UKPSC Prelims 2025 Q9: Which application software is used for sending and

Q: What is the answer to UKPSC Prelims 2025 Q9?

B. Correct — B, Microsoft Outlook. **Microsoft Outlook** is an e-mail client. It connects to a mail server, hands outgoing messages over for delivery and pulls incoming ones into a local inbox. It also keeps a calendar, contacts and tasks, but mail handling is what it is built around. Mail clients generally speak SMTP to send and POP3 or IMAP to retrieve (Outlook can also use Microsoft's own Exchange/MAPI protocol). Word, Excel and Access work instead on documents, worksheets and tables, and the mail transaction belongs to the client. All four options carry the same brand, so recognising the word "Microsoft" settles nothing here. **Sort each program by the job it does, not by the family it belongs to** — that one habit answers this whole class of question.

UKPSC Prelims 2025 General Studies Paper-I · Question 9 of 149

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per UKPSC's provisional answer key.

Answers from UKPSC's provisional answer key. The Commission publishes a provisional key for UKPSC Prelims 2025 and invites objections before issuing a final key. Every answer shown here is the Commission's own provisional answer (key PDF), not our derivation. If the final key changes an answer, this page is updated to match.

Which application software is used for sending and receiving e-mails?

(a)Microsoft Word
(b)Microsoft Outlook
(c)Microsoft Excel
(d)Microsoft Access

Answer

Why

Correct — B, Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft Outlook is an e-mail client. It connects to a mail server, hands outgoing messages over for delivery and pulls incoming ones into a local inbox. It also keeps a calendar, contacts and tasks, but mail handling is what it is built around.

Mail clients generally speak SMTP to send and POP3 or IMAP to retrieve (Outlook can also use Microsoft's own Exchange/MAPI protocol). Word, Excel and Access work instead on documents, worksheets and tables, and the mail transaction belongs to the client.

All four options carry the same brand, so recognising the word "Microsoft" settles nothing here. Sort each program by the job it does, not by the family it belongs to — that one habit answers this whole class of question.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Microsoft Word — Word is a word processor. It is the right answer when a question asks for the software used for typing, editing and formatting text documents — letters, reports, resumes, with fonts, paragraph styles and page layout.
You can of course type a message inside Word and paste it into a mail, but the composing tool is not the software that transmits and receives the message.
(c)
Microsoft Excel — Excel is a spreadsheet. It is the right answer when a question asks for the software used for calculation in rows, columns and cells — formulas, functions, sorting, filtering and charts.
A worksheet can hold a column of e-mail addresses, which is what makes this option look plausible. Storing addresses is data handling; the stem asks for the software that sends and receives the mail itself.
(d)
Microsoft Access — Access is a desktop database program. It is the right answer when a question asks for the software used for building and querying a relational database — tables linked by keys, with queries, forms and reports over them.
A mail client does store messages in a data file, and that overlap is the trap. Managing structured tables of records is a different task from delivering and fetching mail.

Concept

Application software is a program written to do a job for the user; system software runs and manages the machine itself. Inside the application layer, programs are classified by that job — word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, graphics, browsers, e-mail.

An e-mail client is the application that deals with a mail server on your behalf. It submits outgoing messages for delivery, fetches incoming ones into a local inbox, and organises folders, an address book and attachments.

Microsoft Outlook fills that slot in the Microsoft Office family. Mozilla Thunderbird is another desktop client of the same type, which is a useful reminder that the category is defined by function, not by one product.

Computer awareness of this kind sits in the general studies paper next to internet terminology, cyber-safety vocabulary and e-governance. The item is settled by a definition, not by technical depth.

The sorting habit carries past any one brand. Whatever the suite, the candidate is being asked to name the tool by the task, so a mail client, a spreadsheet and a database stay distinct even when a single company ships all three.

Key facts

Microsoft Outlook is an e-mail client included in most Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 editions; besides mail it keeps a calendar, contacts and tasks.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) carries outgoing mail; POP3 and IMAP are the common protocols for retrieving mail from a server.
Microsoft Word is a word processor, used for typing and formatting text documents.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program built on rows, columns and cells, with formulas and charts.
Microsoft Access is a desktop relational database program that stores data in tables and queries them.
Application software does a task for the user; system software such as an operating system, device driver or linker serves the machine.
Mozilla Thunderbird is another desktop e-mail client, so the category has more than one well-known member.

