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Civil Services

Civil Services

UPSC COMEPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS  

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UPSC COMEPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS Civil Services is your ticket to top roles in All India and Central Civil Services via the UPSC exam. As a Civil Servant, you’re the frontline in solving society’s issues across diverse fields. Master the essentials to serve the nation with impact. Civil Services isn’t just a job; it’s a calling to become the cutting edge of societal change. As Civil Servants, individuals handle a diverse arsenal of skills across Historical, Social, Economic, Political, Geophysical, Environmental, Scientific, Technological and Cultural dimensions, shaping a better tomorrow for our nation. Spectrum of UPSC Civil Services Exams – 24 Services
All India Civil Services Group ‘A’ Civil Services
1. Indian Administrative Service (IAS) 2. Indian Police Service (IPS) 3. Indian Forest Service (IFoS) 1.  Indian Foreign Service (IFS) 2.  Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS) 3.  Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) 4.  Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS) 5.  Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) 6.  Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) 7.  Indian Information Service (IIS) 8.  Indian Ordnance Factories Service (IOFS) 9.  Indian Communication Finance Services (ICFS) 10.  Indian Postal Service (IPoS) 11.  Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) 12.  Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) 13.  Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) 14.  Indian Revenue Service (IRS) 15.  Indian Trade Service (ITS) 16.  Railway Protection Force (RPF)
Group ‘B’ Civil Services
1.  Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service 2.  DANICS 3.  DANIPS 4.  Pondicherry Civil Service 5.  Pondicherry Police Service

Eligibility Criteria

Nationality:

  1. For top services like IAS, IFS and IPS you need to be an Indian citizen.
  2. For other services, you can be:
    • Indian citizen
    • Nepali citizen
    • Bhutanese citizen
    • Tibetan refugee in India before Jan 1, 1962
    • Person of Indian origin from specific countries.

Educational Qualifications:  You need to have a degree from:

  1. Any recognized Indian university,
  2. Institutions approved by Parliamentor
  3. Institutions declared as equivalent by law.

Civil Services Examination Schedule

Notification                : Released in February.

Preliminary Exam     : Held on the last Sunday of May

Mains Exam               : Conducted in August or September

Age Criteria

S. No Category Min. Age (Years) Age Relaxation Max. Age No. of Attempts
1 General 21 0 32 6
2 OBC 21 3 35 9
3 SC/ST 21 5 37 No Limit
4 Defence Services Personnel 21 3 35 Same as 1, 2 & 3
5 Ex-servicemen 21 5 37 Same as 1, 2 & 3
6 PH 1 or 2 or 3 21 10 42 Same as 1, 2 & 3

UPSC Exam Pattern : Prelims, Mains & Interview at a Glance

Parameters Stage I Stage II
UPSC Prelims UPSC Mains
No of Papers 2 9
Number of Questions CSAT : 80 questions
GS : 100 questions
Usually, 20 questions per paper
2 Qualifying Papers (to score min 75 marks)
*  Eng Paper – 300 Marks
*  Any Indian language Paper – 300 Marks
*  One Essay Paper – 250 Marks
*  4 GS Papers: 4 x 250   = 1000 Marks
*  Two Optional Subject Papers: 2 x 250 = 500 Marks
Total Marks 400 1750
Medium of Exam English & Hindi English & Hindi (Except for language)
Type of Questions MCQs (Objective), OMR Based Descriptive
Mode of Exam Offline Offline
Exam Duration 2 hours for each paper 3 hours for each paper
Negative Marking 1/3rd of 2 marks No negative marking
Stage – 3 Personality Test Interview – 275 Marks
Note

Prelims marks are not counted for final merit

Marks considered for Merit – Mains 1750 + Personality Test – 275 = 2025

Parameters Stage I Stage II
UPSC Prelims UPSC Mains
No of Papers 2 9
Number of Questions CSAT : 80 questions
GS : 100 questions
Usually, 20 questions per paper
2 Qualifying Papers (to score min 75 marks)
*  Eng Paper – 300 Marks
*  Any Indian language Paper – 300 Marks
*  One Essay Paper – 250 Marks
*  4 GS Papers: 4 x 250   = 1000 Marks
*  Two Optional Subject Papers: 2 x 250 = 500 Marks
Total Marks 400 1750
Medium of Exam English & Hindi English & Hindi (Except for language)
Type of Questions MCQs (Objective), OMR Based Descriptive
Mode of Exam Offline Offline
Exam Duration 2 hours for each paper 3 hours for each paper
Negative Marking 1/3rd of 2 marks No negative marking
Stage – 3 Personality Test Interview – 275 Marks
Note

