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GS Paper 4 (Ethics) · Full-Length Test · Mains 2026 / 2027
UPSC Mains GS4 Ethics Full-Length Mock Test — Theory & Case Studies
Two full-length GS Paper 4 mock tests on the UPSC Mains pattern — Section A theory questions on ethics, integrity and aptitude, and Section B applied case studies that put you inside the dilemma. Read every question and case study free below, or download either set as a printable booklet.
Twelve compulsory questions · Section A: 6 theory questions in parts (10 marks per part, ~150 words) · Section B: 6 case studies (20 marks, ~250 words each) · 250 marks · 3 hours
Printable question-cum-answer booklets with ruled answer space · free · no login
What's inside (24 questions across two sets)
Original UnlockIAS Sherlocking Simulator papers on the UPSC Mains pattern — not official past papers.
Set A · Simulator Set 1 (spaced single paper) · 12 questions
Section A · Theory
- Q1.(a) A rising power is no longer merely a claimant in global governance but increasingly a maker of its rules. As its capacity grows, it begins to set the terms that weaker nations must live by, in finance, in technology and in humanitarian aid, terms those nations have little power to refuse. Examine the ethical responsibilities such a power carries towards those it now leads. (Answer in 150 words) (b) What are the principal sources of ethical guidance available to a public servant? Discuss how they shape conduct when they pull in different directions. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q2.(a) Is compassionate rule-bending ever ethically defensible, or does it inevitably corrode probity by setting a precedent? Discuss with suitable examples. (Answer in 150 words) (b) What do you understand by intergenerational justice? Explain its bearing on a present-day development decision. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q3.(a) "In the happiness of his subjects lies the king's happiness, in their welfare his welfare." (Kautilya). What does this quotation mean to you in the present context? (Answer in 150 words) (b) "I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved." (B. R. Ambedkar). What does this quotation mean to you in the present context? (Answer in 150 words) (c) "Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life." (Albert Schweitzer). What does this quotation mean to you in the present context? (Answer in 150 words) (30 marks)
- Q4.(a) When rules, conscience and public sentiment conflict, which of the three should an officer place first? Is there a defensible ordering among them, or must it shift with the situation? Give reasons in support of your answer. (Answer in 150 words) (b) Differentiate between impartiality and non-partisanship in public service, with suitable examples. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q5.(a) The components of emotional intelligence, self-regulation, empathy and social skill, are tested most not in calm times but under crisis pressure, public anger and the slow grind of burnout. Discuss how a civil servant can draw on them to stay effective in such moments. (Answer in 150 words) (b) Critically analyse, in the present context of AI-assisted administration, the claim that where a citizen's benefit or liberty is at stake, an algorithm must never be the final authority. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q6.(a) Examine why well-designed anti-corruption institutions often underdeliver in practice. (Answer in 150 words) (b) "The wider an officer's discretion, the greater the transparency it demands." Examine the measures needed to keep discretionary power accountable. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
Section B · Case Studies
- Q7.Arjun is the Deputy Commissioner of a remote hill district. Late in a punishing monsoon, after days of unrelenting rain, a flash flood tears through the worst-hit blocks of the district in the dead of night. A swollen mountain stream bursts its banks, the only causeway linking those blocks to the headquarters is washed away, and a landslip buries the single approach road. The waters also snap the telephone and data links to the affected blocks, so Arjun has no working line to the state headquarters and no quick way to reach the field officers and rescue teams stranded on the far side of the broken causeway. Hundreds of people are marooned on higher ground without shelter or dry food, several are injured and bleeding, and the relief stores, medicines and rescue equipment they need must reach them within the next few hours or lives will certainly be lost. The only fast way to release the emergency funds and move the equipment is to invoke a procedure that the rules do not permit without prior sanction from the state headquarters, which Arjun simply cannot obtain in time. Acting on his own authority now will save lives but breach the rule and may later be questioned; waiting for the sanction is lawful but may cost lives he could otherwise have saved. As he weighs this, a single call gets through from a hospital in another city: his young child, admitted there for an urgent condition, has taken a sudden turn for the worse, is asking for him, and his family is pleading with him to leave for the bedside at once. Connectivity is patchy and breaking