SSC Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Shah Jahan. The Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, inside the Agra Fort was built by Shah Jahan in white marble between 1648 and 1654, and it takes its name from the pearl-like glow of the stone. Shah Jahan rebuilt much of the red sandstone Agra Fort in marble, adding the Diwan-i-Khas, the Khas Mahal and the Sheesh Mahal; his reign from 1628 to 1658 is called the golden age of Mughal architecture and gave us the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid of Delhi. Option A is wrong because Aurangzeb built the small Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort at Delhi and the Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad. Option B is wrong because Akbar raised the original Agra Fort in red sandstone and built Fatehpur Sikri. Option C is wrong because Humayun built Dinpanah at Delhi, and his own tomb was raised after his death. Exam tip: Moti Masjid at Agra Fort is Shah Jahan's, the one in Delhi's Red Fort is Aurangzeb's.

The correct answer is C, Council of Ministers to aid and advise Governor. Article 163 says there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at its head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in the few matters where the Constitution requires him to act in his own discretion. Whether a matter falls in that discretion is decided by the Governor himself, and Article 163(3) bars any court from asking what advice the ministers gave. It is the state counterpart of Article 74, which makes the President's Council of Ministers binding at the Union level. Option A is wrong because the conduct of business of a state government is Article 166. Option B is wrong because the constitution of legislatures in states is Article 168. Option D is wrong because the Advocate-General for the State is appointed under Article 165. Exam tip: 163 aid and advise, 164 appointment of the Chief Minister and ministers, 165 Advocate-General, 166 conduct of business.

The correct answer is A, Pataliputra. Pataliputra, today's Patna, stood where the Son joins the Ganga, and it was the capital of the Mauryan empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya in about 322 BCE with the help of Chanakya. Megasthenes, the envoy sent by Seleucus to Chandragupta's court, described it in his account Indica as a long city guarded by a wooden palisade with sixty-four gates and five hundred and seventy towers. Ashoka held the third Buddhist council there in about 250 BCE. Option B is wrong because Vaishali was the capital of the Lichchhavi republic and the seat of the second Buddhist council. Option C is wrong because Indraprastha is the ancient name of the Delhi region in the Mahabharata, not a Mauryan capital. Option D is wrong because Kushinagar is the place where the Buddha attained mahaparinirvana. Exam tip: Pataliputra served as capital of the Haryankas, the Nandas, the Mauryas and later the Guptas.

The correct answer is C, fluorescent blue. The Reserve Bank of India issued the fifty-rupee note of the Mahatma Gandhi (New) series in August 2017 with fluorescent blue as its base colour. Its reverse carries the stone chariot of the Vittala temple at Hampi in Karnataka, a World Heritage site, and the note measures 66 mm by 135 mm. Every note of this series pairs one colour with one monument, which is the way paper setters like to test it. Option A is wrong because chocolate brown is the base colour of the ten-rupee note, whose reverse shows the Konark Sun Temple. Option B is wrong because stone grey belongs to the five-hundred-rupee note, which carries the Red Fort. Option D is wrong because lavender is the colour of the hundred-rupee note, whose reverse shows Rani ki Vav in Gujarat. Exam tip: 10 chocolate brown with Konark, 20 greenish yellow with Ellora, 50 fluorescent blue with Hampi, 100 lavender with Rani ki Vav, 200 bright yellow with Sanchi, 500 stone grey with the Red Fort.

The correct answer is A, Granite. Granite is an igneous rock, not a sedimentary one. It forms when magma cools slowly deep inside the crust, so its crystals of quartz, feldspar and mica are large enough to see; because it cooled below the surface it is called an intrusive or plutonic rock. Sedimentary rocks are different: they are built up in layers from sediment that water, wind or ice deposits and then compacts and cements. Option B is wrong because sandstone is sedimentary, made of cemented sand grains. Option C is wrong because loess is sedimentary too, a fine silt carried and dropped by wind, and it makes the fertile soil of northern China. Option D is wrong because shale is sedimentary, formed from compressed clay and mud. Granite turns into the metamorphic rock gneiss under heat and pressure. Exam tip: granite and basalt igneous; sandstone, shale, limestone and loess sedimentary; marble, gneiss, slate and quartzite metamorphic.

