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UPSC Prelims 2022 GS Paper I: answer key and question paper

Held 5 June 2022 · Series A · 100 questions · 2 hours · +2 / −0.66

The complete Series A answer key for the 2022 Civil Services Prelims General Studies Paper I, from UPSC's official final answer key, with the questions UPSC dropped, the subject-wise split and three questions explained in full.

Take the full 2022 paper under exam conditions. 100 questions, 2 hours, +2 / −0.66, exactly as UPSC set them. Then see your score, UPSC's key for every question and explanations for 10 of them, starting with your mistakes. Free with Google sign-in; Pro unlocks every explanation in English and தமிழ்.

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Key facts

ExamUPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2022, General Studies Paper I
Date5 June 2022
Question bookletSeries A, 100 questions, 2 hours
Marking+2 for a correct answer, −0.66 for a wrong one, 0 if left blank
Answer keyUPSC's official final answer key, checked against the file on upsc.gov.in
Dropped questionsQ61
Maximum marks198

Answer key, Series A

UPSC dropped 1 question (Q61) from scoring, so the paper is marked out of 198. Other booklet series (B, C, D) have the same questions in a different order, so match your booklet to Series A before checking answers.

  1. 1b
  2. 2c
  3. 3b
  4. 4c
  5. 5a
  6. 6d
  7. 7a
  8. 8d
  9. 9a
  10. 10c
  11. 11b
  12. 12b
  13. 13b
  14. 14b
  15. 15b
  16. 16b
  17. 17d
  18. 18d
  19. 19b
  20. 20a
  21. 21b
  22. 22d
  23. 23b
  24. 24c
  25. 25b
  26. 26a
  27. 27c
  28. 28b
  29. 29b
  30. 30b
  31. 31d
  32. 32d
  33. 33d
  34. 34c
  35. 35b
  36. 36d
  37. 37d
  38. 38c
  39. 39b
  40. 40c
  41. 41a
  42. 42b
  43. 43d
  44. 44b
  45. 45c
  46. 46a
  47. 47a
  48. 48a
  49. 49a
  50. 50c
  51. 51c
  52. 52b
  53. 53d
  54. 54b
  55. 55b
  56. 56c
  57. 57b
  58. 58d
  59. 59b
  60. 60b
  61. 61Dropped
  62. 62d
  63. 63b
  64. 64b
  65. 65c
  66. 66d
  67. 67c
  68. 68d
  69. 69a
  70. 70c
  71. 71c
  72. 72a
  73. 73a
  74. 74d
  75. 75c
  76. 76a
  77. 77a
  78. 78d
  79. 79d
  80. 80a
  81. 81d
  82. 82c
  83. 83c
  84. 84b
  85. 85d
  86. 86b
  87. 87c
  88. 88b
  89. 89b
  90. 90a
  91. 91b
  92. 92b
  93. 93b
  94. 94a
  95. 95a
  96. 96a
  97. 97d
  98. 98d
  99. 99d
  100. 100b

Subject-wise split

How the 100 questions divide across the syllabus, by 1way's classification of each question.

SubjectQuestionsShare
Economy19
Environment17
Science & Technology16
Geography11
History11
Polity11
International Relations10
Art & Culture5

Three questions from the 2022 paper, explained

Try each one before opening the answer. This is the kind of explanation you get after taking the paper: the reasoning behind every option, with sources.

Question 1 · Economy

“Rapid Financing Instrument” and “Rapid Credit Facility” are related to the provisions of lending by which one of the following ?

  1. (a)Asian Development Bank
  2. (b)International Monetary Fund
  3. (c)United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative
  4. (d)World Bank
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: (b) International Monetary Fund

Both are emergency lending windows of the International Monetary Fund. The Rapid Financing Instrument gives quick balance-of-payments support to any IMF member facing an urgent need, without requiring a full-fledged adjustment programme. The Rapid Credit Facility is its concessional counterpart, available only to low-income members eligible under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, on zero or near-zero interest. Both were used heavily during the COVID-19 shock of 2020-21. The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank lend through their own windows (such as IBRD and IDA loans), and the UNEP Finance Initiative is a partnership between UNEP and private financial institutions on sustainable finance; it is not a lender. Hence (b).

Question 21 · Environment

Among the following crops, which one is the most important anthropogenic source of both methane and nitrous oxide ?

  1. (a)Cotton
  2. (b)Rice
  3. (c)Sugarcane
  4. (d)Wheat
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: (b) Rice

Rice grown in standing water is the crop that stands out for both gases. In flooded paddy soil oxygen is cut off, so methanogenic microbes decompose organic matter and release methane; rice cultivation is one of the largest agricultural sources of methane in India's greenhouse gas inventory. The same fields receive heavy nitrogen fertiliser, and the repeated switch between flooded and drained conditions favours nitrification and denitrification, which release nitrous oxide. Cotton, sugarcane and wheat are grown mostly on aerobic (non-flooded) soils; they emit nitrous oxide from fertiliser use but produce little methane, so none of them matches rice as a source of both gases.

Question 31 · Science & Technology

Consider the following :

Which of the above are built on top of open-source digital platforms ?

  1. (a)1 and 2 only
  2. (b)2, 3 and 4 only
  3. (c)1, 3 and 4 only
  4. (d)1, 2, 3 and 4
Show the answer and explanation

Answer: (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Item 1 is correct: the government released Aarogya Setu's Android source code in May 2020 and its backend code later that year for public review. Item 2 is correct: CoWIN's vaccination credentialing and certificates run on DIVOC, an open-source digital public good, and India offered the CoWIN platform to other countries as open-source software. Item 3 is correct: DigiLocker is a building block of the India Stack, built on open standards and open APIs so that any issuer or requester can plug into it. Item 4 is correct: DIKSHA, the national school-education platform, is built on Sunbird, an open-source, modular digital infrastructure. All four are therefore built on open-source digital platforms.

The other 97 questions are waiting. 100 questions, 2 hours, +2 / −0.66, exactly as UPSC set them. Then see your score, UPSC's key for every question and explanations for 10 of them, starting with your mistakes. Free with Google sign-in; Pro unlocks every explanation in English and தமிழ்.

Take the 2022 paper

Other years

Every UPSC Prelims GS Paper I from 2016 to 2026, each with UPSC's official key. See all past papers.

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