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UPSC GK Questions 2026

Static general knowledge is the larger part of every UPSC general studies paper. The notices name the same areas again and again: the history of India and the national movement, Indian and world geography, polity and the Constitution, the economy and social development, and general science with environment and ecology. The balance shifts from exam to exam. NDA puts about half of its General Knowledge part on Physics, Chemistry and General Science. CSE favours polity, modern history, environment and the economy. CAPF adds security and human rights, and CDS spreads its questions across polity, history, geography, the economy and school science.

GK24's GK notes are written topic by topic in English and Hindi, as short, fact-first chapters that are easy to revise. They cover Indian Polity, Indian History, Geography, Indian Economy, General Science, Environment and Ecology, Art and Culture, Computer, and the fact lists of awards, sports, books and days. A new chapter is added in each subject as the series grows. Each note carries practice questions, and those that have appeared in an exam say which exam and year. Start with Polity and modern history, then Geography, the Economy and Science. Read a note, take its topic quiz, and come back to it in your monthly revision.

UPSC GK Questions with Answers

Q8721.GeographyMedium

Mercator's projection of 1569 belongs to which family, and which property does it preserve?

  1. A.Conical, and it preserves area
  2. B.Cylindrical, and it preserves shape
  3. C.Zenithal, and it preserves distance
  4. D.Conical, and it preserves direction only at the poles
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Cylindrical, and it preserves shape

Mercator's is a cylindrical projection on which both parallels and meridians are straight lines crossing at right angles, and it is orthomorphic or conformal, meaning that shapes are true locally and a rhumb line of constant bearing plots as a straight line.

Q8722.GeographyAsked in: Uttar Pradesh · UPSSSC JE Civil 2015 Paper 2Hard

The suitable contour interval for a map with scale 1:10,000 is

  1. A.2 m
  2. B.5 m
  3. C.10 m
  4. D.20 m
Show answer
Correct answer: A. 2 m

The contour interval chosen for a sheet depends chiefly on its scale and on the relief of the ground: a large-scale map can carry closely spaced contours without the lines running into each other, so a small interval is both possible and desirable.

Q8723.GeographyEasy

The representative fraction of a map is written as 1:50,000. What does this mean?

  1. A.One unit on the map represents 50,000 of the same units on the ground
  2. B.One centimetre on the map represents 50,000 kilometres on the ground
  3. C.The map covers an area of 50,000 square kilometres
  4. D.The map has been reduced 50,000 times from an aerial photograph
Show answer
Correct answer: A. One unit on the map represents 50,000 of the same units on the ground

The representative fraction is a pure ratio without units, so one unit of length on the map stands for fifty thousand of the same units on the ground; it can be read in centimetres, inches or any other unit, which is why it is understood everywhere.

Q8725.General ScienceHard

In the pasteurisation of milk, the milk is heated to about

  1. A.40 degrees Celsius for five minutes
  2. B.70 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 seconds
  3. C.100 degrees Celsius for ten minutes
  4. D.121 degrees Celsius for twenty minutes
Show answer
Correct answer: B. 70 degrees Celsius for 15 to 30 seconds

The short, sharp heating kills the disease-causing and most spoilage microbes while leaving the taste and most of the food value of the milk unchanged, which is exactly what boiling does not do.

Q8726.General ScienceHard

Viruses are described as standing on the border of the living and the non-living chiefly because

  1. A.they are smaller than bacteria
  2. B.they can multiply only inside a living host cell and are inert outside it
  3. C.they contain both DNA and RNA
  4. D.they can be killed by antibiotics
Show answer
Correct answer: B. they can multiply only inside a living host cell and are inert outside it

A virus has heredity and mutates like a living thing, yet it has no cell, no metabolism and no means of reproduction of its own; outside a host it is an inert particle that can even be crystallised, as W. M. Stanley showed with the tobacco mosaic virus in 1935…

Q8727.General ScienceMedium

Tuberculosis in human beings is caused by

  1. A.A virus
  2. B.The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis
  3. C.A fungus of the genus Aspergillus
  4. D.The protozoan Entamoeba histolytica
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis

It spreads through droplets in the air, chiefly attacks the lungs, and is treated with a long and uninterrupted course of several antibiotics.