The correct answer is C, Article 23 - 24. The Right against Exploitation is given by Articles 23 and 24 in Part III of the Constitution. Article 23 forbids traffic in human beings, begar and other forms of forced labour, and lets the State impose compulsory service for a public purpose without discrimination. Article 24 forbids the employment of a child below fourteen years in any factory, mine or other hazardous work. Article 23 led to the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and Article 24 to the child labour laws. Option A is wrong because Article 33 lets Parliament restrict the rights of the armed forces and Article 34 covers martial law. Option B is wrong because Articles 37 and 38 are in Part IV, the Directive Principles, and are not enforceable in court. Option D is wrong because Articles 27 and 28 belong to the Right to Freedom of Religion. Exam tip: 14-18 equality, 19-22 freedom, 23-24 exploitation, 25-28 religion, 29-30 cultural and educational rights.

The correct answer is B, 1787. The Constitution of the United States was drafted by the Philadelphia Convention and signed on 17 September 1787, which is why it is counted as the world's first written democratic constitution. It was ratified by the required number of states in 1788 and the new government began work in 1789. It is a short document of a preamble and seven articles, sets up a federal republic with a President elected separately from the legislature, and gained a Bill of Rights in 1791 through its first ten amendments. The makers of the Indian Constitution borrowed Fundamental Rights, judicial review, an independent judiciary, the office of Vice-President and the impeachment procedure from it. Option A is wrong because 1932 belongs to the Great Depression years. Option C is wrong because 1877 marks the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Option D is wrong because 2000 is more than two centuries too late. Exam tip: US Constitution signed 1787, in force 1789 — the oldest written constitution still in use.

The correct answer is C, Literature. The Jnanpith Award is India's highest literary honour, given to an author for an outstanding contribution to literature. It was instituted in 1961 by the Bharatiya Jnanpith trust and first awarded in 1965 to the Malayalam poet G. Sankara Kurup for his collection Odakkuzhal. It is open to writing in any of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and in English since 2013, and the winner receives a citation, a cash prize and a bronze replica of Vagdevi, the goddess of learning. Option A is wrong because medicine in India is recognised by the Dr B. C. Roy National Award. Option B is wrong because social work is honoured by the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Option D is wrong because cinema is honoured by the National Film Awards and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Exam tip: Jnanpith is for literature; the first winner was G. Sankara Kurup in 1965.

The correct answer is A, Kerala. Ottamthullal is a solo dance-and-recitation art form of Kerala. It was created in the eighteenth century by the poet Kunchan Nambiar, who used it to make fun of the powerful in simple Malayalam that ordinary people could follow. A single performer in a green face paint, tall headgear and pleated costume dances and recites verse, while a mridangam or maddalam and an idakka keep the beat and a singer repeats the lines. Because it needs no stage, no curtain and almost no troupe, it is often called the poor man's Kathakali. Option B is wrong because Tamil Nadu is the home of Bharatanatyam, Karagattam and Kummi. Option C is wrong because Andhra Pradesh is known for Kuchipudi and the folk form Veedhi Natakam. Option D is wrong because Manipur gives us Manipuri, Lai Haraoba and the Thang-Ta martial dance. Exam tip: Kerala — Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Ottamthullal, Koodiyattam, Theyyam and Chakyar Koothu.

The correct answer is D, 86th amendment. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 made free and compulsory education a fundamental right. It inserted Article 21A, under which the State shall provide free and compulsory education to every child between the ages of six and fourteen years. The same amendment rewrote Article 45 in the Directive Principles, asking the State to care for children below six years, and added Article 51A(k), which makes it a fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to send a child to school. Parliament gave the right its working shape through the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, in force from 1 April 2010. Option A is wrong because the 88th Amendment dealt with service tax. Option B is wrong because the 89th Amendment split the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission into two separate bodies. Option C is wrong because the 87th Amendment shifted the basis of delimitation to the 2001 census. Exam tip: remember the trio 86th Amendment, Article 21A and the RTE Act, 2009.

The correct answer is D, Kapilendra Deva. He founded the Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty of Odisha in 1435.