Same suite, different jobs

Microsoft Outlook→E-mail client — inbox, calendar, contacts

Microsoft Word→Word processor — text documents

Microsoft Excel→Spreadsheet — cells, formulas, charts

Microsoft Access→Desktop database — tables and queries

The four options are Microsoft Office programs; what separates them is the task each one performs.

Study next

E-mail protocols: SMTP for sending, POP3 and IMAP for retrievingApplication software versus system software (operating system, device driver, compiler, linker)Functions of the Microsoft Office programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OutlookE-mail header fields: To, Cc, Bcc, Subject, attachmentMail hazards and vocabulary: spam, phishing, malware in attachmentsOther e-mail clients and webmail services, and how a client differs from a web interface

Common traps

The option set is four Microsoft programs, so brand recognition decides nothing; the discriminator sitting in the stem is the function — sending and receiving e-mails.
Excel and Access can each hold a list of e-mail addresses; holding addresses is storage, while the stem asks for the software that carries the messages.
Outlook the desktop application and Outlook.com the web mail service share a name; the stem asks for application software, which is the client program.
Treating the phrase "application software" as a clue that points at one option, when it is the category all four options already belong to.

This idea appears as a straight match between a named program and the job it does. Sometimes the program is given and the category is asked for; sometimes the category is given, as here, and the program is the answer.

A related turn asks you to separate application software from system software, where the odd one out is a compiler, linker or device driver rather than a user-facing program.

The e-mail thread itself extends into protocols, header fields such as Cc and Bcc, and mail-borne hazards like spam and phishing.

Related PYQs

CDS_GK_2025_I_Q1022025

Same skill of sorting a named program by what it is. That item asks which option is not application software, where the discriminator is a linker rather than a user-facing program; this one stays inside the application layer and asks which program handles mail.

MPPSC_2025_PRE_PaperI_Q22025

The same product-to-category mapping, run the other way. There the product is given (Adobe Photoshop) and the category is the answer; here the category is stated in the stem and the product is the answer.

MPPSC_2018_PRE_PaperI_Q762018

Also e-mail, but vocabulary instead of software identification: SPAM as the term for unsolicited junk mail. It sits in the same computer-awareness cluster a candidate should revise alongside mail clients and protocols.

UPPSC_2025_PRE_CSAT_Q942025

Shares the e-mail subject but tests a different layer — etiquette inside a group thread, where the options weigh routine good practice against unnecessary use of the "Reply All" feature, rather than identifying the software that sends and receives mail.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which protocol is used by an e-mail client to send outgoing mail to a mail server?
- (a)SMTP
- (b)HTTP
- (c)FTP
- (d)SNMP
Answera — SMTP, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is what a mail client uses to hand an outgoing message to the server for delivery.
HTTP moves web pages between a browser and a web server. FTP transfers files between hosts. SNMP is used to monitor and manage network devices. Retrieval of mail, by contrast, typically runs on POP3 or IMAP.
practice — not a real PYQ
Microsoft Access is an example of which type of application software?
- (a)Presentation software
- (b)Database management software
- (c)Web browser
- (d)Antivirus software
Answerb — Access stores data in related tables and lets the user query them and build forms and reports, which is exactly what database management software does.
Presentation software means slide programs such as PowerPoint. A web browser fetches and displays web pages. Antivirus software scans for malicious code. Each of those three describes a different program from Access.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is system software rather than application software?
- (a)VLC Media Player
- (b)Device driver
- (c)Google Chrome
- (d)Microsoft Outlook
Answerb — A device driver is the code that lets the operating system communicate with a piece of hardware. It serves the machine rather than the user's task, which places it in system software.
VLC plays media files, Chrome browses the web and Outlook handles mail. Each of those performs a job for the user, and that is the mark of application software.
practice — not a real PYQ
In an e-mail, which field is used to send a copy to a recipient whose address is not shown to the other recipients?
- (a)To
- (b)Cc
- (c)Bcc
- (d)Reply-To
Answerc — Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. That recipient receives the message, but the address is kept out of the header the other recipients can see.
To names the primary recipient and Cc names a copy recipient, and both are visible to everyone on the message. Reply-To sets the address to which a reply will be directed.