Railway Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is B, Arundhati Roy. 'Mother Mary Comes to Me' is Arundhati Roy's memoir, published in September 2025, and it is built around her difficult, loving bond with her mother Mary Roy. Mary Roy was a teacher who founded a school in Kerala and won the 1986 Supreme Court case that gave Syrian Christian women an equal share in family property. Arundhati Roy herself won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her first novel, 'The God of Small Things', and later wrote 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' along with many essays. A is wrong because Jhumpa Lahiri is known for 'Interpreter of Maladies', which won the Pulitzer Prize, and 'The Namesake'. C is wrong because Vikram Seth wrote 'A Suitable Boy' and 'The Golden Gate'. D is wrong because Chetan Bhagat writes popular novels such as 'Five Point Someone' and 'Half Girlfriend'. Exam tip: Arundhati Roy — 'The God of Small Things', Booker Prize 1997.

The correct answer is C, To manage hardware and software resources. An operating system is the system software that loads when a laptop starts and then runs the machine: it shares out memory, decides which program gets the processor and for how long, keeps files and folders in order on the disk, talks to the keyboard, screen and printer through device drivers, and gives the user an interface. Every other program, from a word processor to a game, runs on top of it and asks it for whatever it needs. Windows, macOS, Linux, Ubuntu and Android are common examples. A is wrong because typing documents is the work of an application such as MS-Word. B is wrong because a browser is only one of many programs the operating system supports, not its purpose. D is wrong because video editing is done by application software such as a video editor. Exam tip: an operating system is system software and works as the bridge between the user, the applications and the hardware.

The correct answer is C, 42nd Amendment Act. The Fundamental Duties were written into the Constitution in 1976 by the 42nd Amendment, on the advice of the Swaran Singh Committee, and the idea was borrowed from the Constitution of the erstwhile Soviet Union. They were placed in a new Part IVA with a single article, Article 51A, which first listed ten duties, such as respecting the Constitution, the National Flag and the National Anthem, protecting the environment and safeguarding public property. An eleventh duty, that a parent or guardian provide education to a child between six and fourteen years, was added by the 86th Amendment of 2002. The duties are not enforceable by a court. A is wrong because the 51st Amendment reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes in some north-eastern states. B is wrong because the 23rd Amendment extended reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. D is wrong because the 1st Amendment of 1951 added the Ninth Schedule. Exam tip: 42nd Amendment is called the Mini Constitution.

The correct answer is C, HTTP. HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and it is the set of rules by which a browser asks a web server for a page and the server sends it back, which is how data on the World Wide Web is reached. It was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, who also created the World Wide Web in 1989, and it works on port 80, while its secure form HTTPS uses encryption and port 443. A is wrong because DNS, the Domain Name System, only turns a name such as gk24.in into the numeric IP address of the server. B is wrong because SNMP, the Simple Network Management Protocol, is used by administrators to watch and manage routers, switches and other network devices. D is wrong because FTP, the File Transfer Protocol, moves whole files between a computer and a server rather than serving web pages. Exam tip: HTTP for web pages, FTP for file transfer, SMTP to send mail, POP3 and IMAP to receive it.

The correct answer is A, Peacock. The peacock is a bird, and all birds, like mammals, have a heart of four chambers: two atria and two ventricles. Four chambers keep oxygen-rich blood and oxygen-poor blood completely apart, so the body gets fully oxygenated blood. Birds and mammals need this because they are warm-blooded and burn a great deal of energy to hold a steady body temperature; flight makes the demand greater still. Crocodiles are the only reptiles with a four-chambered heart. B is wrong because a sea horse is a fish and has a two-chambered heart, one atrium and one ventricle. C is wrong because a frog, being an amphibian, has three chambers, two atria and a single ventricle in which the two kinds of blood mix. D is wrong for the same reason as the sea horse. Exam tip: fish 2 chambers, amphibians and most reptiles 3, birds and mammals 4; the peacock is India's national bird.

