UPSC CDS Exam Notification ,Eligibility and Details

What is CDS Exam?

CDS full form is Combined Defence Services. The Combined Defence Services Examination is conducted by UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) twice a year to recruit candidates into the Indian Naval Academy, Officers Training Academy (OTA), Indian Military Academy, and Indian Air Force Academy.
Candidates passing the written test will be called for an interview round and medical examination for final selection. This article covers every detail of CDS Exam, including exam dates, eligibility, vacancies, exam pattern, syllabus, selection process, and more.

CDS Highlights

All the major details regarding the CDS exam are given in the table below for the reference of the candidates.

Particulars	Details
CDS Full Form	Combined Defence Services Exam
Conducting Body	Union Public Services Exam (UPSC)
Exam Level	National Level
Frequency	Twice in a year
Mode of Application	Online
Application Fees	UR/ OBC – Rs 200 Female- Exempted SC/ST – Exempted
Exam Mode	Offline
Exam Duration	2 Hours
Language	English and Hindi
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

CDS Vacancy

The complete information about posts and vacancies for CDS will be highlighted on the official site of CDS. The UPSC released the notification for both CDS 1 and CDS 2 and along with the number of vacancies. The detailed information on the number of CDS vacancies is tabulated below.

CDS Eligibility Criteria

All students are required to check their eligibility criteria before applying for the CDS exam. CDS Eligibility criteria has been briefly discussed here:

CDS Eligibility Criteria: Nationality

(i) The candidates should be a citizen of India.

(ii) The aspirant can be a citizen of either Nepal or Bhutan.

(iii) The citizens of Indian origin who have migrated and shifted permanently to India are also eligible. Only the migrated people from these countries are allowed Kenya, Pakistan, Uganda, Burma, Sri Lanka, Zaire, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, or Malawi.

(iv) The Tibetan refugee settled in India permanently before January 01, 1962.

CDS Age Limit

The candidate applying for the CDS Combined Defence Services Exam must fulfill the age criteria as per the official notification. The age criteria are provided below.

Male aspirants who are unmarried and fulfill the criteria of citizenship born not earlier than January/ July 2, 1999, and not later than January/ July 1, 2004, are eligible to apply for the Indian Naval Academy and Indian Military Academy.
Aspirants who fulfill the citizenship criteria and are born not earlier than January/ July 2, 1999, and not later than January/ July 1, 2003, can apply for Air Force Academy.
Unmarried male aspirants of Indian origin, who are born not earlier than January/ July 2, 1998, and not later than January/ July 1, 2004, are eligible For Officers’ Training Academy (SSC Course for men).
Unmarried women, widows, and divorcee aspirants and not remarried and also who fulfill the citizenship criteria and are born not earlier than January/ July 2, 1998, and not later than January/ July 1, 2004, are eligible For the Officers’ Training Academy (SSC Women Non-Technical Course).

CDS Eligibility: Educational Qualifications

For Indian Naval Academy: Aspirants must have a degree in the engineering field from a recognized university/ institution or any other equivalent to apply to the Naval academy.
For Air Force Academy: Aspirants must have a bachelor’s Degree with maths and physics as compulsory subjects or a bachelor’s in engineering field from any university or institute or any other equivalent to apply to the air force academy.
For Officers Training Academy and Indian Military Academy: Aspirants must have a bachelor’s degree in any field from a recognized university or any other equivalent to apply to India Military Academy (IMA) and Officers’ Training Academy.
For OTA and I.M.A: The candidate must have the relevant degree from a recognized University in the state of India.

CDS Applications

How to Apply Online for CDS?

The aspirants who are interested in filling out the CDS application form can fill them through online mode. The application process for CDS exam is online. The application form of the CDS exam is divided into two parts that are further divided into Part I and Part II.

The aspirants need to visit the official website of UPSC to fill out the CDS application form. The steps to apply for the CDS Exam are provided below.