up, the next few hours are decisive both for the relief operation at the epicentre and for his child far away, and Arjun cannot possibly be in two places. (a) What are the options available with Arjun in the above situation? (b) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Arjun? (c) Critically evaluate and examine each of these options identified by Arjun. (d) Which of the options, do you think, would be most appropriate for Arjun to adopt and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q8.You are the District Magistrate of an ecologically fragile coastal district. On your desk is a clearance file for a large, strategically important port-and-logistics project that will divert forest land used for generations by a small, isolated tribal community. The file carries the community's written 'consent' to relocation, obtained through a project contractor. When you visit, the tribal elders deny ever agreeing, several signatures look identical, and the resettlement promised on paper does not match what people on the ground describe. The forest is rich in biodiversity and central to the tribe's livelihood and identity. A senior official, citing the project's national and economic importance and a tight timeline, presses you to certify the consent and forward the file quickly, hinting that delay will be held against you. (a) Can a written 'consent' you have strong reason to believe was manufactured ever be certified in the name of a strategically important national project? Justify your answer. (b) What suitable actions can be taken in view of the mutually compatible interests of the tribal community, the project and the public? (c) What substantial alternatives or safeguards can be proposed to ensure that both the integrity of the consent process and the development goal are protected? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q9.You are the Secretary finalising a large public contract for an AI-based e-governance platform, a flagship project the government is watching closely and is keen to roll out without delay. During the final evaluation you find that one of the shortlisted bidders, which has bid through a holding company rather than in its own name, is a start-up your spouse co-founded and still retains a stake in. On the committee's scoring the bid does appear to be technically the strongest of the lot. Your spouse insists the firm has won purely on merit, that routing a bid through a holding company is normal and perfectly legal, and that disclosing the family link at this late stage will needlessly disqualify a deserving bid, stall a project the public needs and embarrass the family. No one else on the evaluation committee knows of the connection. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (b) What should be your course of action? (c) How would you justify what you choose to do? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q10.Meera is an Administrative Officer with nine years of service, posted in a public-sector undertaking and due for her next promotion within the year. That promotion turns on her performance appraisal, and the appraisal is written by her immediate superior, who is also her reporting officer. One morning he calls her in and directs her to award an IT-services purchase to a particular vendor of his choosing. The full order, she finds, exceeds her delegated financial sanction limit, beyond which the matter would have to go to a higher authority for approval and would attract audit scrutiny. To keep the award at her own level, her reporting officer wants the order split into several smaller purchase orders, each kept just below the threshold so that none crosses it. On examining the quotation, Meera also notices that this vendor's rate is clearly above the prevailing market rate for the same items. Her reporting officer makes plain that he expects the whole matter handled quietly at her level and will not appreciate any hesitation on her part. Splitting orders to bypass a sanction limit is against the financial rules and could later come to the adverse notice of audit, but resisting her reporting officer may cost Meera the appraisal grading on which her promotion, and the financial and career progression riding on it, depend. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (b) Evaluate the conduct of Meera's reporting officer from an ethical point of view. (c) What course of action should Meera adopt and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q11.You are the district officer in charge of a fully digitised welfare scheme in which eligibility for benefits is decided automatically by Aadhaar-linked software, with little human checking in between. While reviewing complaints, you discover that the system has been auto-rejecting a number of genuinely poor and eligible families because of small data mismatches in their records: a name misspelt by a data-entry operator, an address that was never updated, a date of birth keyed in wrongly, or a biometric authentication that repeatedly fails for an elderly labourer whose fingerprints have worn down. None of these families did anything wrong, yet each has silently lost the foodgrain, pension or cash benefit it is entitled to, and several are among the very poorest in the district, now in real distress. A private contractor