General Science produced 154 of the 1,300 questions UPSC asked in GS Paper I between 2014 and 2026 — 11.8% of the paper, about 11.8 questions a year, and the 5th largest of 7 subjects. Its thinnest year gave 8 questions and its heaviest 16, which is the range your preparation has to survive.
Recent direction: the last four papers averaged 12 against 11 in the first four — flat.
One line of syllabus, 7 distinguishable topics. This is the part the syllabus text cannot tell you.
Difficulty is our own tagging, not UPSC's — the Commission publishes no difficulty label.
Four words in the notification, and no syllabus at all beyond them. In practice it resolves into space and defence, IT and emerging technology, biology and health, and everyday physics and chemistry — see the split below.
Counted from 1,300 UPSC Prelims GS questions, 2014–2026, each tagged to a topic by UPSC Answer Check. Question papers: Union Public Service Commission.
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