UPSC CAPF (AC) 2024 Paper I – Series A — question paper

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UPSC CAPF (AC) 2024 Paper I – Series A

Paper #3132 · 2024 · General Ability and Intelligence · 118 reviewed questions · Showing 1–40 of 118

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Official UPSC CAPF (Assistant Commandants) 2024 Paper I, Series A, presented as a reviewed structured set of all 120 English-language questions. KSLC provides 118 reviewed scoring solutions and two conspicuous non-scoring explanations for Q36 and Q37, where the printed wording does not support a unique defensible answer. This is an independent KSLC review, not an official UPSC answer key.

Which one of the following is commonly used for procedural programming, while LISP, Prolog, and ML are commonly associated with declarative or functional paradigms?
1. LISP
2. Python
3. Prolog
4. ML
Which of the following technologies can be used to compress video files? 1. MPEG 2. P×64 (the H.261 family) 3. Indeo
1. 1 and 2 only
2. 1 and 3 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3
Which one among the following has largest energy per photon?
1. X-ray
2. Ultra-violet ray
3. Visible-ray
4. Infra-red ray
In the Sun–Earth system, approximately how far apart are the L2 and L3 Lagrange points?
1. 15 lakh kilometre
2. 30 lakh kilometre
3. 16 crore kilometre
4. 30 crore kilometre
In the simplified glass-chamber model used to illustrate greenhouse trapping, which description is correct?
1. The glass blocks incoming short-wave solar radiation but allows outgoing long-wave thermal radiation to pass freely.
2. Both incoming short-wave solar radiation and outgoing long-wave thermal radiation pass freely through the glass.
3. Short-wave solar radiation enters the chamber, while long-wave thermal radiation from the warmed interior is largely prevented from escaping.
4. The glass blocks both incoming solar radiation and outgoing thermal radiation.
A cannon launches a ball vertically upward at 100 m/s. It returns to the launch level after 20 s. On impact, it loses 70% of its speed, and the remaining speed is upward. Taking g = 10 m/s², how high does it rise after its first bounce?
1. 100 m
2. 70 m
3. 50 m
4. 45 m
Which statement correctly defines PM1 particles in air?
1. Suspended particles with aerodynamic diameter greater than 10 μm
2. Particles completely filtered out by the nose during normal respiration
3. Extremely fine airborne particles with aerodynamic diameter of 1 μm or less
4. Coarse particles that pass directly through the lungs into the bloodstream
Which heat-transfer mode can occur in a vacuum and therefore does not require a material medium?
1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation
4. Advection
Which statement correctly describes the approximate dates of the summer solstice in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?
1. Northern Hemisphere: around December 21; Southern Hemisphere: around June 21
2. Both hemispheres: around June 21
3. Northern Hemisphere: around June 21; Southern Hemisphere: around December 21
4. Both hemispheres: around December 21
Which instrument forms images by accelerating and focusing an electron beam?
1. Electric transformer
2. Induction cooker
3. Moving-coil galvanometer
4. Electron microscope
Which statement about changes of state is incorrect?
1. Heating a solid generally increases the average kinetic energy of its particles.
2. The temperature at which a liquid changes into a gas at atmospheric pressure is called its melting point.
3. At 100 °C and atmospheric pressure, steam has greater internal energy per unit mass than liquid water because vaporisation requires latent heat.
4. The direct change from a gas to a solid is called deposition.
Cobalt-60, a gamma-ray source historically used in external-beam radiotherapy, is an isotope of which element?
1. Uranium
2. Cobalt
3. Iodine
4. Fluorine
Water dissolves many ionic compounds effectively mainly because its molecules:
1. Have a high specific heat capacity.
2. Are polar, so their partially charged ends attract and stabilise ions through ion–dipole interactions.
3. Have no colour.
4. Have a high boiling point.
What is the bond order between the two carbon atoms in an ethyne molecule?
1. One carbon–carbon single bond
2. One carbon–carbon double bond
3. One carbon–carbon triple bond
4. Two carbon–carbon double bonds
Which option lists a plausible set of raw materials for a borosilicate glass batch that uses soda ash and recycled cullet?
1. Silica, sodium carbonate, borax, alumina, and cullet
2. Iron oxide, lead, sodium bicarbonate, alumina, and cullet
3. Magnesium carbonate, alumina, silica, and cullet
4. Iron oxide, sodium, alumina, silica, and cullet
Which statement correctly defines the atomic number of an atom?
1. The number of neutrons is same as atomic number
2. The sum of electrons and neutrons is same as atomic number
3. The number of protons is same as atomic number
4. The sum of protons and neutrons is same as atomic number
Which process is endothermic overall, absorbing energy from its surroundings?
1. Complete combustion of carbon in oxygen
2. Neutralisation of a strong acid by a strong alkali
3. Photosynthesis
4. Aerobic respiration
Which oxide is commonly added to glass as an ultraviolet-absorbing additive while retaining visible transparency?
1. Aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃)
2. Tungsten(VI) oxide (WO₃)
3. Molybdenum(VI) oxide (MoO₃)
4. Cerium(IV) oxide (CeO₂)
Match each paint-material role in List I with the example in List II.

