About CDS Exam:
CDS exam conducted in offline mode twice a year for the recruitment of officers for the Navy, Airforce, and Army branch (Non-Technical) for both men and women candidates. Combined Defence Service Examination (CDS) is conducted in two stages, stage 1 is the written exam and stage 2 is Service Selection Board (SSB).
The stage 1 written exam has 3 papers that are paper 1 is of English, paper 2 is of General Knowledge, and Paper 3 is of Mathematics. Paper 1 and paper 2 are of common nature for all the applicants but paper 3 of Mathematics is for all the candidates except for the one who filled OTA as their first preference.
The stage 1 written exam of CDS is of 300 marks for the candidates who applied for the Indian Military Academy (Dehradun), Indian Naval Academy (Ezhimala), Air Force Academy (Hyderabad) it comprises of 3 papers and 150 questions in paper 1 and paper 2 and each question is of 0.83 marks and of 2 hours and paper 3 has 100 questions and each question is of 1 mark and of 2 hours. For the candidates who applied for Officers Training Academy, Chennai (Madras) there written paper will be 200 marks.
CDS paper syllabus is comprised of General Knowledge, English, and Mathematics. Matriculation level standard Numerical Ability questions asked.
CDS Exam Question Paper Analysis:
| Paper | Subjects | Duration | No. of Questions | Max. Marks |
| Paper 1 | English | 2 hours | 120 | 100 |
| Paper 2 | General Knowledge | 2 hours | 120 | 100 |
| Paper 3 | Elementary Mathematics | 2 hours | 100 | 100 |
Read Here: UPSC NDA Exam complete detail
Detail analysis of Combined Defence Service (CDS) Examination syllabus:
UPSC CDS Exam Paper 1 Syllabus:
(1) English Syllabus:
The English question paper is designed to test the basic understanding of English of the candidate. The questions in the English paper are asked from the following topics:
- Comprehension/Passage
- Spotting Error
- Sentence Completion/Filling in of correct word
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Testing of Vocabulary
- Idioms and Phrases
- Ordering of Words in a Sentence
- Ordering of Sentence
- Cloze Composition
- Parts of Speech
- Completion of Sentence
- Preposition and Determiners
UPSC CDS Exam Paper 2 Syllabus:
(2) General Awareness Syllabus:
(i) History Syllabus:
History is in three parts in Ancient history, Medieval History, and Modern History.
Ancient History Syllabus:
- The Indus Valley Civilization
- The Vedic Age
- The Evolution of Jainism and Buddhism
- The Pre-Gupta Period
- Ancient South India
- The Gupta Period
Medieval History Syllabus:
- Early Medieval India
- The Delhi Sultanate
- The Vijayanagara and Bahmani Kingdom
- The Mughal Age
- Late Mughal Age
Modern History Syllabus:
- The ascendancy of the Britishers
- The Revolt of 1857
- Popular Movements Against British Rule
- Governor-General and Viceroy of India
- Indian National Movement
- Independence of India
(2) Geography Syllabus:
The geography comprises Indian geography and World geography.
Indian geography Syllabus:
- Physical Geography of India
- Drainage System of India
- Climate of India
- Soils of India
- Forests of India
- Population Geography of India
- Industry in India
- Agriculture in India
- Minerals in India
- Transport and Communication
World Geography Syllabus:
- World Physical Geography
- World Climatic Regions
- Oceans
- Atmosphere
- World Mineral Resources
- World Major Industrial Centres
(3) Indian Polity Syllabus:
- Constitution of India: Historical Background
- Features of Indian Constitution
- The Preamble
- The Union and its Territory
- The Union Executive
- State Executive and State Legislature
- Center-state Relations
- Judiciary
- Emergency Provisions
- Constitutional and Non-Constitutional Bodies
(4) Economics:
- National Income
- Money and Banking
- Planning
- Public Finance and Taxation
- Union Budget
(5) Miscellaneous:
- Current Affairs
- Environment and Wild Life
- Basic Science
- Defence
- Art and Culture
- Sports
- International Organisation
- Country, Capital, Area, Currency
- Awards and Honours
UPSC CDS Exam Paper 3 Syllabus:
(3) Elementary Mathematics Syllabus:
Arithmetic:
- Number System— Integers, Natural numbers, Real numbers, and Rational Number.
- Fundamental Mathematical operations like Subtraction, Addition, Division, Multiplication.
- Square roots.
- Decimal fractions.
- Unitary method.
- Time and Distance
- Time and Work.
- Percentages.
- Simple and Compound interest.
- Profit and Loss.
- Ratio and Proportion.
- Variation.
- Elementary Number Theory—Division algorithm.
- Prime and composite numbers.
- Divisibility Test by 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, and 11.
- Multiples and factors.
- Factorization Theorem.
- C.F. and L.C.M.
- Euclidean algorithm.
- Logarithms to base 10.
- Laws of logarithms.
- Use of logarithmic tables.
Algebra:
- Basic Operations.
- simple factor.
- Remainder Theorem.
- C.F. and L.C.M.
- Theory of polynomial.
- Solutions of quadratic equations.
- Relation between its roots and coefficients.
- Analytical and graphical solutions of Simultaneous linear equations in two unknowns.
- Two variables simultaneous linear inequations and their solutions.
- Practical problems leading to two simultaneous inequations in two variables or linear equations or quadratic equations in one variable & their solutions.
- Set notation and Set language.
- Conditional identities and Rational expressions.
- Laws of indices.
Trigonometry:
- Simple Trigonometric Operations.
- Trigonometric Identities.
- Use of trigonometric tables.
- Heights and Distances.
Geometry:
- Lines and angles
- Plane and plane figures.
- Theorems on:
(i) Properties of angles at a point.
(ii) Parallel lines
(iii) Sides and angles of a triangle.
(iv) Congruency of Triangles.
(v) Similar triangles.
(vi) Concurrence of altitudes and medians.
(vii) Properties of sides, angles, and diagonals of a rectangle, parallelogram, and square.
(viii) Circles and properties of circle including normal and tangents.
(ix) Loci.
Mensuration:
- Squares.
- Rectangles
- Parallelograms.
- Triangle.
- Circle.
- Volume and Surface area of cuboids.
- Volume and Lateral surface of right circular cones.
- Volume and Lateral surface of cylinders.
- Volume and Surface area of spheres.
Statistics:
- Tabulation and Collection of statistical data.
- Histograms, bar charts, polygons, pie charts.
- Measures of central tendency.
UPSC CDS Syllabus for OTA:
The candidates who applied only for the OTA; that is OTA as their first preference will not be eligible for admission in any of the other academies other than the Officers Training Academy (Chennai). These candidates have to give only Paper 1 that is of English and Paper 2 that is of General Knowledge and they not need to give paper 3 of Elementary Mathematics.
The CDS 2021 Exam syllabus for the OTA candidate of paper 1 and paper 2 will be the same as for the other candidates. The detailed analysis of the syllabus for paper 1 and paper 2 is shown above.
See Here: UPSC NDA 2021 Exam Syllabus