SSC CGL General Awareness: questions, weightage & strategy
General Awareness is the fastest-scoring section in SSC CGL Tier-I — 25 questions that a prepared aspirant answers in under eight minutes, leaving time for Quant. It's also the one section you cannot cram: it rewards months of daily exposure, not a final-week sprint.
| Exam | SSC CGL |
|---|---|
| Section | General Awareness |
| Weightage | 25 questions · 50 marks in Tier-I |
| Paper pattern | Tier-I: 100 questions / 200 marks / 60 minutes · −0.50 per wrong answer |
What actually scores in SSC CGL General Awareness
Unlike UPSC, SSC leans static: Polity, History, Geography, Economy and Science fundamentals carry roughly 18 of the 25 questions. Current affairs contributes the rest, drawn from a rolling ~6-month window.
Physics, Chemistry and Biology at 10th-standard level regularly account for 5–7 questions. It's the cheapest ROI in the section because the concepts are finite and repeat.
With 0.50 negative marking, GA is binary — you either know it or you don't. Reasoning your way through a GA question burns the time Quant needs. Decide fast, move on.
High-yield topics
- ✓Constitution: Parts, Schedules, Fundamental Rights & Duties
- ✓Ancient/Medieval dynasties and Modern India freedom movement
- ✓Indian geography: rivers, soils, national parks, minerals
- ✓Economy: banking basics, budget terms, indices
- ✓Science: SI units, human body, chemical reactions, laws of motion
5 General Awareness questions to try now
These are original practice questions written in the SSC CGL style — not official previous-year papers. For the real papers as published, download the official PDFs.
Which Schedule of the Indian Constitution contains the provisions relating to the anti-defection law?
Why: The Tenth Schedule, inserted by the 52nd Amendment Act of 1985, contains the anti-defection provisions. The Eighth lists official languages, the Ninth protects certain laws from judicial review, and the Eleventh deals with panchayats.
The SI unit of electrical resistance is:
Why: Resistance is measured in ohms (Ω). Ampere measures current, volt measures potential difference, and watt measures power — a classic SSC unit-matching trap.
Which of the following rivers does NOT originate in India?
Why: The Brahmaputra rises in the Angsi glacier in Tibet (as the Yarlung Tsangpo) and enters India in Arunachal Pradesh. The other three all originate within India.
In banking, the rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks against government securities is called the:
Why: The repo rate is the short-term lending rate against collateral of government securities. The bank rate is lending without collateral, and the reverse repo is the rate at which the RBI borrows from banks.
The Quit India Movement was launched in which year?
Why: Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement on 8 August 1942 in Bombay with the call 'Do or Die'. 1930 was the Civil Disobedience Movement; 1935 was the Government of India Act.
Other SSC CGL sections
SSC CGL General Awareness — FAQ
25 questions worth 50 marks, out of 100 questions and 200 marks total. Tier-II carries a further 25-question GK section, so the same preparation serves both stages.