CDS PYQ: Previous Year Question Papers 2016–2026

This page lists CDS previous year question papers for 11 years, 2016 to 2026, with 120 official PDFs (question papers and answer keys). CDS (Combined Defence Services Examination) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and covers English, General Knowledge and Elementary Mathematics. Pick a year below for the paper, answer key and a timed practice plan; confirm dates and pattern on upsc.gov.in.

Explore: Question papers by year · Syllabus & pattern · Pattern changes · FAQ

Year-wise question papers

Prefer to practise one topic at a time? CDS topic-wise PYQs lists all 7480 questions from 66 official CDS papers by topic, with the official answers.

About CDS

The Combined Defence Services (CDS) exam is how graduates join the armed forces as officers through four academies: the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun, the Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala, the Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigal, and the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai. IMA, INA and AFA lead to a permanent commission. OTA offers a short service commission and is open to both men and women. INA needs an engineering degree, and AFA needs a degree with Physics and Mathematics at Class 12 or an engineering degree. IMA and OTA accept graduates from any stream.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) runs the written exam twice a year, as CDS I (usually in April) and CDS II (usually in September). Those who clear the written cut-off for an academy go on to a Services Selection Board (SSB) interview and a medical examination.

CDS has a fixed pattern and UPSC publishes its question papers, so past papers are the most reliable practice you can get. Each year gives you two complete sets. The questions also have a strong UPSC flavour. Spotting errors and ordering sentences in English, conceptual science and static history in GK, and Class 10-level arithmetic and geometry in Maths come up in almost every paper. The full syllabus and eligibility rules are on the CDS syllabus and pattern page.

How the paper has changed since 2016

The written pattern has not changed over the years on this hub. What you sit depends on which academy you apply for.

So IMA, INA and AFA candidates write three papers for 300 marks, and OTA-only candidates write English and GK for 200 marks. If you apply for OTA and one of the other academies, you sit all three. All papers are offline objective tests on an OMR sheet, and each wrong answer loses one-third of the marks for that question.

CDS I and CDS II

The two sittings in a year are separate exams with separate papers and separate cut-offs. They are not shifts, and UPSC does not normalise scores between them. For practice, this gives you two full mocks for every year on this hub. Each academy also has its own cut-off.

If you are taking both sittings in a year, keep one error log for the whole year. The gap between CDS I and CDS II is long enough to fix the weak areas you find in the first sitting.

What the papers show, paper by paper

English (120 questions, 100 marks)

CDS English is long. You have 120 questions in two hours, so you need to move at about a minute a question and finish the comprehension passages without rushing. The paper usually has spotting errors, sentence improvement, ordering of sentences and of parts of a sentence, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms, cloze passages and reading comprehension.

Past papers show that the errors UPSC plants come from a fairly small set of rules: subject-verb agreement, tenses, articles, prepositions, pronouns and comparison. When you miss one, write the rule beside the question in your own words. Ordering questions are the biggest time sink. Practise finding the opening sentence and any linked pair first, and use the options to eliminate.

English counts for every academy, so it is the paper where steady improvement helps you the most.

General Knowledge (120 questions, 100 marks)

The GK paper covers history, geography, polity, economy, general science, current events and defence-related topics. Science is conceptual and roughly at Class 10 level: physics of everyday things, basic chemistry, and human biology. History covers ancient, medieval and modern India, with a steady stream of freedom movement questions. Geography covers both India and the world.

When you review a past paper, put each miss into one of three groups. Science misses usually point to an NCERT chapter, so go back to it. Static history, geography and polity misses go on a short list you revise weekly, because UPSC repeats these facts. Current events and defence news from old papers will not be asked again, but they show you what to follow in the news: military exercises, weapons systems, awards, international summits and organisations.

GK questions in CDS often include statement-based items where you must judge two or three statements. Elimination helps here. If you are sure one statement is wrong, cross out every option that includes it.

Elementary Mathematics (100 questions, 100 marks)

This paper is for IMA, INA and AFA candidates. It is set at about Class 10 level: arithmetic (number system, HCF and LCM, percentages, ratio and proportion, averages, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time and distance), algebra (polynomials, linear and quadratic equations, sets), trigonometry (identities, heights and distances), geometry (lines, triangles, circles, quadrilaterals), mensuration and statistics.