Step 1: Visit the official website of the Union Public Services Exam or UPSC – upsconline.nic.in.
Step 2: There aspirants will find an option of application link, click on that.
Step 3: Click on new registration and complete the registration process.
Step 4: You will receive the registration number and password on your mail-id.
Step 5: Log in using your credential and click on apply now.
Step 6: Aspirants need to fill in their personal and educational details in the application form.
Step 7: Upload a recent photograph and scanned copy of the signature
Step 8: Choose the examination center and proceed with the application form.
Step 9: Please check the details once again before submitting the form as no correction is allowed once the application is submitted.
Step 10: Proceed with the application fee payment process and pay your application fees online through any provided options.
Step 11: After successful fee payment, save a soft copy of the application form along with the fee payment receipt for future references.

CDS Application Fee

The aspirants have to pay the application fees to complete their application process. The CDS exam Application Fees for various categories are provided below.

Category	Application Fees
Unreserved (UR)	Rs.200
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	Rs.200
SC/ ST/ PwBD / Women	Exempted

CDS Admit Card

The CDS admit card will be released by the UPSC on the official website usually 10 to 15 days before the exam. Aspirants will get a separate admit card for both papers.

Applicants should download their admit card and check it carefully if there is any mistake in any of the details, the aspirant must inform the UPSC immediately through the mail. The Admit Card consists of the following details about the aspirants.

Name
Date of Birth
Photograph
Registration number
Name of Exam Centre
Date of Exam
Reporting Time

If any aspirant faces any problem in downloading their CDS admit card they can also contact the UPSC immediately. Sitting for the CDS exam is possible only if the aspirant has an admit card, no aspirant will be allowed to take the CDS exam without an admit card.

CDS Exam Centers

The CDS exam is conducted across the country in 41 cities. The allotment of the CDS exam center will be issued on a first-come, first-serve basis. Exam centers except for some cities (Chennai, Delhi, Dispur, Kolkata, and Nagpur) have a limit on the total no. of candidates to apply for the CDS exam.

CDS Exam Center	State	CDS exam center	State
Agartala	Tripura	Kohima	Nagaland
Ahmedabad	Gujarat	Kolkata	West Bengal
Aizawl	Mizoram	Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh
Allahabad	Uttar Pradesh	Madurai	Tamil Nadu
Bengaluru	Karnataka	Mumbai	Maharashtra
Bareilly	Uttar Pradesh	Nagpur	Maharashtra
Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh	Panaji	Goa
Chandigarh	Chandigarh	Patna	Bihar
Chennai	Tamil Nadu	Port Blair	Andaman and Nicobar Island
Cuttack	Odisha	Raipur	Chhattisgarh
Dehradun	Uttrakhand	Ranchi	Jharkhand
Delhi	Delhi	Sambalpur	Odisha
Dharwad	Karnataka	Shillong	Meghalaya
Dispur	Assam	Shimla	Himachal Pradesh
Gangtok	Sikkim	Srinagar	Jammu and Kashmir
Hyderabad	Andhra Pradesh	Thiruvananthapuram	Kerala
Imphal	Manipur	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh
Jaipur	Rajasthan	Udaipur	Rajasthan
Jammu	Jammu and Kashmir	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh
Jorhat	Assam	–	–

CDS Exam Pattern

The CDS exam is a two-tier national examination conducted by the UPSC. The aspirants have to clear both exams to get selected for the services. The UPSC releases the merit list based on the marks scored by aspirants in the exams.

The mode of exam is offline and contains 300 objective-type questions. The aspirants need to tick the right option from the provided options. The duration provided for the exam is 2 hours. There is a negative marking of ? for every incorrect answer marked by the aspirants.

The CDS Exam Pattern is provided in the table below.

Particulars of CDS	Details
Mode of Exam	Offline Mode
Type of Questions	Objective Type Questions (MCQs)
No. of Questions	340 Questions
Sections	3
Total Weightage	300 Marks (100 marks for each section)
Duration of Exam	6 hours (120 mins for each section)
Negative Marking Criteria	1/3 Mark deducted for each wrong answer

CDS Exam Pattern for Officers Training Academy (OTA)

The table further explains more about the CDS exam pattern for the posts of Officers Training Academy.

