SSC CPO GK Questions with Answers: Quick Answer
This page gives 20 original SSC CPO GK questions with answers and short explanations. Every question is written for the General Knowledge and General Awareness part of the SSC CPO examination: 25 questions in Paper 1 and 20 questions in Paper 2, where the part carries 40 marks and the difficulty is higher than Paper 1. The questions cover the areas the part actually tests: the Constitution and polity, history, geography, general science, the economy, sports, awards and current affairs. Every fact below is stated with its date or source where a date matters, and the three current-affairs questions are verified against reputable dated reporting.
These 20 questions are original practice questions written for this page. They are not previous-year questions and are not copied from any paper, book or website. They are modelled on the style and difficulty of the CPO General Awareness parts, so they work as a timed drill: 20 questions in about 10 minutes matches the pace the 15-minute Paper 1 sectional timers demand. As of 2 November 2026, the pattern figures on this page follow the official SSC CPO scheme described on the syllabus page linked below. No examination dates are stated on this page.
How CPO GK Questions Are Asked
The General Awareness part rewards breadth, not depth. Most questions ask for one fact: a year, a name, a capital, a constitutional article, a scientific fact or the winner of an event. The option sets are built from near misses — a neighbouring year, a neighbouring country, a similar-sounding name — so the question is answered by recognition, not by elimination. The fastest preparation is daily reading of a good current-affairs summary plus a fixed revision list of static facts: constitutional articles, capitals, rivers, scientific units and award winners. Three questions below are current affairs from 2025, because the CPO papers of recent cycles have carried a visible share of questions from the previous year's events. The other 17 are static facts that do not change between cycles.
Shortcut habit: answer from memory first, then check the options. If you read the options before recalling the fact, a plausible distractor can replace the fact in your mind. For "which year" questions, anchor on one certain date — 2019 for Article 370, 2017 for GST, 1757 for Plassey — and the neighbouring options fall away.
Question 1 — Polity
Q1. Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated in which year?
(A) 2018 (B) 2019 (C) 2020 (D) 2016
Answer: (B) 2019. Article 370 was abrogated on 5 August 2019, when the President issued the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 2019, and Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Question 2 — Polity
Q2. Who was the first President of India?
(A) Dr S. Radhakrishnan (B) Dr Zakir Hussain (C) V. V. Giri (D) Dr Rajendra Prasad
Answer: (D) Dr Rajendra Prasad. Rajendra Prasad served as the first President from 1950 to 1962, the only President to serve two full terms. Radhakrishnan was the second President.
Question 3 — Geography
Q3. Which is the longest river in India?
(A) Ganga (B) Yamuna (C) Godavari (D) Narmada
Answer: (A) Ganga. The Ganga runs about 2,525 km from the Gangotri glacier to the Bay of Bengal. The Godavari, at about 1,465 km, is the longest river of peninsular India, not of the whole country.
Question 4 — Geography
Q4. What is the capital of Australia?
(A) Sydney (B) Melbourne (C) Canberra (D) Perth
Answer: (C) Canberra. Canberra has been Australia's capital since 1913. Sydney is the largest city, which is why it is the common distractor, but it is not the capital.
Question 5 — Science
Q5. The deficiency of which vitamin causes scurvy?
(A) Vitamin A (B) Vitamin B (C) Vitamin D (D) Vitamin C
Answer: (D) Vitamin C. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which the body needs to make collagen. Vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness, and vitamin D deficiency causes rickets.
Question 6 — Current Affairs
Q6. Who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025?
(A) Edmundo González (B) María Corina Machado (C) Ales Bialiatski (D) Donald Trump
Answer: (B) María Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on 10 October 2025, awarding it to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her work promoting democratic rights in Venezuela. She is the first Venezuelan to receive the prize.
Question 7 — Economy
Q7. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was launched in India in which year?
(A) 2016 (B) 2018 (C) 2015 (D) 2017
Answer: (D) 2017. GST came into effect on 1 July 2017, replacing a large number of indirect taxes with one national tax. The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016, provided the legal basis, which is why 2016 is the distractor.