List I
A. Natural earth pigment
B. Synthetic white pigment
C. Reactive anticorrosive pigment
D. Inert extender

List II
1. Chalk
2. Titanium dioxide
3. Red lead
4. Ochre
1. A–4, B–2, C–3, D–1
2. A–1, B–2, C–3, D–4
3. A–4, B–3, C–2, D–1
4. A–1, B–3, C–4, D–2
Match each element with its number of unpaired electrons in the ground-state atom.

List I
A. Boron
B. Nitrogen
C. Oxygen
D. Neon

List II
1. Zero
2. Two
3. One
4. Three
1. A-1, B-4, C-2, D-3
2. A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
3. A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1
4. A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1
Which colour-coded field of biotechnology is primarily associated with medical and pharmaceutical applications such as recombinant insulin and certain vaccines?
1. White Biotechnology
2. Red Biotechnology
3. Green Biotechnology
4. Blue Biotechnology
Mendel’s classic inheritance experiments that established foundational laws of inheritance were conducted using which organism?
1. Groundnut
2. Garden Pea
3. Four O'clock plant
4. Fruit fly
In which plant tissue layer are guard cells found?
1. Palisade mesophyll
2. Spongy mesophyll
3. Epidermis
4. Xylem
For typical raw biogas, which order ranks the main constituents by volume from greatest to least?
1. Methane > carbon dioxide > nitrogen
2. Methane > nitrogen > carbon dioxide
3. Methane > oxygen > carbon monoxide
4. Nitrogen > methane > carbon dioxide
What is the commonly cited approximate audible frequency range for a healthy young human?
1. 20 kHz–200 kHz
2. 20 Hz–20 kHz
3. 20 Hz–35 kHz
4. 20 Hz–40 kHz
In what form does the human body store excess glucose?
1. Fructose
2. Glycogen
3. Glucose
4. Starch
In a biotechnology-park model of commercialisation, which elements can help move research toward the market?

1. Developing a new product
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Technology incubation
1. Statement 1 only
2. Statements 1 and 2 only
3. Statements 1, 2, and 3
4. Statements 2 and 3 only
Which sequence gives these biotechnology milestones in chronological order, from earliest to latest?