who manages the scheme's database quietly approaches you and offers to 'clean' and correct the affected records for a fee, outside the sanctioned process, promising the problem will simply disappear. Meanwhile your own superior, proud that the scheme's leakage and exclusion figures have fallen sharply on paper and have won the district public praise and a state award, wants the rejected cases left exactly as they are, arguing that reopening them will dent the very statistics that earned the district its recognition. The digital-state and data-protection setting is the backdrop to all this; but the human cost of the exclusion is immediate, and some of the affected families are already gathered at your office gate asking why their benefits have stopped. (a) What is your reaction to the above situation, and how would you restore the rightful flow of benefits to the wrongly excluded families? (b) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (c) What measures would you institute to prevent such automated exclusion from recurring in your district? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q12.Hours before a respected senior colleague is to take a sensitive official decision, a video surfaces online appearing to show that colleague accepting a bribe. It spreads fast and an online crowd demands instant action, calling for the colleague to be removed before the decision is taken. The colleague denies it outright, says the clip is fabricated, and asks for time to prove it. There are signs the video may be a deepfake, but the official labelling and takedown system is slow and authenticated verification will take days. As the officer responsible, you are pressed either to suspend the colleague and reassign the decision at once to calm the outrage, or to stand by due process at the risk of appearing to shield wrongdoing. The framework on labelling synthetic media is the backdrop; no real incident is involved. (a) How would you react to the situation? (b) What are the ethical issues involved? (c) What would be your course of action and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
Set B · Simulator Set 2 (real Mains shape) · 12 questions
Section A · Theory
- Q1.(a) In the age of synthetic media, a fabricated video is conceived by one person who creates it, amplified by a platform whose algorithm rewards reach, and spread by thousands of citizens who forward it without a second thought. Describe the key ethical dilemmas of truth, trust and moral responsibility that confront the creator, the platform and the citizen, and the duty of disclosure that runs through them all. (Answer in 150 words) (b) Examine the significance of privacy and informed consent as ethical values in a digital welfare state. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q2.(a) Discuss the ethical considerations when the state shapes citizens' pro-social attitudes. Where does legitimate persuasion end and manipulation begin? (Answer in 150 words) (b) Differentiate constitutional morality from social or majoritarian morality, and state which should guide a public servant when they clash. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q3.(a) Given below is a quotation of a great thinker. What does this quotation convey to you in the present context? "Whatever a great person does, others follow; the standard he sets, the world pursues." (Bhagavad Gita) (Answer in 150 words) (b) Given below is a quotation of a great thinker. What does this quotation convey to you in the present context? "Without knowledge, wisdom was lost; without wisdom, morality was lost; without morality, progress was lost." (Jyotirao Phule) (Answer in 150 words) (c) Given below is a quotation of a great thinker. What does this quotation convey to you in the present context? "To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage." (Confucius) (Answer in 150 words) (30 marks)
- Q4.(a) Suggest concrete measures by which a civil servant can hold the line on evidence-based advice against political or popular pressure. (Answer in 150 words) (b) In a public-private partnership, the same officer must both partner with a private firm and police it in the public interest. Examine the ethical challenges this poses to protecting the public interest. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q5.(a) "Moral courage in the civil service lies as much in restraint as in dissent." Discuss, distinguishing genuine moral courage from recklessness or grandstanding. (Answer in 150 words) (b) "Financial rules are ethical instruments, not bureaucratic red tape." Critically analyse in the context of public expenditure. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
- Q6.(a) As the nation marks the 150th-birth-anniversary commemoration of the Iron Man of India, the salience of his life and message has rarely been higher. What were the major teachings of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel? Explain their relevance to administrative integrity and national unity today. (Answer in 150 words) (b) In the drive to meet delivery targets, a welfare administration can quietly reduce the poorest to numbers on a dashboard rather than persons at a counter. Efficiency, pursued for its own sake, risks stripping the beneficiary of dignity. Suggest measures to ensure efficiency does not erode the dignity of the poorest beneficiary. (Answer in 150 words) (20 marks)
