CDS Syllabus and Exam Pattern

How the CDS exam is structured

Selection runs in three steps. First comes the written exam on an OMR sheet. Those who clear it are called to the Services Selection Board for psychological tests, group tasks and a personal interview. Recommended candidates then go through a medical examination. Your rank is worked out from the written score plus the SSB score, so the written paper is not just a gate; every mark you earn there counts in the final order.

The academy you aim for decides which papers you write. If you list OTA along with IMA, INA or AFA, you still sit all three papers, and your OTA merit is drawn from the English and GK marks only.

CDS exam pattern and marking scheme

The CDS marking scheme penalises guessing: every wrong bubble takes away a third of what that question is worth, while a bubble left empty takes away nothing. Because English and GK carry 120 questions for 100 marks, each English question is worth about 0.83 marks, so a wrong answer there costs roughly 0.28. In Maths each question is worth one mark. The question counts above come from recent papers; the notification fixes the marks and time, so check the latest notification for any change.

The SSB interview adds 300 marks for IMA, INA and AFA and 200 for OTA. UPSC also sets minimum qualifying marks in the written papers at its discretion.

CDS English syllabus

The official line is short: the paper tests your understanding of English and workmanlike use of words. In practice the questions fall into a handful of repeatable types:

• Spotting errors in sentences, usually split into three or four parts
• Synonyms and antonyms, often of words used in context
• Sentence improvement and fill in the blanks with the right word or preposition
• Ordering of words within a sentence and ordering of sentences in a paragraph
• Idioms and phrases
• Reading comprehension and cloze passages

The CDS English marking scheme is the same as the other papers, so English rewards speed with accuracy. Since every academy, OTA included, counts this paper, it is the single most valuable paper you write.

General Knowledge syllabus

UPSC describes this paper as general knowledge including current events and everyday observation and experience in their scientific aspects, of the kind an educated person should know, along with questions on Indian history and geography. Break it into these blocks:

• Science: basic physics, chemistry and biology from school level, plus defence and space technology
• History: ancient, medieval and modern India, the freedom struggle
• Geography: physical geography, India's rivers, soils, climate, world geography
• Polity: the Constitution, Parliament, judiciary, fundamental rights and duties
• Economy: basic concepts, budgets, banking, schemes
• Current affairs: national and international events, defence exercises, awards, sports

Elementary Mathematics syllabus

The maths paper is pitched at matriculation level, but it is long and the options are close. The official topics are:

• Arithmetic: number system, fundamental operations, unitary method, percentages, time and distance, work done by people or pipes over time, simple and compound interest, profit and loss, ratio and proportion, variation
• Elementary number theory: division algorithm, prime and composite numbers, tests of divisibility, HCF and LCM, Euclidean algorithm, logarithms to base 10
• Algebra: basic operations, factors, remainder theorem, polynomials, quadratic equations, simultaneous linear equations and inequations, set language, laws of indices
• Trigonometry: ratios for angles between 0 and 90 degrees, standard values, simple identities, heights and distances
• Geometry: lines and angles, triangles, congruence and similarity, parallelograms, circles, tangents, loci
• Mensuration: areas of plane figures, surface area and volume of cuboids, cones, cylinders and spheres
• Statistics: tabulation, frequency polygons, histograms, bar and pie charts, measures of central tendency

What to focus on first

Look at the arithmetic of the exam before you plan. OTA rank depends only on English and GK. IMA, INA and AFA ranks add Maths, but Maths is also where many graduates from non science streams lose time. So a sensible order is English first, then Maths drills, then GK built week by week.

For Maths, NCERT books for classes 8 to 10 cover nearly every topic. For GK, the NCERT history, geography, polity and science texts of classes 6 to 10 give you the base; add a monthly current affairs compilation.

CDS syllabus in Hindi

सीडीएस परीक्षा में तीन प्रश्न पत्र होते हैं: अंग्रेज़ी, सामान्य ज्ञान और प्रारंभिक गणित। हर पेपर 100 अंक का और दो घंटे का होता है। आईएमए, आईएनए और एएफए के उम्मीदवार तीनों पेपर देते हैं, जबकि ओटीए के लिए सिर्फ अंग्रेज़ी और सामान्य ज्ञान गिने जाते हैं। हर गलत जवाब पर उस प्रश्न के एक तिहाई अंक घट जाते हैं। जीके के पेपर में भारत का इतिहास और भूगोल, संविधान, अर्थव्यवस्था, रोज़मर्रा का विज्ञान तथा ताज़ा घटनाएँ पूछी जाती हैं। गणित में अंकगणित, बीजगणित, त्रिकोणमिति, ज्यामिति, क्षेत्रमिति और सांख्यिकी शामिल हैं। लिखित परीक्षा के बाद एसएसबी इंटरव्यू होता है।

Syllabus and eligibility together

Before you start a six month plan, confirm that you can apply for the academy you want. Age bands differ by entry, INA needs an engineering degree and AFA needs physics and maths at 10+2 level. The full rules, physical standards and marital status conditions are on our CDS eligibility page. If you are aiming only for OTA, the narrower two paper plan on the CDS OTA syllabus page will save you months.

People often ask about the CDS exam pattern and cutoff together. UPSC publishes the written and final cut off marks for each academy only after the full selection cycle ends, and they move with vacancies and paper difficulty, so treat the syllabus of CDS exam as fixed ground and the cut off as a moving target.

Still in class 12? The NDA syllabus is the equivalent route, and our defence and police exams hub compares all the officer entries.