UPSC seems to have taken more interest in new-age technology lately, asking questions regarding the applications of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Technology, Nanotubes, etc. This year, one of their papers featured a question on blockchain – pertaining to its definition, structure and design!
UPSC prelims have two papers: Paper 1(General Studies) and Paper 2 (CSAT) amongst which, Paper 2 is only qualifying in nature. Paper 1 on the other hand, is very important in order to reach cut-off or minimum marks. Cut-off for General category candidates was 98 in UPSC Prelims 2019, 98 in UPSC Prelims 2018, and 105.34 in UPSC Prelims 2017.
The UPSC IAS Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2020, which was conducted on Oct 4, 2020 between 9:30 am -11:30 am, included a question on Blockchain in its General Studies paper.
This is an objective paper with maximum marks of 200, where every answer carries 2 marks. Each incorrect answer will entail the deduction of -0.66 marks. Amidst a plethora of unconventional questions, the prelims exam’s Science section was, as usual, dominated by Science and Technology coupled with an influence of Current Affairs. This year entailed around ten questions that were there from Science alongside eight in Science and Technology.
Overall, this section can only come off as easy to those who have smartly managed to cover statistics as well as current affairs.
In order for candidates to have answered these questions correctly, they would have required sound knowledge about recent tech developments around virtual currencies and other advancements occurring all over the globe. The question asked candidates to select from multiple statements describing blockchain technology and identifying the correct ones.

Here’s an image above of the question from the prelim examination in both languages – English, and Hindi. Can you guess the correct answer to these questions? Post your answers in the comment section below!
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