Both these exams are conducted by UPSC whereafter selected candidates go through the SSB Interview and those who are recommended by SSB undergo medica examination. Only candidates declared medically ‘fit’ are issued joining letters subject to their rank in final merit list calculated on basis of aggregate mark in written and SSB interview.

NDA Exam is conducted for admission to National Defence Academy, a tri-services training academy where cadets of all three forces train together for three year after which they move to respective academies as per their service. Nature of commission here is permanent.

CDS Exam is conducted for following training academies:

IMA(Indian Military Academy, Dehradun) where candidates train for 1.5 years before being commissioned as Lt. in Indian Army. The nature of commission is permanent.

AFA(Air Force Academy, Dundigal) where candidates train for a duration of 74 weeks in case of Flying and Tech branches and 52 weeks for non-tech branches,  before being commissioned as Flying Officer in Indian Air-Force. The nature of commission is permanent.

INA(Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala) where candidates train for 18 months before being commissioned as Sub-Lt. in Indian Navy. The nature of commission is permanent.

OTA(Officer Training Academy ,Chennai) where candidates train for 49 week before being commissioned as lieutenant in Indian Army. The nature of commission here is  temporary.

Eligibility :

NDA Exam

• Age Limit: 16.5-19.5 years
• Passed class 12^th or studying in class 12^th  and can procure the final marksheet and passing certificate well in advance to commencement of course.
• Candidates who fill Air Force and Navy as their first choice need to have Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as one of the subjects in class XII. For Army candidates of any stream can apply.

CDS Exam :

• Age Limit
• IMA: 19-24 years
• OTA: 19-25 years
• AFA: 20-24 years
• INA: 19-24 years
• Education :
• IMA and OTA :  Graduate from any recognized university/ or in final year of graduation and can get the degree in advance to commencement of course.
• INA : Completed B.Tech/B.E or in final year of engineering
• AFA : Degree from any recognized university with Physics and Maths at 10+2 level or Bachelor in Engineering

Exam Pattern:

NDA: 2 exams one of MAT and other GAT . In MAT there are a total of 120 questions and in GAT there are a total of 150 questions divided into two parts: English and General Knowledge. Each correct answer in MAT fetches you 2.5 marks and in GAT 4 marks. There is negative marking of 1/3^rd of the marks allotted to the question. Both the papers would be conducted separately and there would be a time limit of 2.5 hours each.

CDS Exam :

There are three exams :

1. English
2. General Knowledge
3. Elementary Mathematics
4. Each paper is of 100 marks .
5. Time-Limit for each paper is 2 hours.
6. Candidates who fill OTA as their first preference have to attempt only two papers: English and General Knowledge

Syllabus:

In English and GK the papers of both NDA and CDS are almost comparable though some topics like Ancient, Medieval History, Economical Terms are asked more frequently in CDS Exam . Overall toughness in these sections is more in CDS Exam.

Maths : NDA follows NCERT syllabus till class XII

CDS Exam has elementary mathematics including Arithmetic, Basic Trigonometry, Algebra, Mensuration and Statistics.  All the questions are of basic level as compared to NDA Exam but speed plays a big factor here.

Conclusion :

Both NDA and CDS Exams require speed and accuracy which can only be attained by continuous efforts. Candidates should use all resources online to properly utilise their chances.