gets 1. "Evaluation is the fifth stage of the AI project cycle where we test the model." That places it, but gives no reason it is needed, so the second point is missing. This "define, then explain" split is the one the 2025-26 sample paper used for its evaluation item.

Every two-mark difference pair the units offer is answered on CBSE Class 10 AI difference between questions.

Q4. Is there step marking in Class 10 AI?

Step marking in 417: four-mark answers, annotated

Yes, in effect. The four-mark items are split into parts, steps or calculations, each with its own mark, so a student who gets the final value wrong can still earn most of the marks for the matrix, the formulas and the substitution.

Q. A library tests a model that predicts whether a borrowed book will be returned late, on 400 loans. It predicted "late" for 80 loans, of which 72 were late. Of the 320 it predicted "on time", 28 were late. (a) Draw the confusion matrix. (2) (b) Calculate precision and recall. (2)

Full-mark answerlate = positive
(a)            Reality: Late  Reality: On time
   Pred: Late     TP = 72        FP = 8
   Pred: On time  FN = 28        TN = 292   [2]

(b) Precision = TP / (TP + FP)              [½]
              = 72 / (72 + 8) = 72 / 80     [½]
              = 0.90
    Recall    = TP / (TP + FN)              [½]
              = 72 / (72 + 28) = 72 / 100   [½]
              = 0.72

Writing each formula on its own line, then the substitution, gives the examiner four separate places to award half marks.

SlipLikely cost
Matrix drawn with all four cells right2 of 2
Matrix with only two cells rightabout 1½
Matrix frame with no values½
FP and FN swapped, so "precision" = 0.72loses cell marks; formula marks can survive, and the error is penalised once
Formula only, no substitution½ per part
Right formula, arithmetic slip in the last lineusually little or nothing

The costs above follow the 2026 and 2025 schemes for their matrix items: two marks for a fully correct matrix with partial credit below that, and half marks for each formula and its substitution. Both schemes add a note that the calculations themselves can be ignored, which puts the weight on the method. Still write the final value: accuracy here is 364 / 400 = 0.91, and F1 is 2 x 0.90 x 0.72 / 1.62 = 0.80, not the plain average 0.81.

Bag of Words: one mark per step

Q. Apply the four steps of Bag of Words to: D1 "Robots help farmers." D2 "Farmers teach robots and robots help." (4)

Step 1, normalise [1]: D1 = robots, help, farmers; D2 = farmers, teach, robots, and, robots, help.
Step 2, dictionary [1]: robots, help, farmers, teach, and.
Step 3, vector for D1 [1]: [1, 1, 1, 0, 0].
Step 4, table for all [1]: D1 [1, 1, 1, 0, 0]; D2 [2, 1, 1, 1, 1].

The 2026 scheme gave one mark per step and said steps 3 and 4 may be shown together. A table without the step names risks the marks for the steps you skipped. Fully worked versions are on Bag of Words and TFIDF for Class 10 AI.

Other four-mark splits we saw

  • AI, ML and DL with a Venn diagram (2026): 1 for each term, 1 for the labelled diagram.
  • Two scenarios, name the domain (2026): 1 for each domain, 1 for each justification.
  • Biased selection case (2025-26 sample): 1 for each of two reasons, then half for each principle named and half for each explanation.
  • Matrix, accuracy and wrong predictions (2025-26 sample): half per correct cell, then half for each formula and half for each answer.

The bioethics case answer is worked mark by mark on AI project cycle and ethics.

Q5. Where are marks usually lost?

Where 417 answers lose marks, and the habit that keeps them

Most lost marks in this paper are not lost on hard topics. They go on answers that miss one value point the scheme was looking for. These are the patterns we see most when marking mocks.

