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World Rivers and Cities on Them: asked and not asked.
UPSC has asked 26 of these 28. 13 came more than once. 2 have not come yet. Lock the repeated ones first, then read the rest.
First, the concept
Old cities grew on rivers for water, food and trade. UPPCS's favourite world-river question is simply: which city stands on which river?
The Nile is the longest river; the Amazon carries the most water. The Danube flows through the most countries.
Siberia's great rivers (Ob, Yenisei, Lena) flow north into the Arctic, so their mouths stay frozen for much of the year.
🔁 Asked again and again (13)
Tap a year to open that solved question.
Africa and West Asia
Europe
- Seine: Paris · France 7 times:202520182018201620161994
- Thames: London · England 3 times:202020091994
- Tiber: Rome · Italy 3 times:201619941984
- Danube: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade · Flows through the most countries; ends in the Black Sea 2 times:20091984
- Rhine: Basel, Cologne, Bonn, Rotterdam · Europe's busiest waterway 2 times:20091984
Asia
✅ Asked once (13)
Africa and West Asia
Europe
- Volga: Volgograd · Europe's longest river; ends in the Caspian 2020
- Vistula: Warsaw; Elbe: Hamburg, Dresden · Poland; Germany
Asia
Americas and Australia
- Mississippi: New Orleans · Bird's-foot delta
- Hudson: New York; Potomac: Washington · USA
- Colorado · Carved the Grand Canyon; Hoover Dam
- Mackenzie and Yukon · Canada; Canada–Alaska
- Paraná · Itaipu Dam (Brazil–Paraguay)
❌ Not asked by UPSC yet (2)
Items marked 'asked in UPPCS' have already come in the UP state exam, so examiners do use them.
Africa and West Asia
- Niger: Bamako, Niamey · West Africa; a big inland delta asked in UPPCS
Americas and Australia
- Murray-Darling · Australia's longest river system asked in UPPCS
⚠️ Baghdad is on the Tigris, not the Euphrates. Budapest, Vienna and Belgrade are on the Danube, not the Rhine. Shanghai is on the Yangtze, not the Huang He.
'Asked' is checked against the solved UPSC questions on this site. 'Not asked yet' does not mean it will surely come.