Phase 1: Preliminary Examination

The UPSC Civil Services Exam is conducted in three phases:
Phase 1:Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type)
Phase 2:Civil Services (Mains) Examination (Descriptive Type)
Phase 3: Personal Interview (Personality Test)
Phase 1: Preliminary Examination:
The Preliminary Examination is composed of two components:
1) General Studies
2) Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)

Paper Subjects Total Marks Duration
I General Studies (GS) 200 2 Hours (9:30AM to 11:30 AM)
II CSAT 200 2 Hours (2:30PM to 4:30PM)
 Broadly, the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination consists of two papers of objective
type, each of 200 marks (total of 400 marks) and two hours of duration. In order to qualify
for the Civil Services Mains, a candidate must attempt both the papers.
 Further, the General Studies (GS) paper consists of 100 questions, while the CSAT paper
consists of 80 questions. Both papers have negative marks for wrong answers marked to
the tune of 1/3rd of the total marks assigned to each question.
 To further illustrate this, each correctly answered GS question will be awarded 2 marks. So,
0.66 marks would be deducted from the total for every question that is wrongly marked.
 Similarly, in the CSAT paper, since we have 80 questions for 200 marks, cor rectly answered
CSAT question would attract 2.5 marks each, while every wrongly marked question would
attract a penalty of 0.833 for each such wrong answer, which will be deducted from the
total.
 Questions that are not attempted will not attract any negati ve marks.
1) General Studies (Generally conducted between 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM)
The General Studies test is the first paper of the preliminary examination. This test is
intended to test the general awareness of a candidate in a wide range of subjects that
include: Indian Polity, Geography, History, Indian Economy, Science and Technology,
Environment and Ecology, International Relations and associated current affairs.
2) Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)
(Generally conducted between 2:30 PM to 04:30 PM)
 This test is intended to assess the aptitude of the candidate in solving ‘Reasoning and
Analytical’ questions, apart from ‘Reading Comprehension’ and occasionally asked ‘Decision
Making’ Questions.
 The ‘Decision Making’ based questions are generally exempt f rom negative marks.
 The preliminary examination is only meant for screening a candidate for the subsequent
stages of the exam
 The marks obtained in the Prelims will not be added up while arriving at the final rank list.
Syllabus for GS Paper (Prelims Paper I)
 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 CSAT Paper (Prelims Paper II)

 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)
Phase 2: Civil Services (Mains) Examination Syllabus
 The Mains examination constitutes the 2nd phase of the Civil Services Examination. Only
after successfully qualifying the prelims examination, would the candidates be allowed to
write the Mains examination.
 The Mains examination tests the candidate’s academic talent in depth and his/her ability to
present their understanding according to the requirements of the question in a time bound
manner.
 The UPSC Mains exam consists of 9 papers, in which two are qualifying papers of 300 marks
each:
I. Any Indian Language
II. English Language Paper
Criteria for qualifying the Language Paper:
The papers on Essay, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates who
attain 30% marks in Indian Language Paper and 25% marks in English Language Paper as a
minimum qualifying standard in these qualifying papers, will be taken cognizance of, for
evaluation.
In case a candidate does not qualify in these language papers, then the marks obtained by
such candidate will not be considered or counted.
Structure of the paper
The type of questions asked are –

1. Essay – 100 marks
2. Reading comprehension – 60 marks
3. Precis Writing – 60 marks
4. Translation:
 English to compulsory language (e.g. Hindi) – 20 marks
 Compulsory language to English – 20 marks
5. Grammar and basic language usage – 40 marks
The rest of seven papers can be written in any of the languages mentioned under the Eighth
Schedule of the Constitution of India or in English.
Let us take a look at these papers:

Paper Subject Marks
Paper - I Essay 250

(Can be written in the medium or language of the candidate's choice)
Paper-II General Studies- I 250

(Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and
Society)
Paper-III General Studies- II 250

(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International
relations)
Paper-IV General Studies- III 250

(Technology, Economic Development, Bio -diversity, Environment, Security
and Disaster Management)
Paper-V General Studies- IV 250

(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)
Paper-VI Optional Subject - Paper I 250
Paper-VII Optional Subject - Paper II 250

(A Candidate can also take up literature as an optional subject and
candidate need not be a graduate in that language’s literature.)
Candidates may choose any one of the ‘Optional Subjects’ from the list of subjects given
below:
Optional Subjects Literature Language
Agriculture Assamese
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Arabic
Anthropology Bengali
Botany Bodo
Chemistry Dogri
Civil Engineering French
Commerce and Accountancy German
Economics Gujarati
Electrical Engineering Hindi
Geography Kannada
Geology Kashmiri
History Konkani
Law Maithili
Management Malayalam
Mathematics Manipuri
Mechanical Engineering Marathi
Medical Science Nepali
Philosophy Oriya
Physics Persian
Political Science and International Relations Punjabi
Psychology Russian
Public Administration Sanskrit
Sociology Santhali
Statistics Sindhi
Zoology Tamil
- Telugu
- Urdu
- English
Phase 3: Interview/Personality Test (275 Marks)
 Candidates who qualify the UPSC Mains Exam will be called for the ‘Personality
Test/Interview’. These successful candidates will be interviewed by a Board appointed by
the UPSC.
 The objective of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a
career in the civil services by a board of competent and unbiased observers.
 The interview is more of purposive conversation intended to divulge the mental qualiti es
and analytical ability of the candidate.
 The Interview test will be of 275 marks and total marks for written examination is
1750.This sums up to a Grand Total of 2025 Marks based on which the final merit list will
be prepared.

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination

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Phase 1: Preliminary Examination

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The UPSC Civil Services Exam is conducted in three phases:

Phase 1:Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type)

Phase 2:Civil Services (Mains) Examination (Descriptive Type)

Phase 3: Personal Interview (Personality Test)

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination:

The Preliminary Examination is composed of two components:

2) Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)

Syllabus for CSAT Paper (Prelims Paper II)

Phase 2: Civil Services (Mains) Examination Syllabus

Criteria for qualifying the Language Paper:

The type of questions asked are –

Let us take a look at these papers:

Paper - I Essay 250

Paper-II General Studies- I 250

Paper-III General Studies- II 250

Paper-IV General Studies- III 250

Paper-V General Studies- IV 250

Paper-VI Optional Subject - Paper I 250

Paper-VII Optional Subject - Paper II 250

Phase 3: Interview/Personality Test (275 Marks)

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