Section B · Case Studies
- Q7.Kavya is the ethics officer of a fast-growing health-tech firm racing two rivals to launch a diagnostic AI tool. Days before launch, validation shows the model is markedly accurate for one demographic group but quietly under-performs for another, and that much of the patient data it learned from was gathered under a broad, vaguely worded consent form. Leadership wants to ship now, capture the market, fix the bias in the next version, and treat the consent gap as a minor legal technicality. The hospitals waiting to deploy the tool will trust its verdict on real patients, and clinicians under time pressure are unlikely to second-guess a confident screen. The under-served group also has the least access to a second opinion, so a missed diagnosis there would go uncaught the longest. A launch could mean wrong diagnoses for the weaker-performing group and the use of data people did not knowingly give; a delay could let a rival take the market. The board trusts Kavya's call. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (b) What are the options available with Kavya? (c) The board insists that shipping now is necessary to survive a funding crunch. What logical and ethical arguments will you put forth to convince them otherwise? (d) Which course of action would be most appropriate for Kavya to adopt and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q8.Rohan is Collector of a drought-hit district and must decide how to ration the little water that is left. Three groups depend on it. Large industries holding legal borewell permits employ many local workers and warn that any cut will cost jobs and may shut units that took years to set up. Farmers, already facing a second season of crop failure, say a further cut will ruin them and push them into debt and distress migration. And a colony of migrant labourers on the town's edge, who have no piped supply at all and are not on the local rolls, depend entirely on a tanker the administration may or may not send; their children are already falling sick. The district hospital has warned that a single contaminated source could turn the shortage into an outbreak, and the groundwater table has fallen so far that even the permitted borewells are drawing less each week. A neighbouring district, no better off, has refused to share from its own dwindling reservoir, and the state capital has promised tankers that have not arrived. Powerful local interests, with influence over the district's politics, are pressing Rohan to protect industry first, and one industrialist has hinted that a transfer can be arranged for a Collector who proves difficult. A farmers' agitation is building, a section of the press has taken sides, and whatever Rohan decides will be attacked as unfair to someone. His own staff are divided, some urging caution and others reminding him of the families with no tap at all. He has days, not weeks, before the reserves run critically low. He cannot give everyone what they need, and the most powerless group is the one with no voice in the room. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (b) What suitable actions can be taken by Rohan in view of the mutually compatible interests of the stakeholders? (c) What would be Rohan's course of action and on what ethical principles would he base it? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q9.Nikhil holds documentary evidence, which he has independently checked and found genuine, that a powerful senior official has rigged a major procurement. There is a complication. The proof reached him from a colleague who clearly has a personal grudge and a political motive against that official, so the messenger's hands are not clean even if his documents are. The proper route, the vigilance channel, is known to be slow and is reportedly compromised at the top. If Nikhil pushes the matter, he risks a punishing transfer and a tainted record; if he sits on it, a corrupt act stands and public money is lost. He must decide what to do, and how. (a) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Nikhil? (b) What are the options available with Nikhil? (c) Critically evaluate and examine each of these options. (d) Which of the options would be most appropriate for Nikhil to adopt and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q10.You head a regulatory body. A private firm that you regulate has a fresh application pending before you. On paper the application is technically sound, and a straightforward approval would be defensible. Two things trouble you. First, the firm's past compliance record is quietly poor, with several lapses that were settled softly. Second, you have just learned that the firm has offered your deputy, who retires in two months and has worked on this very file, a lucrative advisory role once he leaves. Nothing about the offer is on record. The deputy is widely respected, has a clean service record, and insists the offer changes nothing; yet he has not put it on file either. Your junior staff have noticed the closeness and are watching how you handle it, and an industry body has begun lobbying quietly for a quick clearance. A consumer group, meanwhile, has filed a representation pointing to the firm's past lapses and asking why it is being treated leniently. Approving the application is easy to justify in writing; rejecting it will be called arbitrary and may be challenged; and the revolving-door offer now shadows every discussion in the room. (a) What are the ethical issues involved in this case? (b) What are the options available to you, and what are the merits and demerits of each? (c) What would be your course of action and why? