UPSC CSAT Mock Tests – Chapter 3: Mock Test 2 – Standard Level (80 MCQs)

A floor 5.25 m long and 3.78 m wide is to be paved with square tiles of the largest possible equal size, without cutting any tile. How many tiles are needed?

How many zeros are there at the end of 160! (the product 1 × 2 × 3 × … × 160)?

Divide 4⁶¹ by 9. What is the remainder?

How many even divisors does 72 have?

Passage 1

Closing a coal mine is often discussed as if it were only a question of carbon. For the district around the mine it is also a question of wages, schools and hospitals, because the mine pays for many of them through royalties and the spending of its workers. A transition that shuts the mine first and plans for the district later will be resisted, and the resistance will be reasonable. The workers did not choose where the coal lay. If cleaner energy is to win public support, the districts that gave the country its coal must be given a share in what replaces it – new industries, retraining and the land of the closed mines put to fresh use.

Which of the following best states the central idea of the passage?

The author describes the resistance of mining districts as "reasonable" because:

Which of the following is an assumption made in the passage?

Petrol becomes 20 per cent dearer. By how much per cent must a car owner use less petrol to keep his petrol bill unchanged?

The population of a town rises by 10 per cent in the first year and by 20 per cent in the second, and falls by 10 per cent in the third. What is the net change over the three years?

A dishonest trader claims to sell at cost price but uses a weight of 900 g in place of 1 kg. What is his gain per cent?

A trader sells two articles at ₹990 each, gaining 10 per cent on one and losing 10 per cent on the other. What is the result of the two sales?

Statements:

Some books are pens.

All pens are bags.

No bag is a box.

Conclusions:

I. Some books are bags.

II. Some boxes are books.

Which of the following is correct?

Statement: Many people fell ill with food poisoning after a wedding feast in a village.

Courses of action:

I. The health department should treat the affected people and collect samples of the food served.

II. All wedding feasts in the district should be banned.

Which of the following is correct?

Passage 2

Vaccines are victims of their own success. When a disease is common, parents see its harm with their own eyes and accept the vaccine readily. When the vaccine has made the disease rare, the harm is no longer visible, while every rumour about a side effect travels fast. Trust then depends less on the vaccine than on the health worker who gives it.

Which of the following is the most logical inference from the passage?

P puts ₹50,000 into a business for 6 months and Q puts ₹30,000 for a full year. How much of a profit of ₹33,000 should Q receive?

In what ratio must rice costing ₹40 a kg be mixed with rice costing ₹55 a kg so that the mixture is worth ₹45 a kg?

Passage 3

When schools closed during the pandemic, lessons moved to phones and laptops. For children in homes with a device of their own and a steady connection, learning went on, with gaps. For those who shared one phone among siblings, or had none, it largely stopped. The move online did not create the divide between these children; it revealed and widened a divide that already existed. Any plan to make digital learning a lasting part of schooling must begin with the child who has the least access, not with the platform.

According to the passage, the move to online classes:

Which of the following follows most logically from what the author says about planning digital learning for the future?

What number should replace the question mark in the series 2, 6, 12, 20, ?, 42?

In a code, CAT = 24, because the positions of its letters in the alphabet add up to 24. On the same basis, DOG = ?

Passage 4

Nearly three-quarters of the world's leading food crops benefit, at least in part, from animal pollinators such as bees, yet farmers seldom pay for this service and rarely count its loss. A farmer who sprays a pesticide during flowering may protect his crop from a pest and, in the same act, kill the bees that set his neighbour's fruit. Because the cost falls on others, it does not enter his decision. Wild bees also need patches of uncultivated land to nest in, and these vanish when every strip is ploughed. Protecting pollinators therefore asks for rules on when and what to spray, and for some land left wild – choices no single farmer has a reason to make alone.

The passage suggests that pollinators decline mainly because:

Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author's argument?

By ending with "choices no single farmer has a reason to make alone", the author suggests that:

Event I: The government raised the import duty on edible oils.

Event II: The prices of oilseeds in the domestic market rose.

Which of the following best describes the relation between the two events?