Question 8 — Science
Q8. Which is the smallest planet in the Solar System?
(A) Mercury (B) Venus (C) Mars (D) Pluto
Answer: (A) Mercury. Mercury is the smallest planet, with a diameter of about 4,879 km. Pluto is smaller but has been classified as a dwarf planet since 2006, not a planet.
Question 9 — History
Q9. Who wrote "The Discovery of India"?
(A) Mahatma Gandhi (B) Rabindranath Tagore (C) B. R. Ambedkar (D) Jawaharlal Nehru
Answer: (D) Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru wrote "The Discovery of India" in 1944–46 while imprisoned at Ahmednagar Fort. Gandhi's autobiography is "The Story of My Experiments with Truth".
Question 10 — Geography
Q10. What is the national animal of India?
(A) Asiatic lion (B) Indian elephant (C) Bengal tiger (D) Indian leopard
Answer: (C) Bengal tiger. The Bengal tiger was declared the national animal of India in 1973, replacing the Asiatic lion. The Indian elephant is the national heritage animal.
Question 11 — Polity
Q11. Who was the first woman Prime Minister of India?
(A) Indira Gandhi (B) Sarojini Naidu (C) Pratibha Patil (D) Sonia Gandhi
Answer: (A) Indira Gandhi. Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 and served until 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984. Sarojini Naidu was the first woman Governor of an Indian state, and Pratibha Patil was the first woman President.
Question 12 — Current Affairs
Q12. Who became the first Indian to reach the International Space Station, in June 2025?
(A) Rakesh Sharma (B) Shubhanshu Shukla (C) Kalpana Chawla (D) Sunita Williams
Answer: (B) Shubhanshu Shukla. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla flew to the International Space Station as the pilot of the Axiom Mission 4, launched on 25 June 2025. Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian in space, in 1984, but never visited the Station.
Question 13 — Science
Q13. What is the chemical symbol for gold?
(A) Au (B) Ag (C) Gd (D) Go
Answer: (A) Au. Gold's symbol Au comes from its Latin name, aurum. Ag is silver, from argentum, and Gd is gadolinium.
Question 14 — History
Q14. In which year was the Battle of Plassey fought?
(A) 1764 (B) 1757 (C) 1761 (D) 1756
Answer: (B) 1757. The Battle of Plassey was fought on 23 June 1757 between the forces of the British East India Company under Robert Clive and the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah. The Battle of Buxar followed in 1764, which is the distractor.
Question 15 — Sports
Q15. Which team won the ICC Women's ODI World Cup in 2025?
(A) Australia (B) England (C) South Africa (D) India
Answer: (D) India. India beat South Africa by 52 runs in the final at the Dr DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai, on 2 November 2025, winning the Women's ODI World Cup for the first time. Shafali Verma scored 87 and Deepti Sharma took 5 wickets for 39 runs.
Question 16 — Science and Technology
Q16. Where is the headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)?
(A) New Delhi (B) Mumbai (C) Bengaluru (D) Chennai
Answer: (C) Bengaluru. ISRO is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Its launch centre, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, is at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, which is the common distractor.
Question 17 — Polity
Q17. Which article of the Constitution guarantees protection of life and personal liberty?
(A) Article 21 (B) Article 19 (C) Article 32 (D) Article 370
Answer: (A) Article 21. Article 21 states that no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. Article 19 guarantees six freedoms, and Article 32 provides the right to constitutional remedies.
Question 18 — Geography
Q18. Which is the largest desert in the world?
(A) Sahara (B) Gobi (C) Antarctic Desert (D) Arabian Desert
Answer: (C) Antarctic Desert. The Antarctic Desert, at about 14.2 million square kilometres, is the largest desert in the world. The Sahara is the largest hot desert, at about 9.2 million square kilometres, which is why it is the distractor.
Question 19 — Awards
Q19. Who was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize?