Subject	Duration	Maximum Marks
General Knowledge	120 minutes	100
English	120 minutes	100

CDS Exam Pattern for IMA, INA and AFA

Exam Pattern of Air Force Academy, Indian Naval Academy, Indian Military Academy has been discussed below.

Subject	Duration	Maximum Marks
Elementary Mathematics	120 minutes	100
General Knowledge	120 minutes	100
English	120 minutes	100

CDS Syllabus

The syllabus of UPSC CDS consists mainly of 3 sections: Maths, English, and General Knowledge (except for OTA Chennai). The detailed syllabus of all these 3 sections is given below.

CDS English and General Knowledge Syllabus

Following are the topics asked from the English and General Knowledge section of the CDS exam.

Subjects	Topics
English	Idioms, Jumbled Sentences, Phrases, Antonyms, Sentence Order, Synonyms, Ordering of words, Sentence Correction, One-word Substitution, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Improvement, Error Spotting, Basic Grammar, Para Jumbles, Sentence, Arrangement Questions, Fill in the Blanks
General Knowledge	Physics, Current Affairs, Chemistry, Scientific Aspects, Biology, History of India, Sports, Geography, Sociology, Polity, Awards, Economics, Culture Books

CDS Mathematics Syllabus

The detailed syllabus for Mathematics portion of the exam is given below.

Mathematics
Trigonometry	Trigonometric identities and tables	Values of sin x, cos x, and tan x, for x = 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°
Trigonometry	Questions related to s and distances	Sine x, cosine x, Tangent x when fn< x < 90°
HCF & LCM	Basic Operations, Roots and Coefficients, H.C.F., Remainder Theorem, L.C.M., Theory of polynomials, Simple factors, Quadratic Equations, Rational Expressions, Laws of indices, Linear equations in two variables, Practical problems leading to two simultaneous linear equations.
Arithmetic	Number System, Division, Natural Numbers, Multiplication, Real Numbers, Subtraction, Rational Numbers, Addition, Integers, Square roots, Fundamental Operations, Cube roots, Time and Distance, Percentage, Time and Work, Fraction, Divisibility, Factorization, Multiples and Factors, Number Theory, Prime Number, Ratio and Proportion, Composite Number, Logarithms, Factorization Theorem, Laws of Logarithm, Profit and Loss, Euclidean Algorithm, Unitary Method, Decimal.
Geometry	Properties of angles, Medians and Altitudes, Congruence of triangles, Square and Rectangle, Lovi, Parallel Lines, Properties of Circles, Similar Triangles, Similar Triangles, Parallel lines
Mensuration	Area, Cones and Cylinders, Surface area and volume, Lateral surface, area, and volume, Area of spheres, Volume of Sphere
Statistics	Graphical representation, Polygons, Pie Chart, Bar graph, collection of Statistical data, Histogram
Algebra	Polynomials, Practical Problems, Quadratic Equation, Analytical Problems, Linear Equation, Laws of Indices

CDS Results

The UPSC releases the results after the conduction of the examination. The UPSC declares the marks of the candidates as well as the minimum cutoff marks lists for different posts. Once released, the candidates can check their CDS results on the official website of UPSC.

How to Check CDS Results ?

Here are the steps to check the CDS Result .

Step 1: Visit the official website of UPSC
Step 2: Under the important notification, find the CDS Exam Result Link and click on it.
Step 3: Enter your roll number and date of birth or registration number and click on the login
Step 4: Aspirants who secured more than the minimum marks will be considered qualified.
Step 5: Aspirants should download the CDS Result for future reference.
Step 6: Aspirants who qualified for the written exam will have to appear for a personality test/ interview.
Step 7: UPSC will again release the final result on their official website based on the marks of the interview.
Step 8: Selected aspirants then need to go through the final round of a medical test.

CDS Cut Off

The aspirants need to secure as high as they can as scoring the CDS qualifying marks does not guarantee selection due to high competition and unemployment. They need to clear the CDS cut off marks to be eligible for the Interview round.

