Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the "brain" of the computer. It has an ALU (arithmetic and logic), a Control Unit and registers.

1. Its two main jobs are processing (arithmetic/logical operations on data) and control (fetching, decoding instructions and directing all other units).
2. Input, output, display and storage are done by separate devices – keyboard/mouse, monitor/printer, RAM/hard disk – not by the CPU itself.

Yaad rakhein: CPU = ALU (processing) + CU (control); storage and I/O are peripherals.

Answer: (B) Processing and control

Concept: Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) is the Ministry of Minority Affairs' area-development scheme that funds educational, skill and community infrastructure.

1. In October 2025 the Ministry announced that it would support central and state universities to set up Centres of Excellence for heritage and classical languages under PMJVK.
2. MANF is a research fellowship (discontinued), PM VIKAS is the merged skilling/livelihood scheme and NMDFC is a finance corporation giving loans – none of these fund university infrastructure.

Yaad rakhein: PMJVK = "Vikas Karyakram" = infrastructure (buildings, centres, hostels); PM VIKAS = skills and livelihood.

Answer: (B) Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK)

Concept: Force = mass × acceleration ($F=ma$). Put each quantity in SI base units.

1. Mass → kg; acceleration = velocity ÷ time → $\frac{\text{m/s}}{\text{s}}={\text{m/s}}^2$.
2. So $1\text{N}=1\text{kg}·{\text{m/s}}^2$.
3. $\text{kg}·{\text{m}}^2/{\text{s}}^2$ is the joule (energy) and $\text{kg}·\text{m/s}$ is momentum – common distractors.

Yaad rakhein: N = kg·m/s²; J = N·m = kg·m²/s²; W = J/s.

Answer: (D) $\text{kg}·{\text{m/s}}^2$

Concept: Friction between solid surfaces is of three kinds – static (before motion starts), sliding/kinetic (surfaces slide over each other) and rolling (a body rolls). Fluid friction acts in liquids and gases.

1. A book pushed across a table slides – its flat surface rubs against the table – so sliding (kinetic) friction opposes the motion.
2. Rolling friction would need wheels or a ball; fluid friction needs a liquid/gas medium; "magnetic friction" is not a type of friction.

Yaad rakhein: Static > Sliding > Rolling – that is why wheels and ball bearings make movement easier.

Answer: (B) Sliding friction

Concept: Tropical deciduous (monsoon) forests are India's most widespread forests (rainfall 70–200 cm); their trees shed leaves for 6–8 weeks in the dry season.

1. Teak is the dominant species of the moist deciduous forests (also sal, shisham, sandalwood, khair).
2. Deodar and fir are Himalayan montane conifers; mangroves grow in tidal/deltaic swamps (Sundarbans).

Yaad rakhein: Deciduous = Teak & Sal; Evergreen = Rosewood, Mahogany, Ebony; Montane = Deodar, Pine, Fir.

Answer: (B) Teak

Concept: UNDP = United Nations Development Programme, the UN's global development agency, established in 1965 and headquartered in New York.

1. It publishes the annual Human Development Report with the Human Development Index (HDI).
2. "Deployment" and "Union of Nations" are made-up words to confuse; the UN is always "United Nations".

Yaad rakhein: UNDP → HDI (1990, Mahbub ul Haq & Amartya Sen).

Answer: (B) United Nations Development Programme

Concept: Classic Dravidian temples belong to the Pallava and Chola schools of Tamil Nadu – vimana, gopuram and enclosed courtyard.

1. Shore Temple (Mamallapuram, Pallava), Brihadeeswara at Thanjavur (Rajaraja I) and Gangaikondacholapuram (Rajendra I) are textbook Dravidian examples.
2. The Siddhesvara (Siddheshwara) Temple at Haveri, Karnataka, is a Western Chalukya (Kalyani Chalukya) monument – a Vesara style temple that blends Nagara and Dravidian features.

Yaad rakhein: Tamil Nadu temples (Pallava/Chola/Pandya) → Dravidian; Karnataka Chalukya–Hoysala temples → Vesara.

Answer: (D) Siddhesvara Mahadeva Temple

Concept: The Abel Prize, given by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is the "Nobel of mathematics".

1. The 2025 Abel Prize went to Masaki Kashiwara (Japan, Kyoto University) for his work on algebraic analysis and representation theory, especially D-modules and crystal bases – the first Japanese laureate.
2. Avi Wigderson won in 2021 (with Lovász), Luis Caffarelli in 2023 and Karen Uhlenbeck in 2019 (first woman).

Yaad rakhein: Abel 2023 Caffarelli → 2024 Michel Talagrand → 2025 Masaki Kashiwara.

Answer: (A) Masaki Kashiwara

Concept: MoSPI releases the SDG National Indicator Framework (NIF) Progress Report every year on Statistics Day (29 June) tracking India's SDG indicators.

1. The 2025 report highlighted that social protection coverage (SDG 1.3) rose sharply from 22% in 2016 to 64.3% in 2025, driven by schemes such as PM-JAY, PM-KISAN, PMJJBY/PMSBY and e-Shram.
2. The same figure (64.3%) was also reported in the ILO's World Social Protection data for India, which is why it was widely quoted in 2025.

Yaad rakhein: Social protection: 22% (2016) → 48.8% (2024) → 64.3% (2025).

Answer: (A) 64.3%

Concept: Articles 5–11 (Part II) deal with citizenship. India follows single citizenship; the Constitution does not allow an Indian to be a citizen of another country at the same time.

1. Article 9: a person who has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state shall not be a citizen of India – this implicitly bars dual citizenship.
2. Article 5 = citizenship at commencement; Article 7 = migrants to Pakistan; Article 3 = formation of new states (not citizenship at all).

