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.
Which one of the following is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council ?
The United Nations Security Council has fifteen members: five permanent members and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following statements with regard to the Report of Tendulkar Committee (2009) on poverty estimates is/are correct? 1. The Committee had used an all-India urban poverty line basket as a reference to derive both rural and urban poverty levels. 2. The Committee had anchored the poverty line to the official food calorie norms. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
The Suresh Tendulkar expert group, which reported to the Planning Commission in 2009, deliberately moved away from the old calorie-based poverty line.
Read the full explanation →Cumulonimbus clouds develop from which among the following clouds?
A cumulonimbus cloud is the final stage of a growing cumulus cloud. On a hot day, rising warm air forms small fair-weather cumulus.
Read the full explanation →Which one among the following is not an atmospheric natural disaster ?
An avalanche is a mass of snow and ice sliding suddenly down a mountain slope. It is driven by gravity acting on the snowpack, so it is grouped with landslides as a terrestrial or mass-movement disaster, not an atmospheric one.
Read the full explanation →'Shipki La', a high altitude pass in the Himalayas, is located in :
Shipki La is the pass through which the Satluj river enters India from Tibet. It lies in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, on the border with the Tibet region of China.
Read the full explanation →Chemical formula of cooking soda is
Cooking soda, also called baking soda, is sodium hydrogen carbonate, also known as sodium bicarbonate. It is a mild base made from one sodium, one hydrogen, one carbon and three oxygen atoms.
Read the full explanation →Bharatmala Project is related to
Bharatmala Pariyojana is the Union government's highway development programme for building and upgrading national highways, economic corridors and border and coastal roads.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a process of chemical weathering?
Exfoliation is a process of physical (mechanical) weathering, in which outer layers of rock peel off like the skin of an onion, with no change in the rock's chemical make-up.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements regarding a thermos flask is NOT correct ?
The statement is wrong because the inner wall of a thermos flask is silvered so that it radiates very little heat; the shiny outer surface also reflects heat back rather than absorbing it.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following mountains lies in between Caspian Sea and Black Sea ?
The Caucasus Mountains stretch from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east, across Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Read the full explanation →The process whereby certain minerals absorb water, expand and change is called as
In hydration, minerals take water into their structure, swell in volume and change into new minerals, which loosens and breaks the rock.
Read the full explanation →Work is said to be one Joule when a force of
Work equals force multiplied by displacement, and 4 N multiplied by 0.25 m gives exactly 1 joule.
Read the full explanation →Who among the following American Presidents described democracy as "Government of the People, for the People and by the People"?
In his Gettysburg Address of 19 November 1863 he spoke of government of the people, by the people, for the people, and the phrase became the classic definition of democracy.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following Ashokan Minor Rock Edicts contains the personal name of the king - Ashoka ?
The Maski minor rock edict in Raichur district, Karnataka, calls the king Devanampiya Asoka, and it was the first inscription found to name him as Ashoka.
Read the full explanation →Bacterial DNA is referred to as naked because it is not associated with :
In bacteria the DNA is not wrapped around histone proteins as it is in the chromosomes of eukaryotes, so it is called naked DNA.
Read the full explanation →Given below are the four cases in which certain heat transfer is taking place : 1. Ice is melting in a glass full of water 2. Water is boiling in an open container 3. A metal rod is heated in a furnace 4. A cup of coffee is allowed to cool on a table In which of the above cases, the Newton's Law of Cooling is applicable?
Newton's law of cooling describes a hot body losing heat to cooler surroundings, which is exactly what a cup of coffee on a table does.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched ? 1. Malaria : Mycobacterium 2. TB : Plasmodium Select the answer using the code given below:
The two pathogens have been swapped: malaria is caused by Plasmodium and TB by Mycobacterium, so both pairs are wrong.
Read the full explanation →Consider the following statements with reference to sea waves : 1. The height of waves is determined by wind speed, wind duration, and fetch 2. The energy of a wave is proportional to the square of its height 3. Waves retain most of their energy as they travel across the deep ocean Which of the statements given above is/are correct ?
All three statements describe how ocean waves form and travel. Statement 1 is correct: wind-driven waves grow with the wind's speed, the length of time it blows and the fetch, the stretch of open water over which it blows.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following is not a pass of Arunachal Pradesh?
Muling La lies in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, on the route from the Gangotri region into Tibet, not in Arunachal Pradesh.
Read the full explanation →In the southern hemisphere, trade winds blow from:
In the southern hemisphere the trade winds are the south-east trades, blowing from the subtropical high towards the equator and turned to their left by the Coriolis force.
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