UPSC Civil Services Examinations

UPSC CSE 2025: Important Dates

About UPSC CSE

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) released the UPSC CSE 2025 notification on 22 January 2025, announcing 979 vacancies and officially opening the application process. The UPSC Civil Services Exam is held annually to select qualified aspirants for prestigious posts such as IAS, IPS, and IFS, among others. According to the 2025 notification, the UPSC will fill a total of around 1129 positions this year, 979 through the Civil Services and the remaining 150 through the Indian Forest Service.

Examination Pattern

The Civil Services Examination is conducted in two stages, and the exam format differs for the Preliminary and Mains phases. The structure of the Preliminary stage is explained below:

Preliminary (Prelims) Examination Pattern

The UPSC Civil Services Prelims comprise two objective papers, each worth 200 marks and lasting two hours. Aspirants must appear for both papers. Paper-II, however, serves only as a qualifying test, requiring a minimum score of 33%. Both papers can be taken in either English or Hindi.

Marking Scheme

Paper I : Each correct answer awards 2 marks, while 0.66 marks are subtracted for every wrong response.

Paper II : Each right answer earns 2.5 marks, and 0.85 marks are deducted for every wrong answer.

Negative Marking: A negative marking of one third is applied, meaning that one third of the marks allotted to a question will be subtracted for an incorrect response. No marks are deducted for questions that the aspirants choose to leave unanswered.

Mains Exam Pattern

The UPSC Mains examination includes nine descriptive papers, of which two, Paper A (Indian Language) and Paper B (English), are qualifying in nature. Aspirants must score at least 25% in these papers to clear them. The remaining seven papers contribute to the final merit ranking and include one Essay paper, four general studies papers, and two papers from an optional subject. Each merit paper carries 250 marks, adding up to a total of 1750 marks for the written component.

Paper A is exempt for Persons with Benchmark Disability (Hearing Impairment category) and for aspirants from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.

Both language papers are qualifying, requiring at least 25% marks for the rest of the Mains papers to be evaluated. Their question pattern generally includes comprehension, writing, vocabulary and usage, and short essays. The Indian Language paper also includes translation between english and the chosen indian language.

List of Optional Subjects

Aspirants can select any one optional subject from the following list:

• Agriculture
• Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science
• Anthropology
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Commerce and Accountancy
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Geography
• Geology
• History
• Law
• Management
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Science
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political Science and International Relations
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Zoology

Personality Test Pattern

Aspirants who qualify the written examinations are invited for an interview conducted by a UPSC board in New Delhi. The IAS interview does not follow a fixed format, as it varies across aspirants and boards. The interview carries a total of 275 marks. The panellists evaluate aspirants on mental alertness, moral integrity, balanced judgement, communication skills, depth of interest, leadership, problem solving and logical reasoning.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the UPSC Civil Services Exam, aspirants must be Indian citizens with a bachelor's degree, aged between 21 and 32 for the general category (with relaxations for reserved categories).

Nationality

Aspirants who want to appear for the UPSC civil services examination must be citizens of India, Nepal and Bhutan. Also, Tibetan refugee who came over to India before 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India along with person of indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India can also appear for the exam.

Age Limit

• General/EWS: 21 to 32 years.
• OBC: 21 to 35 years.
• SC/ST: 21 to 37 years.
• PwBD: 21 to 42 years.

Educational Qualifications

• Must hold a Bachelor's degree from a recognized university in any discipline.
• Final year degree students are eligible to apply for the Prelims, but must provide proof of passing before the Mains exam.
• Professional and technical qualifications are also accepted if they are recognized by the government.
• Medical graduates (MBBS) who have passed the final year but not completed their internship can apply, provided they submit proof of course completion later.

Number of Attempts Allowed

• General: 6 attempts.
• OBC: 9 attempts.
• SC/ST: Unlimited attempts.
• PwBD: Age relaxation also applies, with specific attempt limits varying by category.

Cut Off Marks

The final ranking in the UPSC Civil Services Exam is based on the combined scores of the Mains examination and the personality test, while Prelims scores are not considered for the merit list. UPSC announces the final cutoff after declaring the results, and candidates must meet this cutoff to be selected.

The cutoff marks are determined by UPSC based on several factors, including:

• Total number of vacancies
• Number of candidates appearing at each stage
• Previous year’s cutoff trends
• Reservation policies
• Difficulty level of the question papers

After every stage, UPSC publishes the list of qualified candidates, but the detailed results and scorecards for all stages, along with the cutoffs, are released only with the final result. UPSC provides cutoffs for each stage: Prelims, Mains, and the Final selection.

Tie-Breaking Resolution in IAS Exam

In case two or more candidates obtain the same total marks in the Civil Services Exam, the following tie-breaking rules apply:

• Preference is given to the candidate who scores higher in the compulsory papers (Essay, GS I–IV) along with the personality test (IAS interview).
• If a tie still persists, the older candidate is given priority over the younger one.