The Combined Defence Services Exam is conducted by the UPSC two times in a year for admissions to Indian Military Academy (IMA), Indian Naval Academy (INA), Air Force Academy (AFA) and Officers Training Academy (OTA).

Important Dates

Notification Date: 16 July, 2016
Last Date to Apply: 12 August, 2016
CDS Exam Date: 23 October, 2016

Exam Pattern
Paper / Subject Questions Duration Marks
English 120 2 Hours 100
General Knowledge 120 2 Hours 100
Elementary Mathematics 100 2 Hours 100
Elementary Mathematics is not required for admission to Officers Training Academy (OTA). There is penalty for wrong answers.

Eligibility
Women candidates are eligible for OTA only.

Education:
For IMA and OTA, you need a degree of a recognized university.
For INA, degree in engineering is required.
For AFA, you should have a recognized degree and Physics & Mathematics at 10+2 level.

CDS Syllabus:

Paper 1
English
Reading Comprehension
Jumbled Sentence
Fill in the blanks
Sentence Correction
Finding errors and omittions etc

Paper 2:
General Knowledge
Knowledge of current topics
knowledge of History of India and Geographical issues
Indian Economy
Current happening in the field of business, politics, sports, entertainment etc.
Monuments of India
Books and Authors name etc

Paper 3:
Elementary Mathematics
Arithmetic
Algebra
Geometry
Trigonometry
Menstruation
Statistics