What happensWhich split it breaksThe habit that fixes it
A difference written, but no examplesDifference plus two half-mark examplesWrite "Example:" twice whenever a question says "with an example"
Principle described but not namedHalf for the name, half for the explanationStart each line with the principle's name: "Justice: ..."
Only the final number in a numericalHalf per formula and per substitutionFormula line, substitution line, answer line, every time
Bag of Words table with no stepsOne mark per named stepHead each part "Step 1", "Step 2" and so on
Two points merged into one sentence1 + 1One point per line; never let a "because" hide the second point
Long answers past the word limitNot a rule for marks, but time lost20 to 30 words for 2 marks, 50 to 80 for 4; stop when the points are made
Extra questions attempted "just in case"Only the higher answer countsChoose early, spend the time checking

The marking scheme covers the 50 theory marks only. The other 50, the practical file, practical exam, viva and project, are assessed in school; that half is on the project and practical file page. Past papers to practise these splits on are described on CBSE Class 10 AI previous year question papers.

Q6. How do classes use the marking scheme?

How the live batch marks answers the CBSE way

Knowing the splits is half the work; the other half is writing to them under time until it is automatic. That only happens when someone marks your answers the way the board will and shows you the half marks you dropped.

Written to the word limit

On Mondays students write two-mark and four-mark answers against the clock, to the 20 to 30 and 50 to 80 word limits the paper sets.

Marked on screen

On Wednesdays the teacher marks a few answers on the shared screen, writing the half marks in the margin, so everyone sees which line earned what and which point was missing.

Rewritten, then mocked

Each student rewrites one answer that lost marks. From December, full timed mocks are marked against the value points and returned with a mark per question.

The mock calendar is on the sample paper and mock tests page. Students can pause any marking session to argue for a half mark; working out why the scheme would or would not give it is often where the lesson lands.

Batch or personalised: you choose

Have your answers marked in the Monday and Wednesday batch, or one to one

In the batch, answers from the whole class are marked on screen, so students learn from each other's lost half marks as well as their own. One to one marks only your child's answers and rewrites them until every value point is there. Same teachers, same scheme; monthly billing, no admission fee, stop at the end of any month.

Option 1 · Fixed batch timings

Group batch, Monday and Wednesday 9 PM

₹1,499

per month, two live classes a week

  • Monday and Wednesday, 9:00 PM IST, live on video
  • Fifteen to twenty Class 10 AI students, one teacher
  • Answers written to the paper's word limits
  • Marked on screen against the value points
  • Full mocks from December, marked question by question
Book a free demo in this batch

Option 2 · Choose your own timing

Personalised one to one

₹4,999

per month, one private class a week, at a time set with you

  • Days and time chosen by you, in your own time zone
  • Every answer your child writes marked line by line
  • Rewrites until each half mark is secure
  • School test papers marked the CBSE way if you share them
  • Same CBSE 417 syllabus and teachers
Ask for a personalised plan

A student who knows the content but scores below it in school tests often has a marking-scheme problem, and a few one to one sessions on answer layout tend to fix it. A student still learning the units gains more from the batch, where the content and the answer writing are taught together. Fees are shown in your own currency.

Studying outside India?

Class 10 AI answer-writing practice for CBSE students in the Gulf and abroad

Answer scripts from CBSE schools abroad are marked to the same scheme as those from India. Here is when the evening batch falls in your time zone this winter.

Where you liveMon and Wed 9:00 PM ISTBest format
India (IST)
every Indian city		9:00 PMBatch fits
UAE and Oman
Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Muscat		7:30 PMBatch fits
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain
Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Doha, Kuwait City, Manama		6:30 PMBatch fits
Nepal
Kathmandu		9:15 PMBatch fits
Ethiopia and East Africa
Addis Ababa and East Africa Time		6:30 PMBatch fits
Singapore and Malaysia
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur		11:30 PMChoose 1-on-1

If 9:00 PM IST is too late where you live, one to one runs at an hour you choose. More for families outside India is on CBSE Class 10 AI online classes in the Gulf and abroad.

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Real reviews from real families. We neither write nor commission them.