The correct answer is B, The receipts of the government which create liability or reduce financial assets. In the Union Budget, money coming to the government is split into revenue receipts and capital receipts, and the test is exactly this one. Borrowings from the market, loans from the Reserve Bank or from abroad, and small savings and provident fund collections all create a liability, because the money has to be returned. Recovery of loans given earlier and disinvestment of shares in public sector units reduce the government's financial assets. Both kinds are capital receipts and are shown in the capital account. A is wrong because a receipt that creates no claim on the government is the definition of a revenue receipt, such as tax, fee, fine or dividend. C is wrong because grants to state governments are expenditure for the Centre, not a receipt. D is wrong because it reverses the rule; capital receipts add to liabilities rather than reduce them. Exam tip: capital receipts = borrowings + recovery of loans + disinvestment.

The correct answer is B, Black Pagoda. European sailors called the Konark Sun temple the Black Pagoda because its dark stone tower stood out on the Odisha coast and served them as a landmark, in contrast to the whitewashed Jagannath temple at Puri, which they called the White Pagoda. The temple was built in the thirteenth century by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty in the Kalinga style. It is shaped as the chariot of Surya, the sun god, with twelve pairs of carved wheels and seven horses drawing it, and the wheels work as sundials. UNESCO placed it on the World Heritage list in 1984. A is wrong because the White Pagoda was the sailors' name for the Puri temple. C and D are wrong because no such names were used for Konark; they are only distractors. Exam tip: Konark = Black Pagoda, Narasimhadeva I, Kalinga style, UNESCO site since 1984.

The correct answer is C, Zn. Zinc has atomic number 30, which means each of its atoms carries 30 protons in the nucleus. In the modern periodic table the elements are arranged in increasing order of atomic number, as Moseley showed, and zinc sits in group 12 of the fourth period at the end of the first transition series. It is a bluish-white metal that is used to galvanise iron against rust, in dry cells and in brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. A is wrong because nickel (Ni) has atomic number 28. B is wrong because iron (Fe) has atomic number 26 and is the most used metal in the world. D is wrong because cobalt (Co) has atomic number 27 and is the metal at the centre of vitamin B12. Exam tip: learn the run 24 to 30 in order — Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn.

The correct answer is C, Odisha. Pattachitra is the old cloth-scroll painting of Odisha, and the name itself explains it: patta means cloth and chitra means picture. The painters, called chitrakars, treat a cloth with chalk and tamarind paste, then draw gods and legends on it with natural colours and a fine brush, keeping a decorated border around the scene. Most works show Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra of Puri, Krishna's life or scenes from the epics. The village of Raghurajpur near Puri is famous for this craft and has a GI tag for Odisha Pattachitra. A is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kalamkari, drawn and dyed with a pen. B is wrong because Rajasthan is known for Phad paintings and the miniature schools of Kishangarh, Mewar and Bundi. D is wrong because Bihar is known for Madhubani or Mithila painting. Exam tip: Pattachitra is Odisha, Madhubani is Bihar, Kalamkari is Andhra Pradesh, Warli is Maharashtra.

The correct answer is C, 1975–1977. The book takes its title from the Emergency, which ran from 1975 to 1977, and recalls those years through the author's own experience of them. The Emergency was proclaimed on 25 June 1975 under Article 352 on the ground of internal disturbance, on the advice of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and was revoked on 21 March 1977. During it elections were postponed, the press was censored and many opposition leaders were jailed. A is wrong because 1962–1965 covers the war with China and the war with Pakistan, not the Emergency. B is wrong because 1989–1991 is the period of coalition governments and the Mandal agitation. D is wrong because 1969–1971 saw the split in the Congress, bank nationalisation and the Bangladesh war. Exam tip: Emergency declared 25 June 1975, lifted 21 March 1977; the 44th Amendment of 1978 replaced 'internal disturbance' with 'armed rebellion'.

