Defence · Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
NDA — National Defence Academy & Naval Academy Examination
The complete NDA blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
270 questions across 2 papers, same day900 written marks (+900 SSB = 1800 merit)300 minutes combined · two sessions Free · tutor-verified
NDA at a glance
Conducted byUnion Public Service Commission (UPSC)
CycleTwice a year — NDA I (notification ~December–January, exam ~April) and NDA II (notification ~June, exam ~September)
ModeOffline, pen-and-paper (OMR-based) — two objective papers on the same day: Mathematics in the morning session, GAT in the afternoon session
EligibilityUnmarried male and female candidates aged 16.5–19.5 years; Class 12 pass or appearing. Physics and Mathematics at the 12th-standard level are compulsory for Air Force and Navy wing candidates, not strictly required for the Army wing.
LanguagesEnglish & Hindi
Training destination3-year tri-service training at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla (Pune), followed by wing-specific pre-commissioning training at the Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy or Air Force Academy — leading to a Permanent Commission as a service officer
Wings & academies you can enter
Army Wing — Indian Military Academy, DehradunNavy Wing — Indian Naval Academy, EzhimalaAir Force Wing — Air Force Academy, Hyderabad3-year joint training at NDA, Khadakwasla (Pune)Permanent Commission as a service officer
⚡ What changed recently
- The written pattern has held steady across recent cycles: Mathematics (120 Q / 300 marks / 150 min) in the morning session and GAT (150 Q / 600 marks / 150 min) in the afternoon session — 270 questions, 900 marks, 300 minutes combined, on a single day.
- GAT's two parts — English (50 Q / 200 marks) and General Knowledge (100 Q / 400 marks) — share one 150-minute window with no internal time lock, so a candidate can attempt either part first.
- Negative marking stays at one-third of a question's own marks: about −0.83 for a wrong Mathematics answer (2.5 marks each) and about −1.33 for a wrong GAT answer (4 marks each); unattempted questions score zero.
- Selection keeps the same two-stage design UPSC has used for years — the 900-mark written exam and the 900-mark SSB Interview are weighted equally in the 1800-mark final merit.
How NDA selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
900 OF 1800 FINAL-MERIT MARKS
Written Exam
Two objective papers on the same day: Mathematics (120 Q / 300 marks / 150 min) in the morning, GAT (150 Q / 600 marks / 150 min) in the afternoon. One-third of a question's marks is deducted for a wrong answer; unattempted questions score zero. Candidates must clear both a subject-wise and an aggregate qualifying cut-off to be called for SSB.
900 OF 1800 FINAL-MERIT MARKS
SSB Interview
A 4-5 day Services Selection Board process at one of the SSB centres. Stage I is an intelligence test plus picture perception & discussion, which screens out most candidates on day one; Stage II — for those who clear Stage I — covers group tasks, a personal interview, psychological tests and a final conference, scored out of 900.
RANKING & WING ALLOTMENT
Final merit & allotment
Written score (900) plus SSB score (900) gives a final merit out of 1800, subject also to a medical fitness examination. Candidates are allotted to the Army, Navy or Air Force wing by merit rank, preference and vacancies, and join the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, for training.
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
Mathematics
Qualifying + merit — objective paper, morning session300 marks · 120 Q
150 min · ≈ -0.83 per wrong answer (1/3 of 2.5 marks)
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | 120 | 300 | 150 min |
💡 No calculator is allowed. Algebra and Trigonometry alone account for well over a third of the 120 questions, so a fast, accurate pass across all eight topics — breadth before depth — decides most of this paper's score.
General Ability Test (GAT)
Qualifying + merit — objective paper, afternoon session, two parts sharing one time block600 marks · 150 Q
150 min · ≈ -1.33 per wrong answer (1/3 of 4 marks)
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| English (Part A) | 50 | 200 | — min |
| General Knowledge (Part B) | 100 | 400 | — min |
💡 English (Part A) and General Knowledge (Part B) share the single 150-minute GAT window with no internal time lock — a candidate can attempt either part first. General Knowledge alone is worth 400 of GAT's 600 marks, so most candidates budget more of that time there.
