Solar photocatalytic degradation of Naproxen (NPX) in a synthetic wastewater was evaluated with synthesized nitrogen doped TiO2 and nitrogen doped ZnO and compared with commercial TiO2 and ZnO. The effect of operating parameters such as initial NPX concentration (1–3.5 mg/l), catalyst dosage (0.15–0.5 g/l), pH (4.5–9.0), and contact time (0–330 min) on NPX degradation was investigated in detail. The batch study showed 93 %, 90 %, 71 % and 85 % NPX degradation on average solar intensities (1200–1420 W/m2) with ZnO, N-ZnO, TiO2 and N-TiO2 respectively for optimised conditions (initial NPX concentration-2 mg/l, (ZnO & N-ZnO)−0.35 g/l, (TiO2 & N-TiO2)−0.15 g/l, pH-4.5 and contact time-180 min). Kinetic investigations on photocatalytic degradation of NPX were carried out for the initial 1 h duration and it complied with pseudo-first order kinetics with the four catalysts, whereas ZnO showed the highest rate constant (k = 0.0331/minutes). Depth of reactor solution had no significant impact on NPX degradation. Continuous process was conducted along with TOC analysis for HRT of 60 min, which showed mineralization efficiencies of 36 %, 26 % and 16 % for N-TiO2, ZnO and N-ZnO respectively. The 90th percentile solar light intensity corresponding to the maximum NPX degradation was found to be 1100 W/m2. Quantum yield were calculated for NPX degradation with and without catalyst, it showed 35 % for ZnO and 3.5 % for photolysis. The intermediates and mineralization efficiency was analysed using LC-MS and TOC analyzer respectively. This study concluded that N-TiO2 had better NPX removal and mineralization efficiency along with formation of simpler compounds and organic acids as the end products.