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CDS GK Questions 2026

Static GK carries most of the 100 marks of the CDS General Knowledge paper. Of the 120 questions in the CDS (II) 2026 paper, about 20 were on Indian Polity, about 20 on the History of India, about 15 on Geography and the environment, about 10 on the Indian Economy and about 37 on Physics, Chemistry and Biology, which makes CDS the most science-heavy General Knowledge paper among the major recruitment exams. Polity questions test writs, the NHRC, electoral systems, disqualification of legislators, GST and delimitation. History runs from the Upanishads and the Shunga dynasty to Vijayanagara, temple architecture, the Sylhet referendum and the SNDP Yogam. Geography asks about the atmosphere, earthquakes and tsunamis, Ramsar sites, mangroves and World Heritage sites. Science stays at school level but expects reasoning: a lens problem, a magnetic field direction, molarity versus molality, what cooking soda is, how enzymes act. This page holds GK24's topic-wise GK notes for CDS, written as short facts and tables so that a topic can be revised in one sitting. Read a topic, then solve its previous-year questions and quiz on this site to check what stayed with you.

CDS GK Questions with Answers

Q4541.Indian EconomyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2022, GS Paper IHard

With reference to the Indian economy, what are the advantages of "Inflation-Indexed Bonds (IIBs)"?

1. Government can reduce the coupon rates on its borrowing by way of IIBs.

2. IIBs provide protection to the investors from uncertainty regarding inflation.

3. The interest received as well as capital gains on IIBs are not taxable.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

  1. A.1 and 2 only
  2. B.2 and 3 only
  3. C.1 and 3 only
  4. D.1, 2 and 3
Show answer
Correct answer: A. 1 and 2 only

IIBs protect investors from inflation, and because of that protection the government can borrow at a lower coupon; they carry no special tax exemption.

Q4542.GeographyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2024, GS Paper IEasy

Which of the following countries are well known as the two largest cocoa producers in the world ?

  1. A.Algeria and Morocco
  2. B.Botswana and Namibia
  3. C.Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana
  4. D.Madagascar and Mozambique
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana

These two neighbouring West African countries grow well over half of the world's cocoa. Cocoa is a tropical tree crop that needs heavy, well-spread rainfall, high humidity, temperatures of about 21 to 32 °C and shade, which is why it grows best within about 10 degrees of the Equator.

Q4543.Environment & EcologyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2025, GS Paper IMedium

Consider the following statements :

Statement I : Circular economy reduces the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Statement II : Circular economy reduces the use of raw materials as inputs.

Statement III : Circular economy reduces wastage in the production process.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?

  1. A.Both Statement II and Statement III are correct and both of them explain Statement I
  2. B.Both Statement II and Statement III are correct but only one of them explains Statement I
  3. C.Only one of the Statements II and III is correct and that explains Statement I
  4. D.Neither Statement II nor Statement III is correct
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Both Statement II and Statement III are correct and both of them explain Statement I

Both Statement II and Statement III are true, and each one is a reason why a circular economy cuts greenhouse gas emissions.

Q4546.Science & TechnologyEasy

In India, the use of diagnostic techniques such as ultrasonography for determining the sex of a foetus is prohibited by which law?

  1. A.The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971
  2. B.The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994
  3. C.The Clinical Establishments Act, 2010
  4. D.The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994

It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, requires every ultrasound clinic to be registered and to keep records, and prohibits sex selection before or after conception as well as the communication of the sex of the foetus to anyone.

Q4548.Science & TechnologyMedium

The 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of computer-assisted tomography was shared by:

  1. A.Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield
  2. B.Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack
  3. C.Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell
  4. D.Wilhelm Roentgen and Henri Becquerel
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Godfrey Hounsfield and Allan Cormack

Hounsfield, an engineer at EMI in Britain, built the first clinical CT scanner, and Cormack, a physicist, had independently worked out the mathematics of reconstructing a cross-section from measurements taken along many directions.

Q4553.Science & TechnologyAsked in: NDA · 23 Apr 2017Hard

If the potential difference applied to an X-ray tube is doubled while keeping the separation between the filament and the target the same, what will happen to the cutoff wavelength?

  1. A.It will remain the same
  2. B.It will be doubled
  3. C.It will be halved
  4. D.It will be four times the original wavelength
Show answer
Correct answer: C. It will be halved

The cutoff or minimum wavelength of the continuous X-ray spectrum arises when an electron gives up its entire kinetic energy in a single collision with the target.

Q4554.Science & TechnologyMedium

The Hounsfield unit, a scale on which water is zero and air is minus one thousand, is used in which imaging technique?

  1. A.Magnetic resonance imaging
  2. B.Computed tomography
  3. C.Ultrasonography
  4. D.Electrocardiography
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Computed tomography

The Hounsfield unit, named after Godfrey Hounsfield, expresses how strongly a small volume of tissue attenuates X-rays, on a scale fixed by definition at zero for water and minus one thousand for air.

Q4555.Science & TechnologyEasy

Which of the following imaging techniques does not use ionising radiation?

  1. A.Plain X-ray radiography
  2. B.Computed tomography
  3. C.Magnetic resonance imaging
  4. D.Positron emission tomography
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Magnetic resonance imaging

MRI works by placing the hydrogen nuclei of the body in a strong static magnetic field and disturbing them with radiofrequency pulses, which lie in the harmless low-energy part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Q4556.Science & TechnologyEasy

X-rays were discovered in 1895 by which scientist?

  1. A.Marie Curie
  2. B.Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
  3. C.Henri Becquerel
  4. D.Joseph John Thomson
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen

Working with a discharge tube at the University of Wurzburg in November 1895, Roentgen noticed that a screen coated with a fluorescent salt glowed even when the tube was covered, and he traced the effect to an unknown penetrating radiation that he called X-radiation.

Q4557.Indian PolityMedium

In Government of NCT of Delhi versus Union of India (2018), the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court held that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi

  1. A.may take decisions independently of the Council of Ministers on every subject
  2. B.has no independent decision-making power and is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, except on reserved subjects and matters of discretion
  3. C.is the constitutional head of a full-fledged state
  4. D.can dissolve the Legislative Assembly on his own without reference to the President
Show answer
Correct answer: B. has no independent decision-making power and is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, except on reserved subjects and matters of discretion

The five-judge Bench read Article 239AA as a scheme of representative government and held that the Lieutenant Governor has no independent decision-making power; he must act on the aid and advice of the elected Council of Ministers except on public order, police and land, and where a law requires him…

Q4560.Indian PolityHard

The category of Union Territories was created, and the classification of states into Parts A, B, C and D abolished, by which amendment?

  1. A.The 1st Amendment, 1951
  2. B.The 7th Amendment, 1956
  3. C.The 14th Amendment, 1962
  4. D.The 42nd Amendment, 1976
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The 7th Amendment, 1956

Acting on the report of the States Reorganisation Commission, Parliament passed the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1956, which ended the four-fold classification of Part A, B, C and D states and left a single class of states together with a new class called Union…