Where your 900 written marks come from
NDA's written exam is two objective papers sat on the same day — Mathematics (300 marks) in the morning session and the General Ability Test, GAT (600 marks), in the afternoon session — 900 marks in all. That written score is only half of your final standing: a 900-mark SSB Interview (intelligence & psychology screening, then group tasks, personal interview and psychological testing over 4-5 days) follows for candidates who clear the written cut-off, and written + SSB (900 + 900 = 1800) decides the final merit list. Only the written exam is modelled in the chapters here. Here is how the 900 written marks split across the three subjects — click any block to open its chapters:
Mathematics300 marks · 33%
120 questions, no calculator. Algebra and Trigonometry together are over a third of the paper; the rest rewards recognising a topic instantly and applying a memorised rule within seconds.
English (GAT Part A)200 marks · 22%
50 questions with no separate time limit inside GAT. Reading Comprehension and Grammar & Usage are tied as the heaviest sub-areas, together 60% of this section.
General Knowledge (GAT Part B)400 marks · 45%
100 questions — the single biggest block of written marks. Physics alone is a quarter of it; the whole section stays close to CBSE Class 9-10 level and rewards recall speed over depth.
Subjects in NDA
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
| Topic | Qs in paper | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Algebra | 22–26 | Very high |
| Trigonometry | 20–23 | Very high |
| Analytical Geometry (2D & 3D) | 16–20 | High |
| Differential Calculus | 14–17 | High |
| Integral Calculus & Differential Equations | 13–16 | High |
| Matrices & Determinants | 10–13 | Medium |
| Vector Algebra | 6–8 | Low |
| Statistics & Probability | 6–8 | Low |
🎯 NDA Mathematics is 120 questions in 150 minutes with no calculator, so speed and formula recall matter more than derivation. Algebra is the single heaviest topic — not one dense chapter but seven compressed CBSE topics (complex numbers, quadratic theory, sets, AP/GP/HP, the binomial theorem, logarithms, permutations & combinations), so breadth beats depth: know all seven formula banks rather than mastering one at the expense of the rest. Trigonometry is second-heaviest and rewards the opposite approach — a small core built on the addition formula and the general-solution results generates almost every question across five recognisable families (ratios/identities, compound & multiple angles, trigonometric equations, inverse trig, heights & distances). Analytical Geometry fuses 2D coordinate geometry with a shallow 3D layer built directly on algebra already known. The two calculus chapters — Differential, then Integral Calculus & Differential Equations — are the newest material for most aspirants and the least forgiving of careless multi-step execution, where a single sign slip costs the mark. Matrices & Determinants is the most mechanical, rule-based topic in the whole paper and should be a near-certain scoring block, while Vector Algebra and Statistics & Probability are the lightest topics by count but run on fewer than a dozen formulas each — the best marks-per-minute in the syllabus if revised last.
| Topic | Qs in paper | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | 13–16 | Very high |
| Grammar & Usage | 13–16 | Very high |
| Vocabulary | 11–14 | High |
| Cloze Test & Ordering of Words/Sentences | 6–9 | Medium |
🎯 NDA's GAT Part A tests English in 50 questions with no separate time limit of its own — Reading Comprehension and Grammar & Usage are tied as the heaviest sub-areas at 30% each, together 60% of the section. Comprehension rewards a repeatable method — skim a passage for gist, then hunt the specific line for detail and inference questions — rather than vocabulary depth, while Grammar rewards a closed, memorisable rule-set spread across five recurring formats: spotting errors, sentence improvement, active-passive conversion, direct-indirect narration and fill-in-the-blanks. Vocabulary, at 25%, is the most self-contained and trainable block — there is no context to parse, just precise word knowledge (synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms) that a fixed word list converts into fast, reliable marks. Cloze Test & Ordering of Words/Sentences is the lightest sub-area by count, but almost every question is quick once the underlying passage logic or sentence-connector rule is spotted, making it excellent marks-per-minute for a final revision pass.