Kapilendra Deva was a minister who took the throne when the Eastern Ganga line ended, and he built the largest empire Odisha ever had, stretching from the lower Ganga in the north to the Kaveri in the south. He fought the Bahmani sultanate and the Reddi chiefs of Andhra, and the word Gajapati means lord of elephants. His successors were Purushottama Deva and Prataparudra Deva, in whose reign the saint Chaitanya came to Puri; the dynasty weakened after him and the Bhoi line followed.

Options A, B and C are wrong. Bhanu Deva was a title used by rulers of the earlier Eastern Ganga dynasty, the builders of the Konark temple, while Vasu Deva and Surendra Deva are not rulers of this line at all.

Exam tip: Eastern Gangas - Konark and the Puri temple; Gajapatis from 1435 - Kapilendra Deva.

The correct answer is B, 12 percent. India's literacy rate at independence in 1947 is put at about 12 per cent.

Colonial education reached only a thin urban layer, and the figure for women was far lower, around six per cent. The first census after independence, in 1951, recorded 18.33 per cent literacy, and the number has climbed steadily since: 28.3 per cent in 1961, 52.2 per cent in 1991 and 74.04 per cent in the census of 2011. Kerala has long stood first among the states and Bihar last. A person aged seven years or above who can read and write with understanding is counted as literate.

Options A, C and D are wrong. Twenty and twenty-two per cent are higher than any figure recorded in that decade, and 18 per cent is the 1951 census reading, not the 1947 one, which is the usual trap in this question.

Exam tip: 1947 about 12 per cent, 1951 census 18.33 per cent, 2011 census 74.04 per cent.

The correct answer is B, Goa. Ranmale is a folk theatre of Goa, performed mainly in the Sattari and Sanguem areas.

It is staged at night in the open during the Shigmo festival and around Holi, in front of a village temple. Men play all the roles, including the female ones, and the episodes are taken from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, tied together by a narrator, drums and the ghumot. Goa's other well known folk forms are Jagor, Dashavatara, Kalo and Khell, and Zagor is listed among its temple traditions.

Option A is wrong because West Bengal's folk theatre is Jatra. Option C is wrong as Jharkhand is known for Chhau and Paika. Option D is wrong because Chhattisgarh's forms are Nacha and Pandavani, the ballad style made famous by Teejan Bai.

Exam tip: Ranmale, Dashavatara and Jagor - Goa; Jatra - West Bengal; Nautanki - Uttar Pradesh; Tamasha - Maharashtra; Bhavai - Gujarat.

The correct answer is C. Lead and mercury are in fact the poorest conductors of heat among the metals, so calling them the best is wrong.

Metals conduct heat and electricity because of the free electrons that move through their lattice. Silver is the best conductor of heat, followed by copper, which is why cooking vessels and heat sinks are made of copper and aluminium. Lead and mercury conduct so weakly that they are the usual textbook example of poor metallic conductors.

Option A is a correct statement: most metals melt at high temperatures, tungsten at about 3400 degrees Celsius, though gallium and caesium are exceptions. Option B is correct, since good thermal conduction is a defining property of metals. Option D is correct too, as a fresh metal surface has lustre and is polished for that reason, while tarnishing is due to a layer of oxide.

Exam tip: best conductors silver then copper; poorest among metals lead and mercury.

The correct answer is B, Karnataka. Jog Falls is in the Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

The Sharavathi river drops about 253 metres here in four separate streams known as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer, which makes Jog one of the highest plunge waterfalls in India. It lies in the Western Ghats, is fed by the monsoon, and the Linganamakki dam upstream supplies the Mahatma Gandhi hydroelectric station, so the flow is strongest in the rains. The falls are also called Gersoppa or Jogada Gundi.

Option A is wrong because Punjab is a flat alluvial plain with no waterfall of this kind. Options C and D are wrong as Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh lie in the Himalayan north, far from the Sharavathi; India's highest waterfall, Kunchikal, is also in Karnataka.

Exam tip: Jog on the Sharavathi and Kunchikal on the Varahi are both in Karnataka; Dudhsagar is in Goa.