(A) C. V. Raman (B) Rabindranath Tagore (C) Amartya Sen (D) Mother Teresa
Answer: (B) Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for Gitanjali, becoming the first Indian and the first non-European to win the Literature prize. C. V. Raman won the Physics prize in 1930.
Question 20 — Economy
Q20. Who is the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India as of November 2026?
(A) Shaktikanta Das (B) Urjit Patel (C) Sanjay Malhotra (D) Raghuram Rajan
Answer: (C) Sanjay Malhotra. Sanjay Malhotra took office as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2024, succeeding Shaktikanta Das. The Governor is appointed for a three-year term.
How to Use These Questions
More solved sets: SSC CPO Reasoning Questions with Answers: Solved Practice Set.
Attempt all 20 questions in 10 minutes, then check the explanations for every question you missed or guessed. For each miss, write the correct fact on a revision card with its date: the year, the name and the one-line reason. Revisit the cards daily for a week. The General Awareness part is the highest-variance section in the CPO papers because it cannot be solved by method, so the return on daily current-affairs reading is higher here than in any other section. Read one dated current-affairs summary every day and keep a separate list of the static facts that recur: articles, capitals, rivers, award winners and scientific facts.
- Check the full scheme: SSC CPO syllabus 2026 — Paper 1 and Paper 2 pattern, 0.25 and 0.50 negative marking, PET and PST stages.
- Check the cut-off picture: SSC CPO cut off — the cut-off page for the examination.
- Practise English next: SSC CPO English questions — 20 original English questions for the same examination.
- Check the physical standards: SSC CPO physical test 2026 — PET and PST standards for the Sub-Inspector posts.
- Attempt a Paper 1 mock: SSC CPO Paper 1 full mock test 04 — the complete 100-question Paper 1 under exam conditions.
SSC CPO GK Questions FAQs
How many GK questions are there in SSC CPO Paper 1 and Paper 2?
Paper 1 has 25 General Knowledge and General Awareness questions for 25 marks, inside a 100-question paper with a 15-minute timer per part. Paper 2 has 20 General Knowledge and General Awareness questions for 40 marks, inside a 160-question paper, where each question carries 2 marks and the difficulty is higher.
What is the marking scheme for CPO GK questions?
In Paper 1, each question carries 1 mark and 0.25 marks are deducted for each wrong answer. In Paper 2, each question carries 2 marks and 0.50 marks are deducted for each wrong answer. A blank answer loses nothing in either paper.
Which GK topics matter most for SSC CPO?
The Constitution and polity, modern history, geography, general science, the economy, sports, awards and current affairs from the previous year. The papers mix static facts with recent events, so daily current-affairs reading and a fixed static-fact revision list together cover the section.
Are these 20 questions from previous-year papers?
No. They are original practice questions written for this page. The current-affairs questions are verified against reputable dated reporting: the Nobel Peace Prize announcement of 10 October 2025, the Axiom Mission 4 launch of 25 June 2025, and the Women's ODI World Cup final of 2 November 2025.
How should I prepare for the current-affairs part of CPO GK?
Read one dated current-affairs summary every day and note the event, the date and the names involved. Before the examination, revise the last 12 months of awards, sports results, appointments, government schemes and science missions. Static facts should be revised from a fixed list, not re-read from scratch each time.
Sources
- SSC CPO examination scheme: Paper 1 with 100 questions for 100 marks in 1 hour and Paper 2 with 160 questions for 320 marks in 2 hours, as described on this site's SSC CPO syllabus 2026 page, which follows the official SSC notice.
- Nobel Prize, nobelprize.org — 2025 Nobel Peace Prize announcement, 10 October 2025: María Corina Machado.
- Axiom Space / NASA reporting, June 2025 — Axiom Mission 4 launch, 25 June 2025: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, first Indian to reach the International Space Station.
- ICC, icc-cricket.com, November 2025 — ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 final, 2 November 2025: India beat South Africa by 52 runs.
- All 20 questions on this page are original and were written for this page. The remaining facts are standard static general knowledge: constitutional articles, capitals, rivers, scientific facts and award winners.
Last checked: 2 November 2026.