★★★★★

"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

Ria Mukherjee

Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

Samriddha Mondal

Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

The rest of the Class 10 series

More pages for Class 10 board students

Every page in the CBSE Class 10 AI (417) series, grouped by what you need: classes, each unit, question practice, notes and revision, and the exam itself.

Classes, tuition and batches

Unit by unit

Questions and practice

Notes and revision

Exam, marks and practicals

Choosing the subject

ICSE Class 10 Computer Applications (Java): The Tue and Wed ICSE Java batch ICSE Computer Applications syllabus ICSE Java programs practice ICSE CA important questions

Questions about the AI marking scheme

What students ask about the class 10 AI marking scheme

What is the class 10 AI marking scheme?

It is the document CBSE gives examiners for each paper, listing the value points an answer should contain and how many marks each point earns. For 417 it covers the 50-mark theory paper. CBSE publishes main exam schemes on its website and a scheme with each sample paper, which is how students can see how answers are marked.

Where can I find the class 10 AI marking scheme 2026?

CBSE posts main exam marking schemes on cbse.gov.in, by year and subject code, and sample paper schemes on cbseacademic.nic.in. Each main exam has several sets with different questions; we read set 4 of the 2026 paper, so other sets differ in questions but not in marking style.

Is there step marking in CBSE Class 10 AI?

In effect, yes. Four-mark numericals and Bag of Words items are split into parts: marks for the confusion matrix, half marks for each formula and each substitution, or one mark per Bag of Words step. The 2025 and 2026 schemes also note that calculations can be ignored, so the method carries most of the marks.

Is there negative marking in the class 10 AI paper?

No. The 2025 and 2026 papers and the 2025-26 sample paper all state there is no negative marking in Section A. Attempt every objective item you choose, and use elimination when unsure.

How are 2 mark questions marked in class 10 AI?

Usually as two separate points of one mark each, or one mark for a difference plus half a mark for each of two examples. Some list-based answers are graded by how many items you give. Write each point on its own line so the examiner can find it.

Do I have to write the exact words from the marking scheme?

No. The scheme says its value points are guidelines and that a student's own expression earns the marks if it is correct. Key terms still matter: write precision, data acquisition or justice exactly, because those words are what the examiner looks for.

What happens if I answer an extra question?

The examiner marks the extra answer too, but only the higher-scoring one is counted and the other is struck out. It rarely helps, because the time is better spent checking the answers you chose.

How many words should a 4 mark AI answer have?

The 417 paper asks for 50 to 80 words for four-mark answers and 20 to 30 words for two-mark answers. The marks come from the value points, not the length, so aim to cover every point clearly within the limit.

Will the 2027 marking scheme be the same?

No one can say until CBSE publishes the 2026-27 sample paper for 417, and the one listed so far is the 2025-26 paper. The 2025-26 sample paper and the 2026 board paper used the same structure and splits, so practising to them is the sensible preparation.

Is marked answer practice included in your classes?

Yes. Answers are written to time and marked against the value points in ordinary classes, in the batch or one to one, covered by the monthly fee shown on this page in your own currency. There is no admission fee and the first class is a free demo.

Start

Have a free answer marked by a teacher

In the free first class your child writes one two-mark and one four-mark answer, and the teacher marks both live, half mark by half mark, against the way the board splits them. You will see where marks go missing, and the mentor will tell you honestly what to work on and whether the batch or one to one fits better.

Want the full picture of the subject first? Read the 417 syllabus explained.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · connect@modernagecoders.com

Every class is live video. The form requests a callback and reserves nothing.

We call within a few hours. No card, no enrolment fee.

Want it sooner? Book a priority demo

A full live class of about 45 to 60 minutes at a slot you pick, with a written skill report and learning roadmap on WhatsApp afterwards. The fee is adjusted against your first month if you enrol.

Book a priority demo

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

By class and age

Learn more

Free resources

From the blog

Start here