1. Description of plasmids
2. Proposal of the DNA double-helix model
3. Development of DNA fingerprinting
4. Birth of Dolly, cloned from an adult somatic cell
1. 1 → 2 → 3 → 4
2. 2 → 1 → 3 → 4
3. 3 → 4 → 2 → 1
4. 2 → 3 → 1 → 4
Why are food chains generally limited to a small number of trophic levels?
1. Energy available to organisms increases at each successive trophic level.
2. Much of the energy is lost as heat and through metabolism at every transfer.
3. Predators consume every organism in the preceding trophic level.
4. Higher trophic levels are unaffected by resource availability.
Which membrane structure encloses a nucleus in eukaryotic cells but is absent from prokaryotic cells?
1. Nuclear envelope
2. Cell membrane
3. Ribosome
4. Cell wall
Which of the following statements about civil timekeeping and celestial motion are correct?

1. Earth’s rotation rate is about 15° per hour, which underlies the idealized one-hour time-zone division.
2. Crossing the International Date Line eastward advances the date by one day; crossing westward moves it back one day.
3. Where daylight saving time is observed, clocks are usually advanced by one hour at its start.
4. The Moon’s rotation and orbit around Earth are prograde, as is Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
1. Statement 1 only
2. Statements 3 and 4 only
3. Statements 1, 3, and 4
4. Statements 2, 3, and 4
Which statements about biodiversity in India are correct?
1. India’s biodiversity hotspots are associated with high endemism.
2. The Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve is in West Bengal, and Nokrek Biosphere Reserve is in Meghalaya.
Select the correct answer.
1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2
In the idealized upper atmosphere, above the frictional boundary layer, which wind flows parallel to the isobars because the pressure-gradient force balances the Coriolis force?
1. Jet stream
2. Geostrophic wind
3. Westerlies
4. Easterlies
Podzolization (podzolisation) is most characteristic of which type of region?
1. Cool, humid regions of the high middle latitudes
2. Coastal regions of the low latitudes
3. Hot, humid tropical regions
4. Arid regions
According to the modern nebular theory, which statement best describes how the Solar System formed?
1. The Sun formed first, then expelled rings of material that became the planets.
2. A rotating cloud of gas and dust collapsed into a central proto-Sun and a disk; disk material accreted into planetesimals and planets.
3. The planets formed before the Sun from matter captured from other stars.
4. Rotation prevented the cloud from flattening, so the planets formed on unrelated orbits.
At 12:00 noon on 31 December 2023 in Auckland, New Zealand (NZDT, UTC+13), what was the local date in Honolulu, Hawaii (HST, UTC−10) and Anchorage, Alaska (AKST, UTC−9) at that same instant?
1. Both places: 1 January 2024
2. Both places: 30 December 2023
3. Honolulu: 30 December 2023; Anchorage: 31 December 2023
4. Honolulu: 31 December 2023; Anchorage: 30 December 2023
Which statement about hail formation is NOT correct?
1. Hail forms in thunderstorms with strong updrafts.
2. Supercooled water freezes onto a hail embryo as it moves through the cloud.
3. Repeated lifting in an updraft can add layers of ice before the hailstone falls.
4. Hail forms when warm raindrops simply fall through a subfreezing layer, without growth in a thunderstorm updraft.
Match each ocean current in List I with the ocean in List II where it flows. Select the correct code.

List I
A. Kuroshio Current
B. Agulhas Current
C. East Wind Drift
D. Antilles Current

List II
1. Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean)
2. Pacific Ocean
3. Atlantic Ocean
4. Indian Ocean
1. A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
2. A-3, B-1, C-4, D-2
3. A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3
4. A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3
With reference to the pseudo-melanistic tigers documented in India, which statements are correct?
1. They have unusually broad, merged stripes and are often described as melanistic-looking.
2. The only established wild population documented in India is in Similipal Tiger Reserve, Odisha.
Select the correct answer.
1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2
Which statement about The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) is correct?
1. SCCL is the oldest private-sector coal mining company in India and is headquartered in Kothagudem, Telangana.
2. SCCL has diversified into thermal and solar power generation, captive explosives manufacture for mining, and consultancy services.
3. SCCL has held Navratna status since 2011.
4. SCCL is the world’s largest coal-producing company.

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