Real life IAS i.e. UPSC Exam 1998 Interview Questions

Q.How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?

A.Concrete floors are very hard to crack! (UPSC Topper)

Q.If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall,how long would it take
four men to build it?

A. No time at all it is already built. (UPSC 23 Rank Opted for IFS)

Q.If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and
three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?
A. Very large hands.(Good one) (UPSC 11 Rank Opted for IPS)

Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
A. It is not a problem, since you will never find an elephant with one
hand. (UPSC Rank 14 Opted for IES)

Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?

A. No Probs , He sleeps at night. (UPSC IAS Rank 98)

Q. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?

A. It will Wet or Sink as simple as that. (UPSC IAS Rank 2)

Q. What looks like half apple ?

A : The other half. (UPSC - IAS Topper )

Q. What can you never eat for breakfast ?

A : Dinner.

Q. What happened when wheel was invented ?
A : It caused a revolution.

Q. Bay of Bengal is in which state?

A : Liquid (UPSC 33Rank )


ARE THESE QUESTIONS AVILABLE TO AN IAS OFFICERS?

Alok Ranjan Jha Rank 1 (CSE 2001)

An average performer at school and at college. Couldn’t manage beyond the Main in the first two attempts. Had taken a break to concentrate in a career in teaching. He finally resurrects himself much like the Phoenix to top the list for IAS this year! Read about this remarkable man, Alok Ranjan Jha, his efforts and his success...

Q. How did you feel after your success? A. Initially it was extremely difficult for me to believe. I feel elated at the result. It took a couple of days for the news to sink in. But the feeling was really good.

Q. Tell us something about how you started out. A. Actually I was teaching at Hindu College as a lecturer in Political Theory. And that was the time when I decided to go for it. In 1997 I started my preparations and 1998 was my first attempt. I managed the Prelims but could not make it through the Main. In 1999, I did not write because I decided to concentrate on building my career as a lecturer. In 2000, I wrote again. Again I got through the Prelim but not the Main.

Q. What was the real shift in emphasis in your preparations in this third attempt? A. I think I was more methodical and systematic this time.

Q. How did you prepare for Political Science? A. I did not need much extra preparation because I had Political Science as a subject in my B.A., M.A., and M.Phil. Further, I taught it for a couple of years. So, I was very comfortable with this particular subject. Of course, I had to brush up certain areas to tune my preparations to the demands of UPSC. For that, I prepared some random notes with jottings and stuff. But that did not take much of my time.

Q. Why did you choose Sociology? A. Basically for two reasons. Primarily because Sociology and Political Science have much in common. That cuts down your preparation time. Secondly, study of society really fascinates me.

Q. Did you have any formal training in Sociology? A. No, I did not.

Q. How should one go about preparing for Political Science? I was initially upset because quite a few changes had been incorporated in the changed syllabus. There is less emphasis on political theory and thought and more on contemporary issues like Globalization, Human Rights, International Law, Environmental Issues, Global commerce, and the like. And I think a student who is a regular reader of a good newspaper or a good magazine and is aware of what is happening around him stands a good chance now. So, on the whole the approach is quite contemporary and I managed to handle the scope after a few initial hitches.

Q. Apart from what you have already told us, what do you think of Sociology as a subject? How did you prepare? It is interesting, particularly, the theory part. The way we have to study about thinkers, is fairly interesting. And, a friend of mine, Nayanika Mathur was a great help to me. At that time she was a student of the Delhi School of Economics.

Q. What about General Studies? What was going wrong with you in previous attempts? One of the biggest mistakes I made in both my previous attempts, was time management and that still remains a problem. One of the two papers was quite lengthy. In the first attempt it was difficult to manage all questions. So I was very careful this time. I said to myself if I am not able to write more than 150 words within 3 or 4 minutes I am not going to succeed. I would rather leave the answer incomplete than exceed the time limit. So, time management was one factor that made the difference.

Q. Did you practise answer writing regularly? Not really. For Statistics I did practise a bit. Otherwise I did not practise writing as such, but I did jot down important points for all possible questions and topics.

