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NDA GK Questions 2026

Static general knowledge makes up about 90% of Part B of the NDA General Ability Test, about 360 of its 400 marks. The NDA & NA (II) 2026 notice divides it into five sections: Physics (about 25%), Chemistry (about 15%), General Science (about 10%), History, Freedom Movement etc. (about 20%) and Geography (about 20%). Half of Part B is science. Physics covers matter, motion, gravitation, heat, sound, light, magnetism, electricity and the working of everyday devices such as the siphon, pressure cooker, periscope and safety fuse. Chemistry covers changes of matter, elements and compounds, common gases, acids, bases and salts, carbon, fertilizers and the materials used to make soap, glass, cement and gunpowder. General Science covers cells, the human body, diseases, diet, the solar system and eminent scientists. Section D spans Indian history and culture, the freedom movement, the Constitution, Five Year Plans, Panchayati Raj and world history from the Renaissance to the Russian Revolution. Geography covers the Earth, rocks, oceans, the atmosphere and climate, and India's resources, industries, ports and trade. This page holds GK24's topic-wise GK notes for NDA, in English and Hindi, written as short facts and tables. Read a topic, then solve its quiz and previous-year questions on this site.

NDA GK Questions with Answers

Q1641.GeographyMedium

A population pyramid with a very broad base and a narrow top indicates

  1. A.A declining population
  2. B.A high birth rate and a young population
  3. C.An equal number of men and women
  4. D.A high dependency of old people
Show answer
Correct answer: B. A high birth rate and a young population

The width of each bar in a population pyramid shows the share of that age group, so a broad base means that children form a very large part of the population, which happens where the birth rate is high; the narrow top shows that few people survive to old age.

Q1642.GeographyMedium

In which stage of the demographic transition are both the birth rate and the death rate high, so that population grows slowly?

  1. A.The first or high stationary stage
  2. B.The second or early expanding stage
  3. C.The third or low stationary stage
  4. D.The stage of population explosion
Show answer
Correct answer: A. The first or high stationary stage

In the first stage of the demographic transition the society is rural and agrarian, life expectancy is low, medical facilities are poor and literacy is low, so both the birth rate and the death rate are high and they roughly cancel each other, leaving population almost stationary.

Q1645.GeographyMedium

An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in 1798, was written by

  1. A.David Ricardo
  2. B.Thomas Malthus
  3. C.Adam Smith
  4. D.Alfred Marshall
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Thomas Malthus

In this essay of 1798 Malthus argued that population tends to increase in a geometric progression while the means of subsistence can increase only in an arithmetic progression, so growth must be restrained either by positive checks such as famine, disease and war, or by preventive checks such as late…

Q1646.GeographyEasy

The density of population is usually expressed as

  1. A.Persons per square kilometre
  2. B.Square kilometres per person
  3. C.Persons per thousand births
  4. D.Births per thousand persons
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Persons per square kilometre

Density of population is a ratio between the number of people and the area they occupy, and the standard unit is the number of persons living in one square kilometre; it is the simplest way of measuring the pressure of people on land.

Q1648.General ScienceHard

The expulsion of magnetic flux from the interior of a superconductor is known as

  1. A.The Hall effect
  2. B.The Meissner effect
  3. C.The Zeeman effect
  4. D.The Seebeck effect
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The Meissner effect

When a material becomes superconducting it pushes the magnetic field out of its interior and behaves as a perfect diamagnet, an effect reported by Meissner and Ochsenfeld in 1933; it is the reason a small magnet can be made to hover above a cooled superconductor, as in magnetic levitation demonstrations.

Q1649.General ScienceMedium

Superconductivity was discovered in 1911 in mercury cooled to about 4.2 kelvin by

  1. A.Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
  2. B.Walther Meissner
  3. C.John Bardeen
  4. D.Georg Bednorz
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

The Dutch physicist Kamerlingh Onnes, who had already succeeded in liquefying helium, cooled mercury with it in 1911 and found that its electrical resistance disappeared completely below about 4.2 kelvin, the first observation of superconductivity.

