Overview of UPSC Exam (India)

Union Public Service Commission

​The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is a government agency in India, which conducts various government examinations like Civil Service Examination (CSE), Engineering Services Examination, Indian Forest Services Examination, Combined Medical Services Examination, Combined Geoscientist and Geologist Examination, etc. These examinations are the toughest examination in India. This website deals mainly with Civil Service Examination and State Public Service Examination.

Civil Service Examination

​This is the toughest examination in India conducted by UPSC to recruit candidates for top Government posts like Indian Administrative Officer (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) etc. The examination has two phases- preliminary examination and main examination.​
  • The Preliminary examination consists of two papers namely General Studies and Aptitude test, both objective type. The exam notification is published in May every year and the examination is held in August.
  • The Main examination consists of nine papers (essay type) and interview. The examination is held in December every year. 
  • The Personality test (interview) is conducted in April/May every year.
​The selected candidates undergo a training which starts in September every year.

Preliminary Examination 

UPSC  Preliminary Examination Pattern

The Preliminary examination  is objective type has two papers.
Points to note:
  • The marks obtained in Paper I will be counted for qualifying to write UPSC main examination. Total marks is 200 and total hours allotted is 2 hours
  • The marks obtained in Paper II will not be counted for qualifying to write UPSC main examination. However the candidate must score minimum33% in order to write UPSC Main Examination. Total marks is 200 and total hours allotted is 2 hours

Main Examination

​The main examination consists of  written test (essay type), in nine papers. The nine papers are
  1. ​English (Qualifying)
  2. ​Any one of the Indian language (to be selected from the given list-Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, English) (Qualifying)
  3. Essay
  4. General Studies I- (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)
  5. General Studies II - (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)
6. General Studies III -(Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)
7. General Studies IV- (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)
8. Optional subject I - (to be selected from list of optional subjects-Agriculture ; Animal Husbandry and 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 and Zoology)
​9. Optional Subject II- (to be selected from list of optional subjects-Agriculture ; Animal Husbandry and 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 and Zoology)​
UPSC