Civil Services Examination

The Civil Services Examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the recruitment of candidates to the posts of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and other Group A and Group B (Gazetted) posts across different ministries of Government of India. The examination is conducted in three stages as detailed below.

Exam Pattern and Syllabus

Stage I: Preliminary examination– It is a qualifying exam and used for screening of candidates who will write the mains examination. The questions are of multiple-choice, objective type. It consists of two papers:

General Studies Paper-1: This paper is of 200 marks and consists of 100 questions with 33% negative marking for each wrong response. In this paper questions are asked from following subjects:

• 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 specialization.
• General Science.

General Studies Paper-2: This paper popularly known as “CSAT”, is of 200 marks and consists of 80 questions with 33% negative marking for each wrong response. This paper is qualifying in nature and a candidate must score at least 33% marks in this paper and also clear the merit based cut off in the Paper 1 to qualify for the mains examination. The syllabus of this paper is as follows:

• 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)

Stage 2: Mains examination – The mains examination is of subjective/ descriptive nature. Those who are clearing the prelims exam can write this examination. It consists of nine papers, but only 7 papers will be counted for final merit ranking. For the rest two language papers i.e. English and one regional language( Hindi, Marathi etc), the candidate should secure minimum marks prescribed by UPSC . The seven papers are as follows:

• Essay – 250 Marks
• General Studies -1 - 250 Marks
• General Studies -2 - 250 Marks
• General Studies -3 - 250 Marks
• General Studies -4 - 250 Marks
• Optional Subject Paper -1- 250 Marks
• Optional Subject Paper -2- 250 Marks

Please click here to find the syllabus of Law optional subject.

Stage III: Personality Test or interview– In this stages the candidates who are successful in the mains examination are called for in-person interview. The interview carry 275 marks and plays very crucial role in final selection.