The correct answer is B, Change Case. In MS-Word 2016 the button marked 'Aa' in the Font group of the Home tab opens the Change Case menu, which rewrites the selected text without retyping it. Its five choices are Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word and tOGGLE cASE, and the keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 moves the selection through the main cases one after another. A is wrong because Text Effects and Typography is the blue glowing 'A' that adds shadow, reflection and outline to text. C is wrong because Clear All Formatting is the 'A' with a small eraser, which strips the text back to plain formatting. D is wrong because Strikethrough is shown as 'abc' with a line drawn through it and simply crosses out the text. Exam tip: in the Font group remember Shift + F3 for change case, Ctrl + B for bold, Ctrl + I for italic and Ctrl + U for underline.

The correct answer is B, Operating system. Ubuntu is a free, open-source operating system built on the Linux kernel and based on the Debian distribution. It was first released in 2004 by Canonical, and its name comes from a Nguni Bantu word of southern Africa meaning humanity towards others. An operating system is the master software that starts the machine and manages its memory, files, processor time and devices; Ubuntu does this job on desktops, laptops, servers and cloud machines, and is popular because it costs nothing and its source code is open. A is wrong because malware means harmful software such as viruses, worms and ransomware. C is wrong because an external hard drive is a piece of hardware used to store data outside the computer. D is wrong because a web browser is an application like Chrome, Firefox or Edge that opens web pages. Exam tip: common Linux distributions are Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and Red Hat; Windows, macOS and Android are other operating systems.

The correct answer is A, Archimedes' Principle. It states that the upthrust on a body dipped fully or partly in a fluid equals the weight of the fluid the body pushes aside. This is why a bucket of water feels lighter while it is still in the well, and why a ship of steel floats: its hollow shape displaces enough water to balance its own weight. The principle also gives the law of flotation and is used to find the purity of metals and the density of liquids with a hydrometer. B is wrong because Bernoulli's principle links the speed of a flowing fluid with its pressure, and explains lift on an aeroplane wing. C is wrong because the Beer–Lambert law deals with how much light a solution absorbs as it passes through. D is wrong because Pascal's law says pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is passed on equally in every direction, which is the basis of hydraulic brakes and lifts. Exam tip: Archimedes for buoyancy, Pascal for hydraulic press, Bernoulli for aerofoil lift.

The correct answer is B, Dhammapada. The Dhammapada gathers the Buddha's teaching into 423 short verses arranged in 26 chapters, and because it holds the heart of the doctrine in verses anyone can remember, it is often called the Gita of Buddhism. It is written in Pali and belongs to the Khuddaka Nikaya, one of the five nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka. Its chapters deal with the mind, anger, craving, the wise and the fool, and the path to nirvana. A is wrong because Mahayana Sutra is not one book but a whole class of later Sanskrit texts. C is wrong because the Vamsatthappakasini is a Sri Lankan commentary on the Mahavamsa chronicle, a work of history rather than teaching. D is wrong because the Saddharmapundarika, the Lotus Sutra, is a major Mahayana work on the one vehicle and is much later than the Pali canon. Exam tip: Tripitaka = Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka; the Dhammapada sits inside the Sutta Pitaka.

The correct answer is C, 1948. India's first Industrial Policy Resolution was announced on 6 April 1948 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the first Industry Minister. It accepted a mixed economy for the new nation and sorted industries into four groups: those kept solely with the State, such as arms and ammunition, atomic energy and railways; those in which the State would start all new units; those under State regulation; and the rest left to private enterprise. A is wrong because 1952 is remembered for India's first general election, not for an industrial policy. B is wrong because the second Industrial Policy Resolution came in 1956, not 1955. D is wrong because no resolution was issued in 1960; the next important statements came in 1977, 1980 and 1991. Exam tip: IPR 1948 was the first, IPR 1956 is called the economic constitution of India and built on the Mahalanobis model, and the 1991 policy opened the economy up.