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q11.A talented junior officer, a young woman, is being steadily undermined by a respected senior man in your office who is months from retirement and feels threatened by her ideas. The harassment is now mostly digital: late-night messages, a hostile internal chat group, and screenshots of her work circulated to ridicule her. She has quietly stopped speaking up in meetings and, you learn from a peer, is preparing to resign. Formal proof is thin, much of it is deniable as banter, and the senior man has powerful friends. You are her reporting head. (a) What are the ethical issues involved, and what would be your response to the officer's predicament? (b) In the light of the above case, comment upon the ethical issues that arise from digital and remote forms of workplace harassment. (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
- Q12.Devika is the Divisional Commissioner of a border district. Across the border, in a strictly neighbouring country, fighting has driven civilians from their homes. One night, the border post reports that a few hundred people, mostly women, children and injured civilians, are at the fence pleading to cross. Mixed among them are a handful of armed men in military uniform who also want to come over. Several of the injured need urgent medical care or they will not survive the night. The weather has knocked out connectivity, Devika's higher authorities are unreachable, and the decision cannot wait until morning. The small border-post garrison is thinly staffed for the night and has limited medical supplies, blankets and shelter; the nearest hospital is hours away on roads the storm has made treacherous. Some of the civilians are running a high fever and a few children are unconscious in their mothers' arms. The armed men say they fled the same fighting and mean no harm, but they will not hand over their weapons easily, and no one can verify who they are in the dark. There is a fear that hostile elements could be using the crowd as cover, yet there is equal fear that turning the column back could send wounded children to their deaths in the cold. The crowd is frightened and pressing forward, and a stampede at the fence is possible if panic spreads. Local villagers have gathered on Devika's side, some moved to help, others alarmed at strangers pouring in. Standing orders point to firm border control, but they were never written for a night like this, and any deviation will be scrutinised later by those who were not present. A wrong call either way could cost innocent lives or open a security hole that cannot be closed. She must act now, on her own judgement, balancing compassion for the helpless against the security risk of an unscreened armed group entering, and she alone will answer for whatever follows. (a) What are the ethical and legal issues involved in this case? (b) What are the options available with Devika? (c) Which option would be most appropriate for Devika to adopt and why? (d) In the present situation, what are the extra precautionary measures to be taken by the Border Guarding force in screening and dealing with the uniformed armed men mixed among the civilians? (Answer in 250 words) (20 marks)
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FAQ
How do I download the GS Paper 4 (Ethics) full-length mock test?
Click "Download Set A" or "Download Set B" at the top of the page. Each is a printable question-cum-answer booklet with a UPSC-style cover, instructions and ruled answer space — print it and write the paper under the real three-hour clock. No sign-up or login is required.
Are these GS4 mock test papers free?
Yes — both sets are free to read and download. Only the model answers, AWE engine evaluation, weak-subject diagnostics and the 1-to-1 call with Neil Sir are part of the paid Sherlocking Test Series Module.
How is the GS4 paper structured?
Like the real UPSC GS4 paper: Section A carries six theory questions in parts of 10 marks each (about 150 words per part); Section B carries six case studies of 20 marks each (about 250 words). 250 marks, three hours, all questions compulsory.
Do I get model answers for this paper?
The question papers are free. The deployable model answers — written to the UPSC word limits — plus AWE engine evaluation and weak-subject diagnostics for every test are part of the Sherlocking Test Series Module, also included in the Sherlocking Mains Comprehensive Module.
Are these official UPSC previous-year questions?
No. These are original UnlockIAS papers from the Sherlocking Simulator, set on the UPSC Mains pattern and current themes — not official UPSC past papers.
Question papers from the UnlockIAS Sherlocking Simulator (Sherlocking Test Series Module) — original full-length papers set on the UPSC Mains pattern, not official UPSC past papers. Last updated: July 2026.