Argument: "The new cycle lanes in our city have made the roads safer: road accidents fell by 20 per cent in the year after the lanes opened." Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

A batsman has an average of 40 runs after 16 innings. He scores 91 runs in the 17th innings. What is his new average?

The sum of the present ages of A and B is 50 years. Five years ago, A was four times as old as B. What is A's present age?

A farm has hens and goats. Together they have 50 heads and 140 legs. How many goats are there?

Passage 5

The Union collects some of its revenue as cesses and surcharges, which, unlike ordinary taxes, are not shared with the States under the formula of the Finance Commission. When such levies form a growing part of the Union's collections, the share that flows to the States shrinks even if the formula stays the same. The States then depend more on grants that come with conditions. A sharing formula protects the States only as long as the pool to which it applies is not hollowed out.

The central concern of the passage is that:

In the passage, the phrase "hollowed out" means that the pool:

Reasoning set 1

Six friends A, B, C, D, E and F sit round a circular table, facing the centre.

– A sits opposite D.

– B sits to the immediate right of A.

– E is not a neighbour of A.

– C sits second to the left of E.

Who sits opposite F?

Who sits to the immediate right of E?

Which of the following pairs sit next to each other?

The difference between the compound interest and the simple interest on a sum for 2 years at 8 per cent a year is ₹64. What is the sum?

The population of a town is 62,500. It grows by 4 per cent every year. What will the population be after two years?

12 workers can finish a job in 18 days. Working at the same rate, how many days will 27 workers take?

A and B together finish a job in 6 days; A alone can finish it in 10 days. They are paid ₹4,500 for the job. What is B's share?

Passage 6

Every satellite that dies in orbit becomes a hazard to those still working. When two pieces of debris collide, they break into many smaller pieces, each able to cause the next collision. Beyond a certain density, the process could feed on itself. No country can clean up its own share of orbit, because orbits are shared by all.

The passage implies that space debris is best handled by:

As a district engineer, you find that a road being built by a contractor uses material below the required standard. The road must open next week for a minister's visit. What is the most appropriate action?

Two trains 120 m and 130 m long run on parallel tracks in the same direction at 72 km/h and 54 km/h. How long does the faster train take to pass the slower one completely?

Walking at 5 km/h, a man reaches the station 6 minutes late; walking at 6 km/h, he reaches 4 minutes early. How far is the station?

In a 100 m race, A beats B by 10 m and B beats C by 10 m. By how many metres does A beat C?

Passage 7

A farmer who loses a crop to drought loses twice: once in the field and again when he borrows at high interest to sow the next season. Crop insurance is meant to break this chain. But insurance pays only when claims are settled quickly; a payment that arrives a year late cannot buy seeds for a season already gone. The design of a scheme matters less than the speed with which it pays.

Which of the following best reflects the author's view?

The author assumes that:

If "+" means "×", "×" means "−", "−" means "÷" and "÷" means "+", what is the value of 18 − 3 + 4 × 6 ÷ 2?

A clock gains 6 minutes every hour. It is set right at 8 a.m. What time will it show when the correct time is 2 p.m. on the same day?

Passage 8

Surveys often find that many women who leave paid work would return if suitable care for their young children were available near home. A woman who must choose between a job and the care of a toddler is not choosing between work and leisure; she is choosing between two kinds of work, only one of which is paid.

The author's point in the last sentence is that:

What is the area of a triangle whose sides are 13 cm, 14 cm and 15 cm?

What is the volume of a cylinder of radius 7 cm and height 10 cm? (Take π = 22/7.)

If each side of a square is increased by 20 per cent, by what percentage does its area increase?

Passage 9

Courts in India carry a large backlog of cases, and many of them are disputes between neighbours, relatives or business partners who will have to deal with each other long after the case is decided. A judgment names a winner and a loser; it rarely restores a relationship. Mediation, in which a trained person helps the parties reach their own settlement, can do what a judgment cannot – and it is quicker and cheaper. Yet it works only where both sides come willingly and the mediator is trusted. Forcing parties into mediation may clear files without settling disputes, which then return to court in another form.