Q. What is your opinion about choosing coaching institutes? I think coaching institutes play a very crucial role. But I would like to say that one should be careful about the kind of institute one is choosing. All institutes are actually not up to the mark. So one has to go by the institute’s record, the kind of people who are teaching there and, interact with them. If one feels comfortable there one should go. Coaching institutes, I think do have a role to play because the syllabi for the exam is vast, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Institutes guide you how to go about it, think about time management and they keep you on track. That, I think, is very important.

Q. How did you prepare for Essay? Actually I did not do any deliberate preparation for the Essay. I relied on my wide reading, my understanding of the world around me, and my understanding of social issues. Both my optionals helped me in this regard.

Q. How was your interview? What was your experience? I was a bit scared to begin with. But the moment I entered, right from the beginning the Board was very cordial, very friendly and extremely nice. So, not even for a moment I felt uncomfortable. They were very polite.

Q. Why did you choose IFS? It has more to do with my fascination for diplomacy and international relations rather than aversion to any other service. And I think the way India and the world is changing and the way India’s relations with the changing world are taking shape, I feel foreign service in coming years is going to be extremely challenging.

Q. You did graduation from Hindu College and then you went to JNU. What do you think is the difference in approach in both universities? As far as merit and academic excellence of faculties is concerned, both are equally good. As a place for students JNU is far more compact. There is much more interaction among the students at JNU than compared to that of DU. Of course, the number of students in JNU is far less. No doubt, JNU does have very meritorious students, but that is true for the Delhi University too.

Q. Where have you done your schooling? St. Michaels, Patna.

Q. So, do you attribute your success to your school and those formative years? Every school as an institution always gives its contribution to an individual. We might not realise that in concrete terms. It has left a deep impact on my personality, attitude towards the world and the people around me because it is the first place where socialization begins outside the family.

Q. Any advice for future aspirants? First I would like to wish all of them good luck. But two things I want to make very clear. One, they should have a career chalked out either in academics, media or elsewhere before they get into this, because I do think there is some amount of unpredictability in this exam and two, I want them to have a sense of detachment from the exam. Don’t take it to your heart, because (God forbid!) if you don’t get through, you should not feel dejected and stop giving hundred per cent to everything else in life.

Smallest and Biggest Countries

SNo Biggest Nations (Area Wise) Biggest Nations (Population Wise) Smallest Nations (Area Wise) Smallest Nations (Population Wise) 1 Russia China Vatican City Vatican City 2 Canada India Monaco Tuvalu 3 China USA Nauru Nauru 4 USA Indonesia Tuvalu Palau 5 Brazil Brazil San Marino San Marino 6 Australia Pakistan Liechtenstein Monaco 7 India Russia Marshall Islands Liechtenstein 8 Argentina Bangladesh Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis 9 Kazakhastan Japan Maldives Antigua and Barbados 10 Sudan Nigeria Malta Dominica

