CDS Previous Year Questions: Last 12 Years' Papers with Answers
CDS Previous Year Questions for the last 12 years, every subject, every cycle, direct PDF links in one table instead of hunting across a dozen different pages.
CDS Previous Year Questions from the last 12 years, 2015 to 2026, cover both CDS 1 and CDS 2 cycles each year, across all three papers, English, General Knowledge, and Elementary Mathematics, which comes to 72 question paper PDFs in total. These papers are common to IMA, AFA, and INA candidates; OTA candidates use the same English and General Knowledge papers but skip Mathematics entirely. UPSC does not release an official answer key for CDS, so these are the genuine question papers themselves; answers and solutions for self-checking are typically published separately by coaching platforms, not by UPSC.
Twelve years of real CDS papers tell you more about the actual exam than any prediction or trend article can, the same categories, the same difficulty band, repeating year after year with only the specific questions changing.
This page collects all 72 of them, CDS 1 and CDS 2, 2015 through 2026, English, GK, and Maths, as direct PDF links, organized by year so you're not hunting across a dozen different pages to build a practice set.
This CDS Previous Year Questions collection gets updated with each new cycle as soon as a reliable copy of the paper becomes available, rather than stopping at an arbitrary past year, so the 2025 and 2026 papers sit right alongside the older sets below.
Which CDS Previous Year Questions Apply to You
Every link below applies the same way, IMA/AFA/INA candidates use all three columns per year, OTA candidates use only the English and GK papers.
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2026
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2025
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2024
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2023
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2022
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2021
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2020
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2019
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2018
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2017
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2016
CDS Previous Year Question Papers: 2015
How to Use These CDS Previous Year Questions for Preparation
-
Start from the most recent year and work backward. 2026 and 2025 papers reflect the current question style most closely; older papers show you what's stayed consistent over the past decade.
-
Attempt each paper under real timed conditions, 2 hours per paper, rather than reading through questions casually, since time pressure is part of what these papers actually test.
-
Track your subject-wise accuracy across years, not just your score on one paper, to see whether a weak area is a one-time slip or a consistent gap.
-
Treat Elementary Mathematics papers as formula and speed drills, since the topics repeat heavily year to year, while using English and GK papers more to build vocabulary and current-affairs recall.
-
Use CDS 1 and CDS 2 of the same year as two separate full attempts, not one combined set, since each was a genuinely separate sitting with its own paper.
A Note on Answer Keys
UPSC publishes the question papers themselves but doesn't release an official CDS answer key the way it does for a few other exams. The PDFs above are the real papers UPSC set, which is what matters most for practicing under authentic conditions. For checking your answers, most aspirants cross-verify against solutions published by coaching platforms, and for Elementary Mathematics specifically, working through the problem independently and checking your method is often more useful than a bare answer key would be anyway.
Want More CDS Previous Year Resources Like This? Join the Defence Study community on WhatsApp, Telegram, or Instagram for more CDS previous year papers, subject-wise practice sets, and exam updates as they're published. Stay Informed. Stay Prepared. Stay Ready.
Bringing It Together
CDS Previous Year Questions across the last 12 years, 2015 to 2026, give you 72 real question papers to practice from, CDS 1 and CDS 2, English, General Knowledge, and Elementary Mathematics, all in one place instead of scattered across the web.
No answer key replaces the value of attempting these under real conditions and reviewing your own reasoning afterward, especially for Mathematics and English, where the method matters as much as the final answer.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many years of CDS Previous Year Questions are covered here? 12 years, from 2015 to 2026, with both CDS 1 and CDS 2 papers for each year.
Do these papers include Elementary Mathematics for OTA candidates? No. OTA candidates only need the English and General Knowledge papers listed here; Mathematics applies to IMA, AFA, and INA candidates only.
Is there an official answer key for CDS previous year papers? No. UPSC releases the question papers but not an official answer key for CDS. Coaching platforms typically publish their own solutions separately.
Which year's CDS paper should I start with? Start with the most recent, 2026, since it reflects the current question style most closely, then work backward through older years to build broader practice.
Are CDS 1 and CDS 2 papers from the same year different? Yes. Each cycle is a separate exam sitting with its own paper, so treat them as two distinct practice sets rather than duplicates of each other.
