Top 10 rivers in UPSC Prelims, ranked by questions asked
The Narmada leads with 14 Prelims questions, ahead of the Ganga and Godavari. Here is how the ten most-asked rivers line up.
Rivers are the single largest group of places in our map data: 151 of them. Together they are linked to 159 Prelims questions, more than any other place type. But the questions are not spread evenly.
Source: UPSCPrep Data Atlas
The leaders
The Narmada tops the table with 14 questions. It rises at Amarkantak and flows west through a rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges into the Gulf of Khambhat – a west-flowing peninsular river, which is exactly the kind of exception UPSC likes. The Ganga and the Godavari follow with 11 each; the Godavari rises at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik and is the longest river of the peninsula.
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India map in the official boundary; positions are for orientation · Source: UPSCPrep Data Atlas
The rest of the ten
The Krishna and Mahanadi have 8 questions each, the Chambal 7 and the Chenab 6. The Brahmaputra, Ravi and Sutlej close the list with 5 each, level with the Yamuna.
UPSC angle
- Learn source, mouth, states crossed and main tributaries for every river above.
- Pair each river with its dams and wetlands – many questions link a river to a reservoir or a Ramsar site.
- Indus-system rivers (Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej) are often asked in the context of their sequence from north to south.