Q1650.General ScienceMedium

The property of laser light by which all its waves are in the same phase is called

  1. A.Monochromaticity
  2. B.Coherence
  3. C.Divergence
  4. D.Polarisation
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Coherence

Coherence means that the waves in the beam keep a constant phase relationship, so crest marches with crest; this is a direct result of stimulated emission, since each new photon is emitted in phase with the photon that caused it, and it is what makes holography and interference work with…

Q1652.General ScienceEasy

The word LASER is an abbreviation for

  1. A.Light Absorption by Spontaneous Emission of Radiation
  2. B.Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
  3. C.Linear Amplification of Stored Energy by Radiation
  4. D.Light Alignment by Statistical Emission of Rays
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

The device works by stimulated emission, in which a photon passing an excited atom makes it fall to a lower level and emit a second photon identical in frequency, phase and direction, so one photon becomes two and the light is amplified.

Q1653.General ScienceEasy

The minimum energy required to eject an electron from the surface of a metal is called its

  1. A.Work function
  2. B.Stopping potential
  3. C.Ionisation energy
  4. D.Binding energy
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Work function

The work function of a metal is the least energy needed to free an electron from its surface, and it is equal to Planck's constant multiplied by the threshold frequency of that metal; caesium and potassium have low work functions, which is why they respond to visible light.

Q1654.General ScienceMedium

The maximum kinetic energy of the photoelectrons emitted from a metal surface depends on

  1. A.The intensity of the incident light
  2. B.The frequency of the incident light
  3. C.The area of the illuminated surface
  4. D.The time for which light falls
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The frequency of the incident light

By Einstein's photoelectric equation, the photon gives energy equal to Planck's constant times the frequency, part of which is spent as the work function, so the maximum kinetic energy left with the electron rises with frequency and is independent of how bright the light is.

Q1655.General ScienceMedium

Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921 mainly for

  1. A.The special theory of relativity
  2. B.The general theory of relativity
  3. C.His explanation of the photoelectric effect
  4. D.The discovery of the photon rest mass
Show answer
Correct answer: C. His explanation of the photoelectric effect

The citation for the prize refers to his services to theoretical physics and especially to his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, the equation in which the energy of a photon equals the work function plus the maximum kinetic energy of the emitted electron.

Q1656.General ScienceMedium

The photoelectric effect was first observed by which scientist?

  1. A.Albert Einstein
  2. B.Heinrich Hertz
  3. C.Max Planck
  4. D.Robert Millikan
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Heinrich Hertz

In 1887, while studying the sparks produced across a gap between two electrodes, Hertz noticed that the spark passed more easily when ultraviolet light fell on the electrodes, which was the first observation of the photoelectric effect; Hallwachs and Lenard then studied it systematically.

Q1657.Indian PolityAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2017, GS Paper IMedium

Which one of the following is not a feature of Indian federalism ?

  1. A.There is an independent judiciary in India.
  2. B.Powers have been clearly divided between the Centre and the States.
  3. C.The federating units have been given unequal representation in the Rajya Sabha.
  4. D.It is the result of an agreement among the federating units.
Show answer
Correct answer: D. It is the result of an agreement among the federating units.

Indian federation was not formed by States coming together under an agreement, which is why the Constitution calls India a 'Union of States'.

Q1658.Indian PolityAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2017, GS Paper IEasy

Out of the following statements, choose the one that brings out the principle underlying the Cabinet form of Government :

  1. A.An arrangement for minimizing the criticism against the Government whose responsibilities are complex and hard to carry out to the satisfaction of all.
  2. B.A mechanism for speeding up the activities of the Government whose responsibilities are increasing day by day.
  3. C.A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.
  4. D.A device for strengthening the hands of the head of the Government whose hold over the people is in a state of decline.
Show answer
Correct answer: C. A mechanism of parliamentary democracy for ensuring collective responsibility of the Government to the people.

The heart of Cabinet government is collective responsibility: the ministers stand or fall together before the elected House. Article 75(3) of the Constitution says the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha, and Article 164(2) says the same for State ministers and the Legislative Assembly.

Q1660.Science & TechnologyAsked in: UPSC Civil Services · CSE Prelims 2019, GS Paper IEasy

What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news?

  1. A.A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing
  2. B.A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients
  3. C.A gene that makes plants pest-resistant
  4. D.A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops
Show answer
Correct answer: A. A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

Cas9 is the enzyme in the CRISPR-Cas9 system that cuts DNA at a chosen spot, which is why it is called molecular scissors.