General Knowledge Extra

No.	Question	Answer
01	The first Prime minister of Bangladesh was	Mujibur Rehman
02	The longest river in the world is the	Nile
03	The longest highway in the world is the	Trans-Canada
04	The longest highway in the world has a length of	About 8000 km
05	The highest mountain in the world is the	Everest
06	The country that accounts for nearly one third of the total teak production of the world is	Myanmar
07	The biggest desert in the world is the	Sahara desert
08	The largest coffee growing country in the world is	Brazil
09	The country also known as "country of Copper" is	Zambia
10	The name given to the border which separates Pakistan and Afghanistan is	Durand line
11	The river Volga flows out into the	Capsian sea
12	The coldest place on the earth is	Verkoyansk in Siberia
13	The country which ranks second in terms of land area is	Canada
14	The largest Island in the Mediterranean sea is	Sicily
15	The river Jordan flows out into the	Dead sea
16	The biggest delta in the world is the	Sunderbans
17	The capital city that stands on the river Danube is	Belgrade
18	The Japanese call their country as	Nippon
19	The length of the English channel is	564 kilometres
20	The world's oldest known city is	Damascus
21	The city which is also known as the City of Canals is	Venice
22	The country in which river Wangchu flows is	Myanmar
23	The biggest island of the world is	Greenland
24	The city which is the biggest centre for manufacture of automobiles in the world is	Detroit, USA
25	The country which is the largest producer of manganese in the world is	USA
26	The country which is the largest producer of rubber in the world is	Malaysia
27	The country which is the largest producer of tin in the world is	Malaysia
28	The river which carries maximum quantity of water into the sea is the	Mississippi
29	The city which was once called the `Forbidden City' was	Peking
30	The country called the Land of Rising Sun is	Japan
31	Mount Everest was named after	Sir George Everest
32	The volcano Vesuvius is located in	Italy
33	The country known as the Sugar Bowl of the world is	Cuba
34	The length of the Suez Canal is	162.5 kilometers
35	The lowest point on earth is	The coastal area of Dead sea
36	The Gurkhas are the original inhabitants of	Nepal
37	The largest ocean of the world is the	Pacific ocean
38	The largest bell in the world is the	Tsar Kolkol at Kremlin, Moscow
39	The biggest stadium in the world is the	Strahov Stadium, Prague
40	The world's largest diamond producing country is	South Africa
41	Australia was discovered by	James Cook
42	The first Governor General of Pakistan is	Mohammed Ali Jinnah
43	Dublin is situated at the mouth of river	Liffey
44	The earlier name of New York city was	New Amsterdam
45	The Eifel tower was built by	Alexander Eiffel
46	The Red Cross was founded by	Jean Henri Durant
47	The country which has the greatest population density is	Monaco
48	The national flower of Britain is	Rose
49	Niagara Falls was discovered by	Louis Hennepin
50	The national flower of Italy is	Lily
51	The national flower of China is	Narcissus
52	The permanent secretariat of the SAARC is located at	Kathmandu
53	The gateway to the Gulf of Iran is	Strait of Hormuz
54	The first Industrial Revolution took place in	England
55	World Environment Day is observed on	5th June
56	The first Republican President of America was	Abraham Lincoln
57	The country famous for Samba dance is	Brazil
58	The name of Alexander's horse was	Beucephalus
59	Singapore was founded by	Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
60	The famous British one-eyed Admiral was	Nelson
61	The earlier name of Sri Lanka was	Ceylon
62	The UNO was formed in the year	1945
63	UNO stands for	United Nations Organization
64	The independence day of South Korea is celebrated on	15th August
65	`Last Judgement' was the first painting of an Italian painter named	Michelangelo
66	Paradise Regained was written by	John Milton
67	The first President of Egypt was	Mohammed Nequib
68	The first man to reach North Pole was	Rear Peary
69	The most famous painting of Pablo Picasso was	Guermica
70	The primary producer of newsprint in the world is	Canada
71	The first explorer to reach the South Pole was	Cap. Ronald Amundson
72	The person who is called the father of modern Italy is	G.Garibaldi
73	World literacy day is celebrated on	8th September
74	The founder of modern Germany is	Bismarck
75	The country known as the land of the midnight sun is	Norway
76	The place known as the Roof of the world is	Tibet
77	The founder of the Chinese Republic was	San Yat Sen
78	The first Pakistani to receive the Nobel Prize was	Abdul Salam
79	The first woman Prime Minister of Britain was	Margaret Thatcher
80	The first Secretary General of the UNO was	Trygve Lie
81	The sculptor of the statue of Liberty was	Frederick Auguste Bartholdi
82	The port of Banku is situated in	Azerbaijan
83	John F Kennedy was assassinated by	Lee Harry Oswald
84	The largest river in France is	Lore
85	The Queen of England who married her brother-in-law was	Catherine of Aragon
86	The first negro to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was	Ralph Johnson Bunche
87	The first British University to admit women for degree courses was	London University
88	The principal export of Jamaica is	Sugar
89	New York is popularly known as the city of	Skyscrapers
90	Madagascar is popularly known as the Island of	Cloves
91	The country known as the Land of White Elephant is	Thailand
92	The country known as the Land of Morning Calm is	Korea
93	The country known as the Land of Thunderbolts is	Bhutan
94	The highest waterfalls in the world is the	Salto Angel Falls, Venezuela
95	The largest library in the world is the	United States Library of Congress, Washington DC