The questions are not deep, but 100 questions in two hours is a fast pace, and graduates who have not done school Maths for several years find this the hardest paper. Past papers show which arithmetic and geometry set-ups come back. Learn the short methods for those, and practise speed on a timer. As in any UPSC objective paper, keep your wrong answers in check, since each costs a third of a mark.

Notes on recent years

2023 to 2025 are the closest papers to what you will sit. Keep at least two complete sets from these years for your final month, and sit them in the order and timing of the real exam.

2021 and 2022 were held in the standard format, twice a year. They are good full practice and a good place to start your error logs.

2020 had CDS I in February, before the lockdown, and CDS II in November, later than usual. Both papers follow the normal pattern.

2016 to 2019 are in exactly the same format as today. Use them for topic-wise practice in Maths and for building your GK lists.

UPSC releases official answer keys for CDS only after the final results of that cycle. For recent papers, coaching keys may be all you can find. Check any answer that looks wrong before you trust it.

Using old papers at different stages of preparation

While you are still in college

Start with English and GK, since every academy needs them. Do the English section of one old paper a week, and keep a list of every word and grammar rule you miss. Read NCERT science from Classes 8 to 10 and solve the science questions from past GK papers as you go. If you are aiming for IMA, INA or AFA, revise Class 10 Maths chapter by chapter, with past CDS questions after each chapter.

With about six months to go

Sit one full set of papers a week, in exam order and timing. Keep separate error logs for English, GK and Maths. Spend most of your weekday study fixing the errors from those logs. Add a monthly current affairs summary, with extra attention to defence news.

In the last two months

Sit full sets twice a week, using the 2023 to 2025 papers. Track how many questions you attempt and how many you get right in each paper. In the last two weeks, revise your vocabulary list, your static GK list and your Maths formula sheet daily, and stop adding new material. Prepare for SSB only after the written exam unless you have plenty of spare time.

Mistakes students make with past papers

The most common mistake is treating English as an easy paper. Many graduates assume their English is fine and spend their time on GK. Then they run out of time on 120 questions. Sit the English paper on a timer early, and you will see where your time goes.

The second is too much current affairs and too little static GK. Old papers show that a large share of GK is static history, geography, polity and science, and those facts repeat. Current events from past papers will not.

Graduates applying for IMA, INA or AFA often leave Elementary Maths too late because it looks like school work. Speed is the problem, not difficulty, and speed takes weeks to build.

Last, attempting every question is a poor strategy in a paper that takes off a third of the marks for each wrong answer. Use past papers to find your own best number of attempts in each paper.

FAQ

Where can I get CDS previous year question papers?

UPSC publishes CDS question papers on upsc.gov.in under previous question papers. Each year page here has the official PDFs, with a link to UPSC’s original, and adds notes on what that year’s papers tested.

What is the CDS exam pattern?

There are three papers of 2 hours each: English (120 questions, 100 marks), General Knowledge (120 questions, 100 marks) and Elementary Mathematics (100 questions, 100 marks). IMA, INA and AFA candidates sit all three. OTA candidates sit only English and GK. Wrong answers lose a third of the question’s marks.

Do OTA candidates need to solve the Maths papers?

No. If you apply only for OTA, you sit English and General Knowledge. If you also apply for IMA, INA or AFA, you sit Elementary Mathematics as well, so practise all three papers.

How many years of CDS papers should I solve?

Aim for all papers from the last ten years. With two sittings a year, that is about twenty sets. If time is short, do 2020 to 2025 as full papers and use the older years for topic-wise practice.

Are CDS I and CDS II papers different?

Yes. They are separate exams held months apart, with different papers and separate cut-offs. There is no normalisation between them, so each one works as an independent full mock.

How do I improve my CDS English score using past papers?

Sit the English paper on a strict 2-hour timer and note where you lose time. Keep a list of the grammar rules and words you missed, and revise it a few times a week. Practise sentence ordering separately, since it is the slowest question type for most students.

How much current affairs comes in CDS GK?

Some, including defence news, but a large share of the paper is static history, geography, polity and science. Past papers show those static facts repeating, so they deserve more of your revision time than old current events.

When does UPSC release the CDS answer key?

Only after the final results of that cycle are declared, which is months after the written exam. Until then, coaching keys are the only option, so check doubtful answers yourself.

Where to get the official papers

UPSC publishes CDS notifications, question papers, answer keys and results on upsc.gov.in. We host the official papers on each year page and add notes, but the current UPSC notification is the final word on dates, pattern, academies and eligibility.