UPSC Civil Services Exam Pattern:
Table of Contents
Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) Civil Services Exam pattern details are given below…
Exam Pattern Details:
Civil Services Exam Consists of 2 Stages.
I. Preliminary Examination (Objective Type)
II. Main Examination (Written and Interview)
Preliminary Examination:
The Examination shall comprise two compulsory papers of 200 marks each.
(i) Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
(ii) The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.
(iii) Each paper will be of two hours duration. Blind candidates will however; be allowed an extra time of twenty minutes at each paper
NOTE:
. The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, shall thus comprise of two compulsory papers of which Paper-I will be of 200 marks and Paper II will be of 200 marks.
2. Final merit for qualifying the candidates for the Civil Services (Main) Written Examination will be drawn by using the aggregate marks obtained in Paper-I out of 200 marks and marks obtained in Paper-II out of 200 marks.
Main Examination:
The written examination will consist of the following papers:
Qualifying Papers:
Paper- A: One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution).- 300 Marks
Paper‐ B: English- 300 Marks
Papers to be counted for Merit
| Paper | Subject | Maximum Marks |
| Paper-I | Essay | 250 |
| Paper -II | General Studies-I(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) | 250 |
| Paper-III | General Studies-II(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations) | 250 |
| Paper-IV | General Studies-III(Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security andDisaster Management) | 250 |
| Paper-V | General Studies-IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) | 250 |
| Paper-VI | Optional subject Paper-I | 250 |
| Paper-VII | Optional subject Paper-II | 250 |
| Sub total | Written Test | 1750 |
| Personality Test | 275 | |
| Grand Total | 2025 |
Note:
i. The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and Paper B) will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.
ii. The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidate hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
iii. Marks obtained by the candidates for the Paper-I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.
List of Optional Subjects for Main Examination:
(i) Agriculture
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Mathematics
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
(xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.
Note:
i. The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
ii. Each paper will be of three hours duration.
iii. Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the qualifying language papers Paper -A and Paper-B, in any of the languages included in the Eighth schedule to the constitution of India or in English.
iv. The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
Personality Test/ Interview:
The maximum marks for interview is 275 marks. The candidate will be interviewed by a Board of competent and unbiased observers who will have before them a record of his/ her career. The object of the Interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for the Service. The candidate will be expected to have taken an intelligent interest not only in his/ her subjects of academic study but also in events which are happening around him/ her both within and outside his/ her own state or country, as well as in modem currents of thoughts and in new discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of well educated youth.