About the UPSC Prelims 2020 GS Paper I

The Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2020, General Studies Paper I, was held on 4 October 2020 (delayed from the usual May/June slot due to the pandemic). Indian Polity dominated the paper, accounting for close to a fifth of all questions, with dense statement-and-code-based questions testing precise constitutional and administrative detail rather than surface recall.

Indian Economy and Environment & Ecology also carried heavy weightage, with Science & Technology close behind — including several questions on emerging tech such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, visible light communication, and gene-editing techniques. History (spanning Ancient, Medieval, and Modern) and Geography were tested more selectively but still demanded specific factual recall (the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, Gupta-era ports, sugarcane cultivation trends), and a small set of current-affairs questions rounded out the paper. Two questions — on the Gandhi-Irwin Pact (Q27 on this page) and India's international trade (Q52) — were later officially dropped by UPSC, with bonus marks awarded to all candidates.

This page lets you attempt the complete paper — all 100 objective-type questions — in a browser-based test environment that mirrors the real exam: a 2-hour countdown, UPSC's standard +2/−⅔ marking scheme, a question palette for navigation, and an instant score card with subject-wise accuracy once you submit.

Frequently asked questions