UPSC Combined Defence Services

English (objective)

• English — the question paper will be designed to test the candidates' understanding of English and workmanlike use of words

General Knowledge (objective, two-part structure per Appendix-I)

• General Knowledge including current events and such matters of everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspects as may be expected of an educated person who has not made a special study of any scientific subject
• History of India and Geography of a nature which candidate should be able to answer without special study
  1. 1.Decline of the Mughal Empire
  2. 2.Rise of Regional States
  3. 3.Advent of Europeans in India — From Vasco da Gama to British Supremacy
  4. 4.British Conquest of Bengal
  5. 5.Anglo-Mysore Wars (1767-1799)
  6. 6.Anglo-Maratha Wars (1775-1818)
  + 41 more chaptersShow fewer

  1. 7.Subsidiary Alliance, Doctrine of Lapse & the Anglo-Sikh Wars
  2. 8.Drain of Wealth, Deindustrialisation, and Land Revenue Systems
  3. 9.Civil Rebellions and Tribal Uprisings Before 1857
  4. 10.The Revolt of 1857
  5. 11.Post-1857 Administration and Crown Rule (1858-1900)
  6. 12.Socio-Religious Reform Movements of 19th Century India
  7. 13.Early Nationalism and the Formation of the Indian National Congress (1858-1905)
  8. 14.Partition of Bengal and the Swadeshi Movement (1905-1911)
  9. 15.The Three Infrastructures of Nationalism: Press, Education and the Peasant Movements (1780-1947)
  10. 16.World War I, Ghadar, Home Rule and the Lucknow Pact (1914-1918)
  11. 17.Gandhi's Emergence: From the South African Laboratory to Jallianwala Bagh (1915-1920)
  12. 18.Non-Cooperation Movement and Khilafat Aandolan (1920-1922)
  13. 19.The Years of Stagnation: Swarajists, the New Forces and the Revolutionaries (1922-1931)
  14. 20.The Gathering Storm: Simon Commission, the Nehru Report and Purna Swaraj (1927-1930)
  15. 21.Civil Disobedience Movement and Round Table Conferences (1930-34)
  16. 22.The Constitution They Despised and the Office They Took: GoI Act 1935, Congress Ministries and the Rise of the Left (1935-1939)
  17. 23.The Inclined Plane: Communalism from Syed Ahmad Khan to the Two-Nation Theory (1880s-1947)
  18. 24.Wartime Politics: From the Crisis at Tripuri to the Cripps Mission (1939-1942)
  19. 25.The Two Frontiers: Princely India and the Indian Capitalists in the Freedom Struggle (1920s-1947)
  20. 26.Quit India Movement and the INA (1942-1945)
  21. 27.Post-War National Scenario and the Transfer of Power (1945–47)
  22. 28.Independence with Partition — the Freedom and the Fracture
  23. 29.Post-Independence Consolidation (1947-1964)
  24. 30.Geomorphology — The Two Forces That Build the Land and Wear It Down
  25. 31.World Regional Physiography — Where the Earth's Relief Actually Is
  26. 32.Climatology — What the Air Does, and Why Water Is the Reason
  27. 33.World Climatic Regions — The Types, and Two Ways of Sorting Them
  28. 34.Oceanography — The Relief, the Salt, the Heat and the Currents of the Water Half of the Earth
  29. 35.Biogeography and the Natural Vegetation of the World — How an Ecosystem Works, and Why the Living Cover of the Earth Lies in Belts
  30. 36.India: Physiography — A Shield, a Rising Wall, a Filled Trough, and Two Kinds of Island
  31. 37.Drainage Systems of India — How the Rivers Are Arranged, and Why They Behave As They Do
  32. 38.India: Climate and the Monsoon — One Rhythm, and the Variety Inside It
  33. 39.Soils of India — Formation, the Profile, the Groups, and the Erosion That Takes Them
  34. 40.India's Natural Vegetation and Wildlife — The Forest Types, the Belts Up the Himalaya, and What Has Been Done to Them
  35. 41.Water Resources of India — Four Per Cent of the World's Water for Seventeen Per Cent of Its People
  36. 42.World Resources and Industry — Where the Minerals Lie and Where the Factories Went
  37. 43.Minerals and Energy Resources of India — What the Rock Decides, and How Old Every Number Here Is
  38. 44.Industries of India — Why a Factory Stands Where It Does, and Which of These Sentences Has Expired
  39. 45.Economic Geography and Human Activities — Why an Activity Is Where It Is
  40. 46.India's Agriculture — Where the Crops Are, in Which Season, and Why the Yields Divide
  41. 47.Transport, Communication and Trade in India — The Network That Carries the Economy, and the Date on Every Number

Elementary Mathematics syllabus (six areas, objective, IMA/INA/AFA only)

• Arithmetic — Number System (natural/integer/rational/real numbers, fundamental operations, square roots, decimal fractions, unitary method, time/distance/work, percentages, simple/compound interest, profit/loss, ratio/proportion, variation); Elementary Number Theory (division algorithm, prime/composite numbers, tests of divisibility, HCF/LCM, Euclidean algorithm, logarithms)
• Algebra — basic operations, simple factors, Remainder Theorem, HCF and LCM, theory of polynomials, solutions of quadratic equations, relation between roots and coefficients, simultaneous linear equations and inequations in two variables/graphs, set language and set notation, rational expressions and conditional identities, laws of indices
• Trigonometry — sine, cosine, tangent of an angle 0-90°, values at 0/30/45/60/90°, simple trigonometric identities, use of trigonometric tables, simple cases of heights and distances
• Geometry — lines and angles, plane figures, theorems on angles at a point/parallel lines/sides and angles of a triangle/congruency of triangles/similar triangles/medians and altitudes/parallelograms-rectangles-squares properties/circles and tangents, loci
• Mensuration — areas of squares, rectangles, parallelograms, triangles and circles; surface area and volume of cuboids, cones, cylinders and spheres
• Statistics — classification and tabulation of statistical data, graphical representation (histogram, pie chart, frequency polygon), measures of central tendency