CDS (Combined Defence Services) Mock Tests & Free Practice

CDS EXAM PATTERN — CDS (II) 2026 CYCLE Examination Notice No. 11/2026-CDS-II, notified 20 May 2026. Written exam: 13 September 2026. SELECTION STAGES - Stage 1 — Written examination (objective, offline OMR) - Stage 2 — SSB Interview: intelligence and personality test at a Services Selection Centre - Stage 3 — Medical examination; final merit and academy allotment WRITTEN EXAM FOR IMA, INA AND AFA English (Code 11) — 120 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours General Knowledge (Code 12) — 120 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours Elementary Mathematics (Code 13) — 100 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours Written total — 300 marks WRITTEN EXAM FOR OTA (SSC Men and SSC Women, Non-Technical) English (Code 11) — 120 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours General Knowledge (Code 12) — 120 questions, 100 marks, 2 hours Written total — 200 marks SSB INTERVIEW MARKS Interview marks equal written marks: 300 each for IMA, INA and AFA, and 200 for OTA. Grand total is 600 marks for IMA, INA and AFA; 400 for OTA. SSB runs in two stages. Stage I is the Officer Intelligence Rating (OIR) test plus Picture Perception and Description Test (PP&DT); only those who clear it go forward. Stage II is the Interview, Group Testing Officer tasks, Psychology tests and the Conference, conducted over four days. UPSC assigns no separate weightage to individual SSB tests. NEGATIVE MARKING Every question has four options. One-third (0.33) of the marks for a question is deducted for each wrong answer. Marking more than one option counts as a wrong answer and carries the same penalty. A question left blank carries no penalty. MODE, LANGUAGE AND RULES Pen-and-paper test; answers are marked on an OMR sheet with a black ball pen only. Calculators are not permitted. The General Knowledge and Elementary Mathematics booklets are bilingual (Hindi and English); the English paper is in English only. QUALIFYING MARKS AND MERIT UPSC may fix qualifying marks in any or all subjects. A candidate must separately clear the minimum qualifying marks in the written exam (fixed by UPSC) and the SSB test (fixed by the SSB). Final merit is written marks plus SSB marks, rounded to two decimals. Ties are broken first by total written marks, then by General Knowledge marks. Final selection remains subject to medical fitness and vacancies. EXAM DAY TIMINGS (13.09.2026) English 9:00–11:00 AM; General Knowledge 12:30–2:30 PM; Elementary Mathematics 4:00–6:00 PM.