The correct answer is B, Bhopal. Bhopal stands at about 23.3° North, so of the four cities it lies nearest to the 24° parallel. Bhopal is the capital of Madhya Pradesh, and the Tropic of Cancer, at 23½° North, runs across the state just to the north of the city, which is why this belt of latitude is linked with Bhopal in examinations. A is wrong because Patna, the capital of Bihar, lies near 25.6° North, more than one and a half degrees away. C is wrong because Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, lies near 21.2° North, almost three degrees to the south. D is wrong because Dispur, the capital of Assam, lies near 26.1° North and is the farthest of the four from the given latitude. One degree of latitude is about 111 km on the ground, so these differences are large. Exam tip: the Tropic of Cancer crosses eight states — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

The correct answer is C, 1986. Parliament passed the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986 and it came into force on 19 November 1986. It was enacted soon after the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984, when the country needed one general law to fill the gaps left by the earlier pollution laws. Parliament used Article 253, which allows it to legislate to carry out international agreements, so the Act gives effect to the decisions of the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. It is called an umbrella law because it gives the Central Government wide powers to fix standards, inspect and shut polluting units and frame rules, and most later environmental rules are made under it. A is wrong because no such central environment Act was passed in 1990. B is wrong because 1991 is the year of the Public Liability Insurance Act. D is wrong because 1988 only brought amendments to the Water Act. Exam tip: Water Act 1974, Air Act 1981, Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

The correct answer is A, Nagaland. The Hornbill Festival is held every year from 1 to 10 December at Kisama Heritage Village near Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. It is called the "Festival of Festivals" because all the major Naga tribes come together in one place to show their dances, songs, crafts, food and traditional games. The Nagaland government started it in 2000 to promote tourism and protect Naga heritage. It is named after the hornbill bird, which appears in many Naga folk tales and in their traditional headgear. The festival opens on 1 December, Nagaland's Statehood Day, as the state was formed on that day in 1963. B is wrong because Sikkim is known for Losar and Saga Dawa. C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Sankranti. D is wrong because Jammu and Kashmir is known for events such as the Tulip Festival in Srinagar. Exam tip: Hornbill = Nagaland (1 to 10 December, Kisama), Sangai = Manipur, Wangala = Meghalaya, Losar = Sikkim and Ladakh.

The correct answer is C, Karnataka. Kambala is a traditional buffalo race of coastal Karnataka, held mainly in the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, the Tulu Nadu region. Pairs of buffaloes, yoked together and driven by a farmer, race along two parallel tracks filled with slushy water in paddy fields. The season runs roughly from November to March, after the harvest, and the race began as a thanksgiving to local deities for a good crop. After a legal debate similar to the one over Jallikattu, Karnataka amended its animal cruelty law in 2017 so that Kambala could continue. A is wrong because Kerala is famous for its snake-boat races such as the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. B is wrong because Punjab is known for the Kila Raipur rural sports festival with bullock-cart races. D is wrong because Odisha is known for the Rath Yatra of Puri. Exam tip: Kambala = Karnataka (buffalo race), Jallikattu = Tamil Nadu (bull taming), Vallam Kali = Kerala (boat race), Kila Raipur = Punjab (rural Olympics).

The correct answer is C, Manipur. The Manipur Sangai Festival is held every year from 21 to 30 November to showcase the state's culture and tourism. It is named after the Sangai, the brow-antlered deer, which is Manipur's state animal and lives in the wild only in Keibul Lamjao National Park on Loktak Lake. This is the world's only floating national park, resting on floating mats of vegetation called phumdis. The festival features Manipuri classical dance, the Thang-Ta martial art, polo, local food and handloom and handicraft stalls. A is wrong because Gujarat is known for Navratri garba and the Rann Utsav. B is wrong because Assam is known for Bihu. D is wrong because Tamil Nadu is known for Pongal and Jallikattu. Exam tip: Sangai = Manipur (21 to 30 November), Hornbill = Nagaland (1 to 10 December), Kambala = Karnataka, Bihu = Assam; Loktak Lake's phumdis carry the floating Keibul Lamjao park.