Which of the following best captures the crux of the passage?

According to the passage, forcing parties into mediation may:

Which of the following does the passage support about mediation and the disputes that reach the courts?

A committee of 3 is to be chosen from 5 men and 4 women. In how many ways can this be done if the committee must include at least one woman?

A bag contains 5 red balls and 3 blue balls. Two balls are drawn at random, one after the other, without replacement. What is the probability that both are red?

Twelve people at a meeting each shake hands once with every other person. How many handshakes take place?

Each of the digits 2, 4, 6 and 8 is used exactly once to write two two-digit numbers. What is the greatest possible product of the two numbers?

Passage 10

Plastic packaging is cheap for the company that uses it because the cost of collecting it after use falls on municipalities and on the waste pickers who sort it by hand. Extended producer responsibility asks the company that puts the packaging on the market to pay for collecting and recycling it. The principle is simple; the difficulty is in checking. A producer that reports collecting more than it does pays nothing for the gap, so the rule is only as good as the audit behind it.

Which of the following is the most logical inference from the passage?

The main purpose of the passage is to:

Ravi said, "Either the bridge is repaired or the road is closed." It is known that what Ravi said is true and that the road is not closed.

Which of the following must be true?

In a row of 40 students, Anu is 13th from the left and Bala is 17th from the right. How many students sit between them?

If "P × Q" means "P is the brother of Q" and "P + Q" means "P is the father of Q", what does "A × B + C" mean?

Passage 11

A wetland on the edge of a city stores rainwater the way a sponge does, releasing it slowly. When it is filled in for housing, the rain that it once held runs at once into drains built for smaller flows. The flood that follows is then blamed on heavy rain, though the rain was no heavier than before.

The passage implies that some urban floods are caused mainly by:

Which of the following is closest to 39.8 per cent of 2,505 plus 19.9 per cent of 1,198?

Passage 12

An officer who is asked to decide a tender in which his brother-in-law has bid may be honest and may decide fairly. The rule that he should step aside is not an accusation against his honesty; it protects the public's trust in the decision. Justice must not only be done but be seen to be done, and a decision taken by an interested officer cannot be seen to be fair, however fair it is.

According to the passage, an officer should step aside from such a decision mainly because:

Which of the following is implied by the passage?

On what day of the week did 15 August 1947 fall?

A rectangle 3 units wide and 5 units long is divided into 15 unit squares by lines parallel to its sides. How many squares of all sizes are there in the figure?

Find the number that completes the analogy 7 : 50 :: 9 : ?

Standing face to the west, a woman makes three turns: 45° anticlockwise, 180° clockwise and 90° anticlockwise. Where does she face at the end?

Passage 13

A child who is taught to read in a language she does not speak at home must learn two things at once: the language and the skill of reading. Many fall behind in both. Teaching her to read first in the language she speaks, and adding the second language step by step, lets her learn one thing at a time.

Which of the following is the most logical corollary of the passage?

A visibly angry citizen shouts at you at the public counter because his pension papers have been pending for months. What is the best first response?

A shop gives "buy 4, get 1 free" on notebooks. What is the effective discount on each notebook taken?

Data set 1

The table shows the number of students enrolled in four streams of a college.

Which stream showed the highest percentage growth in enrolment from 2022 to 2024?

By approximately what percentage did the total enrolment rise from 2022 to 2024?

In 2023, what percentage of the total enrolment was in Science?

Passage 14

The joint family once gave the old a place and a role. As children move to cities for work, more parents grow old alone in villages. Pensions can pay for food, but they cannot pay a visit. A society that is ageing must therefore think about company and care, not about income alone.

The author's argument would be weakened most if it were shown that:

Passage 15

In a country where failure in business carries lasting shame, people with ideas stay in safe jobs. Where an honest failure is treated as experience, they try, fail, learn and try again, and a few of their attempts succeed on a large scale. The number of new ventures depends not only on capital but also on how a society regards those who fail.

Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

Question: What is the value of x?

Statement 1: 3x + 7 = 22

Statement 2: x² = 25