Why is the 28-days compressive strength of concrete generally specified?

It is attributed to two reasons: 1. Strength of concrete grows faster in initial days and this process of gaining strength slow down with time. This can be said as stabilization in value of gained strength of concrete. After approximately 20 or some more days, strength value get stabilize and does not change too much with time. Therefore, compressive strength is taken after approximatley 3 weeks time. 2. These tests have to performed practically and date record is needed to be maintained. Therefore, if test duration is a multiple of 7 (7 weekdays) then it is more easy to remind. It is the reason we have 28=7x4 days to note down compressive strength of concrete. for ex: if we start test on monday then we know that after 4 weeks on same time on monday we can finish the compressive strength test.