Q8728.General ScienceEasy

The rising of dough in bread making is due to the action of

  1. A.Bacteria producing lactic acid
  2. B.Yeast producing carbon dioxide
  3. C.A virus multiplying in the flour
  4. D.Protozoa feeding on starch
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Yeast producing carbon dioxide

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae ferments the sugars of the dough into ethanol and carbon dioxide, and the gas, trapped in the gluten, makes the dough rise and leaves the bread spongy; the alcohol evaporates during baking.

Q8729.General ScienceMedium

The cell wall of fungi is composed of

  1. A.Peptidoglycan
  2. B.Chitin
  3. C.Cellulose only
  4. D.Protein only
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Chitin

Fungi are eukaryotes with a true nucleus, and their wall is built of chitin, the same tough polysaccharide that forms the exoskeleton of insects and crustaceans.

Q8733.General ScienceEasy

Malaria is caused by which organism, and which vector transmits it?

  1. A.A virus, carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito
  2. B.The protozoan Plasmodium, carried by the female Anopheles mosquito
  3. C.A bacterium, carried by the rat flea
  4. D.A fungus, spread through contaminated water
Show answer
Correct answer: B. The protozoan Plasmodium, carried by the female Anopheles mosquito

Malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium, of which several species infect human beings, and it is transmitted by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito, the male feeding on plant juices.

Q8734.General ScienceEasy

Penicillin, the first antibiotic, was discovered in 1928 by

  1. A.Louis Pasteur
  2. B.Robert Koch
  3. C.Alexander Fleming
  4. D.Edward Jenner
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Alexander Fleming

He noticed that a mould of the genus Penicillium growing by accident on a culture plate had stopped the growth of Staphylococcus around it, and Howard Florey and Ernst Chain later turned that observation into a usable drug, the three sharing the Nobel Prize.

Q8736.Indian PolityMedium

Which of the following is not a ground of disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution?

  1. A.A member voluntarily giving up membership of the party on whose ticket the member was elected
  2. B.A member voting in the House against the direction of the party without prior permission
  3. C.An independent member joining a political party after being elected to the House
  4. D.A member who, on being elected Speaker of the House, gives up membership of the party
Show answer
Correct answer: D. A member who, on being elected Speaker of the House, gives up membership of the party

Paragraph 5 of the Tenth Schedule expressly exempts a person who, on being elected Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha or of a Legislative Assembly, or Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or of a Legislative Council, gives up membership of the party, and the exemption…

Q8737.Indian PolityHard

Which group of Articles was amended by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 along with the insertion of the Tenth Schedule?

  1. A.Articles 101, 102, 190 and 191
  2. B.Articles 102, 103, 191 and 192
  3. C.Articles 100, 101, 189 and 190
  4. D.Articles 105, 106, 194 and 195
Show answer
Correct answer: A. Articles 101, 102, 190 and 191

Articles 101 and 102 deal with the vacation of seats and the disqualifications for membership of Parliament, and Articles 190 and 191 do the same for the State Legislatures.

Q8738.Indian PolityMedium

The Ninety-first Amendment Act, 2003 limited the total number of ministers in the Council of Ministers to what share of the total strength of the House?

  1. A.Ten per cent
  2. B.Twelve per cent
  3. C.Fifteen per cent
  4. D.Twenty per cent
Show answer
Correct answer: C. Fifteen per cent

Article 75(1A) says that the total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, shall not exceed fifteen per cent of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha, and Article 164(1A) lays down the same ceiling for a state with reference to the Legislative Assembly, with a floor of…

Q8739.Indian PolityHard

Which Article, inserted by the Ninety-first Amendment, 2003, bars a member disqualified for defection from holding any remunerative political post?

  1. A.Article 361A
  2. B.Article 361B
  3. C.Article 371J
  4. D.Article 350B
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Article 361B

It provides that a member of either House of Parliament or of a State Legislature who is disqualified on the ground of defection is also disqualified from holding any remunerative political post, from the date of disqualification until the date on which the term of office would expire or until…

Q8740.Indian PolityMedium

Under the Tenth Schedule, a nominated member of a House may join a political party without attracting disqualification within what period of taking the seat?

  1. A.Three months
  2. B.Six months
  3. C.One year
  4. D.A nominated member may never join a party
Show answer
Correct answer: B. Six months

Paragraph 2(3) provides that a nominated member who joins a political party after the expiry of six months from the date on which the member takes the seat is disqualified.

GK Questions for sub-exams