UPPSC 2020 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 82 of 150

Correct — D, the wrongly matched pair. The capital of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), an island nation off West Africa, is Praia, located on Santiago island — NOT Bamako. Bamako is the capital of Mali, a landlocked country on the African mainland. So 'Cape Verde — Bamako' is the pair that is NOT correctly matched, which is exactly what the question asks for. The other three pairs are all correct: Morocco's capital is Rabat, Tunisia's is Tunis, and Algeria's is Algiers — the three Maghreb (north-west African) capitals.

• (a)Morocco — Rabat — Correctly matched — Rabat is the capital of Morocco (its largest city is Casablanca), so this is not the answer to a 'NOT correctly matched' question.
• (b)Tunisia — Tunis — Correctly matched — Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, so it cannot be the mismatched pair.
• (c)Algeria — Algiers — Correctly matched — Algiers is the capital of Algeria, so it cannot be the mismatched pair.

African political geography — countries and their capitals. Three of the pairs are Maghreb states of north-west Africa (Morocco–Rabat, Tunisia–Tunis, Algeria–Algiers). The odd one out uses Cape Verde, a small Atlantic island republic west of Senegal, whose capital is Praia; the option deliberately swaps in Bamako, which is actually the capital of Mali.

This is a 'find the wrong pair' matching item, so you must spot the single incorrect link rather than the correct ones. The trap is Bamako sounding plausibly West African. Fix two anchors: Cape Verde = Praia (island capital), and Bamako = Mali (mainland, on the Niger river). Once those are locked, option (d) is clearly the mismatch.

• Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) — capital Praia, on Santiago island in the Atlantic off West Africa
• Bamako is the capital of Mali (on the Niger river), not of Cape Verde
• Morocco → Rabat; Tunisia → Tunis; Algeria → Algiers — the Maghreb capitals
• Cape Verde is an archipelago republic; Mali is a landlocked Sahelian country

• Assuming a plausibly African-sounding capital belongs to the country in the option — verify each pair
• Confusing Cape Verde (island, capital Praia) with mainland Sahel states like Mali (Bamako)

UPPSC/UPSC ask country–capital matching, usually seeded with one deliberate swap; here Cape Verde is paired with Mali's capital Bamako to create the wrong match.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The capital of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) is:

  • (a)Bamako
  • (b)Praia
  • (c)Dakar
  • (d)Nouakchott

  Answer(b) Praia — the capital, on Santiago island; Bamako is Mali's, Dakar is Senegal's, Nouakchott is Mauritania's.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following country–capital pairs is correctly matched?

  • (a)Mali — Dakar
  • (b)Senegal — Bamako
  • (c)Mauritania — Nouakchott
  • (d)Cape Verde — Rabat

  Answer(c) Mauritania — Nouakchott. Mali's capital is Bamako, Senegal's is Dakar, and Cape Verde's is Praia.