| Topic | Qs in paper | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Physics | 22–27 | Very high |
| Geography | 18–22 | High |
| History & Freedom Movement | 18–22 | High |
| Chemistry | 13–17 | Medium |
| General Science | 8–12 | Low |
| Current Events | 8–12 | Low |
🎯 GAT Part B's General Knowledge is 100 questions across six subjects, and it stays close to CBSE Class 9-10 level rather than undergraduate depth — recall speed, not derivation, decides this section. Physics is the heaviest single subject at 25%, covering measurement, mechanics, heat, light, sound, and electricity & magnetism, plus everyday and defence applications like RADAR, SONAR and satellites — nothing here is computational, so it is pure recall. Geography and History & Freedom Movement are tied at 20% each: Geography spans physical geography (solar system, landforms, climate), Indian geography and world geography, while History leans heavily on the 1857–1947 Freedom Struggle, which alone typically accounts for more than half of that chapter's questions and rewards clean fact-to-year and person-to-event matching. Chemistry (15%) mirrors Physics in staying at CBSE 9-10 level — matter, atomic structure, the periodic table, bonding, chemical reactions, and acids/bases/salts. General Science (10%) mops up biology, the human body, nutrition and common diseases, and scientific instruments and discoveries, while Current Events (10%) is the only sub-area without a fixed, once-and-done syllabus — it needs a running habit of reading current affairs in the months before the exam rather than a single revision pass.
NDA resources
Everything you need to prepare.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
The written exam is two objective papers on the same day: Mathematics (120 questions, 300 marks, 150 minutes) in the morning session and the General Ability Test — GAT (150 questions, 600 marks, 150 minutes) — in the afternoon session. Combined, that is 270 questions for 900 marks across 300 minutes. GAT itself has two parts — English (50 Q / 200 marks) and General Knowledge (100 Q / 400 marks) — but there is no internal time split between them; a candidate can attempt either part first within the single 150-minute GAT window.
One-third of a question's own mark value is deducted for every wrong answer, and unattempted questions score zero. Mathematics questions are worth 2.5 marks each, so a wrong answer costs about −0.83 marks. GAT questions — English and General Knowledge alike — are worth 4 marks each, so a wrong answer there costs about −1.33 marks. Because a GAT wrong answer costs more, blind guessing is riskier in GAT than in Mathematics.
The written exam (900 marks) is followed by an SSB (Services Selection Board) Interview, also scored out of 900 marks, run over roughly 4-5 days: Stage I is an intelligence test plus psychology screening that eliminates most candidates on day one, and Stage II covers group tasks, a personal interview, psychological tests and a final conference for those who clear Stage I. Final merit is written score plus SSB score — 1800 marks total — so a strong written score alone does not guarantee selection. Only the written exam is modelled in the chapters here.
Unmarried male and female candidates aged 16.5 to 19.5 years who have passed or are appearing in Class 12 can apply. Physics and Mathematics at the 12th-standard level are compulsory only for candidates seeking the Air Force or Navy wing; Army wing candidates can qualify without them, though the NDA written exam's own Mathematics paper is common to every wing.
General Knowledge is the single biggest block of marks — 400 of the 900 written marks (45%) — with Physics alone worth roughly a quarter of that. Within Mathematics (300 marks, 33% of the written exam), Algebra and Trigonometry together account for well over a third of the paper's 120 questions. English (200 marks, 22%) is the smallest of the three subjects by marks.
Successful candidates join the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla, Pune, for a 3-year joint tri-service training programme across the Army, Navy and Air Force wings, followed by wing-specific pre-commissioning training at the Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy or Air Force Academy before being commissioned as officers.
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