Yaad rakhein: Art 5 commencement, 6 from Pakistan, 7 to Pakistan, 8 PIO abroad, 9 foreign citizenship = no Indian citizenship, 10 continuance, 11 Parliament's power.

Answer: (B) Article 9

Concept: In 2025 a study on airborne microbes (bioaerosols) over the Sundarbans mangroves was reported by scientists of IISER Kolkata, an institute under the Department of Science & Technology network located in Mohanpur, West Bengal.

1. The team sampled air over the mangrove forest and identified bacteria and fungi carried in the aerosols, including potential pathogens, linking them to tidal and seasonal conditions.
2. WII Dehradun works on wildlife, NIO Goa on oceanography and IIT Kharagpur is an engineering institute – none of them led this study.

Yaad rakhein: Sundarbans research in Bengal → IISER Kolkata / Jadavpur / Calcutta University are the usual institutes.

Answer: (B) IISER Kolkata

Concept: The President is the constitutional head of the Union; the Vice-President is the ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha (Article 64).

1. President's functions: promulgating ordinances (Art 123), granting pardons/remissions (Art 72), summoning and proroguing Parliament and dissolving the Lok Sabha (Art 85).
2. The President never presides over a Rajya Sabha sitting – that is the Vice-President (or Deputy Chairman); the President only addresses Parliament (Art 87).

Yaad rakhein: President addresses, VP presides (Rajya Sabha), Speaker presides (Lok Sabha).

Answer: (B) Presiding over Rajya Sabha sessions

Concept: Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) in Windows 10 and 11 has tabs: Processes, Performance, App History, Startup, Users, Details, Services.

1. The Processes tab lists every running app with its live CPU, Memory, Disk, Network and GPU columns – so you can see which application is using the graphics card.
2. Performance shows the overall GPU graph for the whole system, not per application; App History shows past usage; Startup manages boot programs.

Yaad rakhein: "Per app / individual application" → Processes tab; "whole system graphs" → Performance tab.

Answer: (A) Processes

Concept: Chola kings took titles celebrating their conquests. "Gangaikonda" means "the one who conquered the Ganga".

1. Rajendra I (1014–1044 CE) sent an expedition to the Ganga (defeating the Pala king Mahipala), took the title Gangaikonda Chola and built a new capital Gangaikondacholapuram with a Brihadeeswara temple.
2. Vijayalaya founded the imperial Chola line (Thanjavur); Rajaraja I (his father) built the Thanjavur Brihadeeswara temple; Pulakesin II was a Chalukya ruler.

Yaad rakhein: Rajaraja I → Thanjavur temple; Rajendra I → Ganga expedition, Gangaikondacholapuram, naval raid on Srivijaya.

Answer: (B) Rajendra I

Concept: Razia, daughter of Iltutmish, was the only woman ruler of the Delhi Sultanate (Mamluk/Slave dynasty).

1. She ascended the throne in 1236 after the brief reign of her brother Rukn-ud-din Firoz and ruled till 1240, when the Turkish nobles (the "Chahalgani") deposed her; she was killed in October 1240.
2. 1230–1236 falls within Iltutmish's own reign (1211–1236); 1240–1246 is the reign of Bahram Shah and Masud Shah.

Yaad rakhein: Iltutmish dies 1236 → Razia 1236–40 → Bahram → Masud → Nasiruddin Mahmud (1246–66, Balban as regent).

Answer: (A) 1236–1240

Concept: Weighted average $=\frac{\sum (\text{score}\times \text{weight})}{\sum \text{weights}}$.

1. $75\times 2+80\times 3+90\times 5=150+240+450=840$
2. Total weight $=2+3+5=10$
3. Weighted average $=\frac{840}{10}=84$

Trick: Take 80 as base: deviations $-5\times 2+0\times 3+10\times 5=40$; $40÷10=4$, so $80+4=84$.

Answer: (D) 84

Concept: A number leaving the same remainder $r$ on division by several numbers is of the form $k\times \text{LCM}+r$.

1. LCM$(7,6,10)=210$
2. Largest 4-digit multiple of 210: $9999÷210=47$ rem $129$, so $9999-129=9870$
3. Required number $=9870+5=9875$

Trick: Check options: $9875-5=9870=210\times 47$ – only this one works.

Answer: (B) 9875

Concept: Amount $A=P{(1+\frac{R}{100})}^T$.

1. $A=4000\times {\left(\frac{11}{10}\right)}^2=4000\times \frac{121}{100}$
2. $A=40\times 121=4840$

Trick: 10% for 2 years = effective $21\%$; $4000+840=4840$.

Answer: (D) ₹4840

Concept: Work per hour of each tap is $\frac{1}{\text{time}}$; an emptying tap is negative.

1. Net part filled per hour $=\frac{1}{4}+\frac{1}{11}-\frac{1}{11}=\frac{1}{4}$
2. The second tap and the emptying tap cancel each other exactly.
3. Full cistern in 4 h, so one-fourth in $4\times \frac{1}{4}=1$ hour.

Trick: Equal fill and empty times (11 h each) cancel – only the 4-hour tap matters.

Answer: (C) 1

Concept: Three successive discounts of $d\%$ leave ${(1-\frac{d}{100})}^3$ of the price.

1. Remaining fraction $=0.9\times 0.9\times 0.9=0.729$
2. Price paid $=72.9\%$
3. Single equivalent discount $=100-72.9=27.1\%$

Trick: Two 10% discounts $=19\%$; then $19+10-\frac{19\times 10}{100}=27.1\%$.

Answer: (C) $27.1\%$