Prelims marks are not counted for final merit

Marks considered for Merit – Mains 1750 + Personality Test – 275 = 2025

UPSC Exam Performance Trends

Year

Applied for Prelims

(in Lakhs)

Appeared for Prelims

(in Lakhs)

Selected for Mains Selected for the Interview Final Selection
2013 7.76 3.24 14,800 3,001 1,122
2014 9.44 4.52 16,993 3,308 1,236
2015 9.45 4.65 15,008 2,797 1,078
2016 11.36 5.1 15,452 2,961 1,099
2017 10.2 5.2 13,366 2,568 990
2018 10.65 4.93 10,468 1,994 782
2019 9.2 4.6 11,845 1,792 896
2020 10.4 4.82 10,562 2,053 761
2021 10.93 5.08 9,214 1,823 712
2022 11.52 5.48 13,090 2,529 1,022
2023 13 5.66 14,624 2,916 1,105

Prelims Cut-off Marks Analysis

Year Gen EBC OBC SC ST PH-1 PH-2 PH-3

2016

(Out of 200 Marks)

116 110.66 99.34 96 75.34 72.66 40

2017

(Out of 200 Marks)

105.34 102.66 88.66 88.66 85.34 61.34 40

2018

(Out of 200 Marks)

98 96.66 83.34 83.34 73.34 53.34 40
2019 98 90 95.34 82 77.34 55.34 44.66 40.66
2020 92.51 77.55 89.12 74.84 68.71 70.06 63.94 40.82
2021 87.54 80.14 84.85 75.41 70.71 68.02 67.33 43.09
2022 88.22 82.83 87.54 69.35 74.08 49.84 58.59 40.40
2023 74.41 68.02 74.75 59.25 47.82 40.40 47.13 40.40

Key Points for Civil Services Prelims Exam

  1. To qualify for the Civil Services Mains, you need to score at least 40 marks in Paper-I and 70 marks in Paper-II. Additionally, you must score at least 33% (66 marks) in Paper-II.
  2. Your scores from Paper-II are only for qualifying and do not count towards your final ranking.
  3. You must take both Paper I and Paper II during the Preliminary Exam for your papers to be evaluated, and your answers in Paper I will only be checked if you pass Paper II.
  4. To advance to the Mains examination, you need to exceed a certain cutoff mark, which is determined based on the number of exam takers, the number of job positions declared for the year, and the difficulty level of the exam.

MAINS EXAMINATION

It is the second stage of the Civil Services Exam, which is a descriptive type examination and comprises of 9 papers. These papers can be broadly divided into 2 Qualifying Papers, 5 General Studies Papers and 2 Optional Subject Papers.

S.No Paper Paper Type Subject Marks Duration (Hrs)
1 A Qualifying Indian Language 300 3
2 B Qualifying English 300 3
3 I General Studies Essay 250 3
4 II General Studies Indian Heritage & Culture, History & Geography of the world & Society 250 3
5 III General Studies Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice & International Relations 250 3
6 IV General Studies Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security & Disaster Management 250 3
7 V General Studies Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude 250 3
8 1 Optional Subject

Science – Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Chemistry, Botany, Geology, Math, Medical Science, Physics, Statistics, Zoology

Engineering – Civil, Mechanical & Electrical

Humanities / Arts – Anthropology, Commerce & Accountancy, Economics, Geography, History, Law, Management, Philosophy, Political Science & International Relations, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Literature – Indian Languages

250 3
9 2 Optional Subject 250 3

Key Points for Civil Services Mains Exam

  1. The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and Paper B) are basic level exams similar to high school finals, and you just need to pass them. The scores from these papers won’t affect your overall ranking.
  2. All exam papers, including General Studies and the Optional Subject, are checked at the same time, but only the scores from candidates who get at least 25% in both the Indian Language and English papers will be considered for further evaluation.
  3. Candidates from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim are not required to take the Indian Language paper (Paper A).
  4. For ranking purposes, only marks from Papers 3 to 9 are counted. The Commission has the authority to set the minimum passing marks for these papers.
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