All you need to know about ‪Civil Services Examinations

Every year Union Public Service Commission conducts Civil Services Exams across India. The UPSC CSE examination is conducted to recruit personnel for different services under the Government of India.

UPSC Exam: List of services under Civil Services Examination-

1. Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
2. Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
3. Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Central Excise,Gr. ‘A’)
4. Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service,Gr. ‘A’
5. Indian Defence Accounts Service, Gr. ‘A’
6. Indian Revenue Service (I.T.),Gr. ‘A’
7. Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Gr. ‘A’
8. Indian Audit & Accounts Service, Gr. ‘A’
9. Indian Postal Service, Gr. ‘A.
10. Indian Civil Accounts Service, Gr. ‘A’
11. Indian Railway Accounts Service, Gr. ‘A’
12. Indian Railway Personnel Service, Gr. ‘A’
13. Indian Railways Traffic Service Gr. ‘A’
14. Indian Defence Estates Service Gr. ‘A’
15. Indian Information Service, Gr. ‘A’
16. Indian Trade Service Gr. ‘A’
17. Indian Corporate Law Service
18. Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Gr.’B’ (Section Officers’ Grade)
19. Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service, Gr. ‘B’
20. Pondicherry Civil Service, (Group B)

Eligibility Criteria to apply the Civil service Exam:

• The candidate must be a citizen of India.
• The candidate should have a degree from Central, State or Deemed University. Degree from Correspondence Education or distance education, the open university is also accepted.
• The candidate age must be 21 years old and not must be greater than 32 years old. For Open category is restrict to 32 years, for OBC category is restrict to 35 years and for SC/ST it is restricted to 37 years old.
• Number of attempts is limited, for Open category it  is limited to 6 attempts, for OBC category it is limited to 9 attempts and for SC/ST candidate there is no limitation (Any number of attempts)

UPSC exam : Examination Pattern (Selection Process)-

The Civil Services Examination will consist of three successive stages :

1. Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type)
2.  Civil Services (Main) Examination
3. Civil Services (Interview)

• NOTE: Candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination will have to apply online again, in the Detailed Application Form
  Government strives to have a workforce which reflects gender balance and women candidates are encouraged to apply which would be made available to them.

About the Preliminary Examination:

It will consist of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions)

• General Studies Paper I
• General Studies Paper II (CSAT)

There will be negative marking for incorrect answers for all questions.

General Studies Paper II is a qualifying paper only with cut off score as 33%, the merit list is created solely based on score of GS Paper I.

Note: This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit.

Syllabus for IAS Exam General Studies Paper I (PT)  – (200 marks)

The duration of exam remains two hours generally scheduled in the first half of the day (9 am – 11 am).

• Current events of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialisation General Science.

Syllabus for Paper II – (200 marks)

Its duration is also of two hours, scheduled in second half of the day.  General Studies Paper II is a qualifying paper only with cut off score as 33%

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problem solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)

About the Mains Examination:

After qualifying the Preliminary Examination candidates are allowed to go for mains exam.  The Main Examination will consist of written examination. The written examination will consist of 9 papers of conventional essay type. Marks of 7 out of these 9 papers will be counted for final ranking, while 2 papers will be of qualifying nature. (Total marks is 1750)

Qualifying Papers in UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam

• Paper A: Regional Language Paper
• Paper B: English Language Paper

A candidate is allowed to use any one language from the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution or English as the medium of writing the examination.

Candidates who obtain such minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the Main Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion, shall be summoned by them for an interview for a Personality Test. Marks obtained by the candidates in the Main Examination would be considered for determine their final ranking.

Interview/Personality Test – 275 marks

Candidate can give preference of the language in which they may like to be interviewed. UPSC will make arrangement for the translators.

Final Ranking

Final ranks are calculated by adding Mains (Out of 1750) and Interview marks (Out of 275) and the rank list will be prepared based on marks scored out of 2025.