Post	Written Exam Cut off	Final Cut off
Officers’ Training Academy (Female)	76-86	162-172
Officers’ Training Academy (Male)	75-84	164-170
Indian Naval Academy	106-122	232-252
Air Force Academy	146-150	266-272
Indian Military Academy	122-130	245-254

CDS Selection Process

Selection for the CDS exam is based on the written exam, interview, and medical test. The details of CDS selection process exam are mentioned below.

Phase 1: Written Examination

The first phase consists of a written exam.
The question pattern of the written exam for the Indian Naval Academy (INA), Indian Military Academy (IMA), and Air Force Academy (AFA) is divided into three sections which are English, Maths, and GK.
The question pattern of the written exam for Officers’ Training Academy (OTA) consists of English and General Knowledge.

Phase 2: Personality Test/ Interview

Aspirants who clear the written exam are eligible for the Personality Test/ Interview.
The Personality Test/ Interview includes two phases to test the aspirants’ efficiency, that is their personality and psychology.
The first phase is an intelligence and personality test.
The second phase is a psychology test which consists of an interview, group discussion, and conference round.

Phase 3: Document Verification

After clearing the interview round aspirants need to verify all the required documents.

Phase 4: Medical Test

Aspirants who clear both interview and document verification rounds are eligible for last phase: medical tests.
In medical tests, aspirants will be examined medically to test if they are fit for the job or not.

CDS Answer Key

Every year UPSC conducts CDS Exam for which it publishes the CDS answer key on its official website after announcing the result. Candidates can visit the official website once it is released and match their responses as mentioned by the UPSC.

CDS Salary and Benefits

After the final selection, aspirants need to go for training in which they get a fixed stipend of INR 56,100 per month. Once the training period is over and the aspirants join the defense services then their CDS salary will increase, the details of which are shared below:

Rank	Level	Pay Scale/ Salary
Lieutenant	Level 10	INR 56,100 – 1,77,500
Captain	Level 10 B	INR 61,300 – 1,93,900
Major	Level 11	INR 69,400 – 2,07,200
Lieutenant Colonel	Level 12 A	INR 1,21,200 – 2,12,400
Colonel	Level 13	INR 1,30,600 – 2,15,900
Brigadier	Level 13 A	INR 1,39,600 – 2,17,600
Major General	Level 14	INR 1,44,200 – 2,18,200
Lieutenant General HAG Scale	Level 15	INR 1,82,200 – 2,24,100
HAG + Scale	Level 16	INR 2,05,400 – 2,24,400
VCOAS/ Lieutenant General (NFSG) / Army Cdr	Level 17	INR 2,25,000 (Fixed)
COAS	Level 18	INR 2,25,000 (Fixed)

CDS Salary: Additional Benefits

Here are the additional benefits provided to CDS Employees:

Casual leave of 20 days a year is provided.
Annual leave of 60 days a year is provided.
CDS officers can also encash their 10 days of annual leave.
Free medical services for officers and their families.
Insurance service for officers and their families.
Canteen facilities for officers and their families.
Accommodation, house on rent, and family assistance services are provided to officers.
A free ration is provided to officers serving in the fields.
Children’s Education Allowance, Field Area Allowance, Dearness Allowance, Flying Allowance, Transport Allowance, Uniform Allowance, High Altitude Allowance, and Siachen Allowance are also provided based on various conditions.

After clearing the exam, the selected candidate will receive INR 56,100 – 1,77,500/- per month. While in the training period candidates will receive a fixed stipend of INR 56,000/- per month. However, candidates selected for the post of lieutenant to Brigadier also get a fixed pay of INR 15,500 per month.

CDS Job Profile

Candidates selected in one of the branches of the armed forces then are set for the rest of their life.
CDS jobs can be challenging depending upon the type of armed force candidates join.
Candidates may find the job very tough and disciplined, so you have to prepare yourself for it.
After completing Combined Defence Services training, the candidates who retire out in the rank of a designated officer will be paid the allowance of the position.