The correct answer is B, thirty. The SENSEX tracks thirty large, well traded companies listed on the BSE.

The name is short for Sensitive Index. It was launched in 1986 with 1978-79 as the base year and a base value of 100, and the thirty companies are chosen from major sectors so that the index mirrors the market as a whole. Since 2003 it has been calculated by the free float market capitalisation method, which counts only shares available for trading. The BSE itself was founded in 1875 and is Asia's oldest stock exchange.

Options A, C and D are wrong: the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange has fifty companies, and the BSE has separate broader indices with one hundred, two hundred and five hundred companies. No Indian benchmark uses ten.

Exam tip: SENSEX thirty companies on the BSE, base year 1978-79; Nifty fifty companies on the NSE, base year 1995.

The correct answer is A, Deccan. The Bahmani buildings at Gulbarga belong to the Deccan or Provincial style of Indo-Islamic architecture.

When the Bahmani sultanate broke away from Delhi in 1347 it developed its own manner, blending Persian and Turkish ideas brought by architects from Iran with local craft and stone. The Jama Masjid inside Gulbarga fort is its finest example: it has no open courtyard, and sixty-three domes and wide arches cover the whole prayer hall, which is unusual in India. The Haft Gumbaz tombs stand nearby. After the capital moved to Bidar the same style produced the Mahmud Gawan madrasa.

Option B, Mameluke or Slave dynasty style, belongs to the early Delhi Sultanate, as in the Qutub Minar. Option C, Sikh style, is seen in gurdwaras of Punjab from a much later period. Option D, Nagara, is a north Indian temple style with a curved shikhara.

Exam tip: Delhi styles are Imperial, regional ones Provincial; Gulbarga and Bidar - Deccan style.

The correct answer is A, Small Industries Development Bank of India. SIDBI is the apex institution for micro, small and medium enterprises.

It was set up in 1990 under an Act of Parliament, began work on 2 April that year, and has its head office at Lucknow. It started as a subsidiary of IDBI and became independent later. SIDBI does not usually lend directly in small amounts; it refinances banks, state finance corporations and microfinance institutions, and runs funds such as the Fund of Funds for Startups and the credit guarantee scheme for small units along with the government. It also publishes the MSME Pulse report.

Options B, C and D change one word each and are simply not the name of any institution. The trap is the pair small and service: SIDBI is about small industries, the sector that employs the most people after agriculture.

Exam tip: SIDBI 1990, Lucknow, MSMEs; NABARD 1982, Mumbai, agriculture and rural credit.

The correct answer is A, 1951. The Representation of the People Act was passed in 1951, before the first general election.

Parliament made two laws under Articles 327 and 328. The Act of 1950 fixed the allocation of seats and the preparation of electoral rolls. The Act of 1951 is the bigger one: it deals with the actual conduct of elections, the qualifications and disqualifications of members, corrupt practices, election expenses, election petitions and by-elections. Dr B. R. Ambedkar, as law minister, piloted it through the provisional Parliament, and India's first general election was held in 1951 and 1952 under it.

Option B, 1945, is before independence, when no Indian Parliament existed. Option D, 1949, is the year the Constitution was adopted, on 26 November. Option C, 1955, is the year of the Citizenship Act and the Hindu Marriage Act, not of this law.

Exam tip: RPA 1950 for rolls and seats, RPA 1951 for conduct and disqualification.

The correct answer is C, SBI Life Insurance. It is a private sector joint venture, not a public sector insurer.

SBI Life was set up in 2001 as a partnership between the State Bank of India and BNP Paribas Cardif of France. Although the State Bank holds a large stake, the company is registered and classified as a private life insurer and its shares are listed on the stock exchanges. The only public sector life insurer in India is the Life Insurance Corporation, set up in 1956.

Option A, United India Insurance of Chennai, and option B, New India Assurance of Mumbai, are two of the four government owned general insurers, along with National Insurance and Oriental Insurance. Option D, the General Insurance Corporation of India, is the state owned national reinsurer. All of them came out of the nationalisation of general insurance in 1972.

Exam tip: public insurers - LIC plus the four general insurers and GIC Re; SBI Life, HDFC Life and ICICI Prudential are private.