Skip to content
GK24

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

Q4841.Indian HistoryMedium

The Sunset Law was a feature of which land revenue system?

  1. A.The Ryotwari system
  2. B.The Mahalwari system
  3. C.The Permanent Settlement
  4. D.The Farming system of Warren Hastings
Show answer
Correct answer: C. The Permanent Settlement

Under its rules the revenue instalment had to reach the treasury before sunset on the appointed day; if it did not, the estate was liable to be sold at public auction, and many old families lost their zamindaris to Calcutta merchants in the first two decades.

Q4843.Indian HistoryEasy

The Ryotwari system of land revenue is associated with which of the following officials?

  1. A.Holt Mackenzie
  2. B.Thomas Munro
  3. C.John Shore
  4. D.Robert Mertins Bird
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Thomas Munro

Munro, with Captain Alexander Read, worked out the Ryotwari settlement in the Baramahal and Madras region, and extended it widely after he became Governor of Madras in 1820; the state dealt directly with the ryot, the individual cultivator, who held the land so long as he paid the assessment.

Q4845.Indian HistoryAsked in: Delhi · 15 Oct 2018, Shift 1Medium

In the year 1929, the agricultural sector and the community were badly affected, because the decline in agricultural prices was more and longer than the values of ______.

  1. A.Industrial goods
  2. B.Opium
  3. C.Raw Materials for Agriculture
  4. D.indigo
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Industrial goods

The Great Depression that began in 1929 pulled down the prices of primary produce such as wheat, cotton and jute far more sharply, and for far longer, than the prices of the manufactured goods the peasant had to buy.

Q4846.Indian HistoryAsked in: Delhi · 15 Oct 2018, Shift 1Easy

Who is the author of the book 'Poverty and Un-British Rule'?

  1. A.A. O. Hume
  2. B.Dadabhai Naoroji
  3. C.W. C. Banerjee
  4. D.S. Subramanya Iyer
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Dadabhai Naoroji

In Poverty and Un-British Rule in India Naoroji gathered his estimates of India's national income and set out the theory of the drain of wealth, showing that a part of the country's wealth was carried to Britain every year without any return, through home charges, the salaries and pensions of…

Q4847.GeographyMedium

A shortfall in rainfall over a long period, measured against the normal rainfall of an area, is called

  1. A.agricultural drought
  2. B.hydrological drought
  3. C.meteorological drought
  4. D.socio-economic drought
Show answer
Correct answer: C. meteorological drought

It is defined purely in terms of rainfall: a significant deficiency of precipitation over an area compared with its long-period average, and it is the first stage from which the other kinds of drought follow.

Q4848.GeographyMedium

In India, flood forecasting and warning is the responsibility of which organisation?

  1. A.The Central Water Commission
  2. B.The Geological Survey of India
  3. C.The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
  4. D.The National Institute of Disaster Management
Show answer
Correct answer: A. The Central Water Commission

It maintains forecasting stations on the major rivers and issues level and inflow forecasts to the State authorities, working with the rainfall data of the India Meteorological Department.

Q4849.GeographyEasy

A tropical cyclone generally forms over a sea surface whose temperature is above

  1. A.15 degrees Celsius
  2. B.20 degrees Celsius
  3. C.27 degrees Celsius
  4. D.40 degrees Celsius
Show answer
Correct answer: C. 27 degrees Celsius

A tropical cyclone is driven by the latent heat released when water vapour condenses, so it needs a large warm ocean surface of at least about 27 degrees to supply enough moisture, along with sufficient Coriolis force, which is why cyclones do not form within about five degrees of the…

Q4850.GeographyMedium

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted in which year, and which framework did it replace?

  1. A.2005, replacing the Yokohama Strategy
  2. B.2015, replacing the Hyogo Framework for Action
  3. C.2010, replacing the Kyoto Protocol
  4. D.2020, replacing the Paris Agreement
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 2015, replacing the Hyogo Framework for Action

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015 to 2030 was adopted at the Third United Nations World Conference held at Sendai in Japan in 2015, and it took the place of the Hyogo Framework for Action of 2005 to 2015, which had itself been adopted in Japan at Kobe…

Q4851.GeographyMedium

India's tsunami early warning centre is located at

  1. A.Chennai
  2. B.Hyderabad
  3. C.New Delhi
  4. D.Port Blair
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Hyderabad

After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 the country set up a tsunami early warning centre at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, which works at Hyderabad under the Ministry of Earth Sciences and uses a network of seismic stations, bottom pressure recorders and tide gauges…

Q4852.GeographyMedium

A State Disaster Management Authority is chaired by

  1. A.the Governor of the State
  2. B.the Chief Minister of the State
  3. C.the Chief Secretary of the State
  4. D.the Revenue Minister of the State
Show answer
Correct answer: B. the Chief Minister of the State

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 makes the Chief Minister the ex officio Chairperson of the State Disaster Management Authority, just as the Prime Minister heads the national Authority; in a Union Territory the Lieutenant Governor or the Administrator takes that place.

Q4853.GeographyEasy

Who is the ex officio Chairperson of the National Disaster Management Authority?

  1. A.The President of India
  2. B.The Union Home Minister
  3. C.The Prime Minister of India
  4. D.The Cabinet Secretary
Show answer
Correct answer: C. The Prime Minister of India

Under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 the Prime Minister is the Chairperson of the NDMA, which may have other members not exceeding nine, one of them designated Vice-Chairperson; the parallel offices are held by the Chief Minister in a State Authority and the District Magistrate in a District Authority.

Q4855.GeographyMedium

India is divided into how many seismic zones under the seismic zoning map of the Bureau of Indian Standards?

  1. A.Three, numbered I to III
  2. B.Four, numbered II to V
  3. C.Five, numbered I to V
  4. D.Six, numbered I to VI
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Four, numbered II to V

The earlier Zone I was merged with Zone II, so the map now runs from Zone II, of low hazard, to Zone V, of the highest hazard, which covers Kutch, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, most of the North-East, parts of northern Bihar and parts of the western Himalaya.