UPSC Civil Services Exam Pattern | Prelims, Mains And Interview

UPSC Civil Services Exam Pattern | Prelims, Mains And Interview

Every year the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the Civil Services Examination every year for recruitment to various prestigious positions in the Government of India. This article aims to give the reader an overview of the UPSC exam pattern and syllabus.

Overview of Civil Services/UPSC Exam Pattern

Name of the exam	Civil Services Exam- IAS
Conductiong authority	Union Public Service Commission
Mode of exam	Offline
Number of Stages	Prelims Mains Exam Interview
Number of papers	Prelims: 2 Mains :9
Prelims marking scheme	Paper 1: +2 marks per question Paper 2: +2.5 marks per question Negative marking: One-third of marks allotted to each question
Duration	Prelims: 2 hours (Each paper) Mains: 3hours (Each paper)
Type of Questions	Prelims: Objective type Mains: Subjective type
Post	1000 approximate (Tentative)

List of Optional Subjects for Mains Exam 

Candidates can choose any one optional subject from the list below:

1. Agriculture
2. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
3. Anthropology
4. Botany
5. Chemistry
6. Civil Engineering
7. Commerce and Accountancy
8. Economics
9. Electrical Engineering
10. Geography
11. Geology
12. History
13. Law
14. Management
15. Mathematics
16. Mechanical Engineering
17. Medical Science
18. Philosophy
19. Physics
20. Political Science and International Relations
21. Psychology
22. Public Administration
23. Sociology
24. Statistics
25. Zoology
26. The literature of any one of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

UPSC Exam Pattern 2021

The pattern of UPSC examination is officially divided into two stages called Preliminary and Main Examination while in practice, it is a three-stage exam.

As per the IAS exam pattern, candidates who clear the Prelims are eligible for Mains, and candidates who clear the Main reach the interview stage.

The three stages of the IAS exam are Prelims, Mains and Personality Test.

IAS exam pattern for UPSC Prelims

The UPSC exam pattern for the Preliminary stage consists of two papers, conducted on one day. Both the papers comprise objective type questions with multiple choice of answers. The prelims examination is a qualifying stage to filter candidates for the mains exam. 

Paper	Type	No. of questions	Marks	Duration	Negative marks
General Studies I	Objective	100	200	2 hours	Yes
General Studies II (CSAT)	Objective	80	200	2 hours	Yes

Paper I – (200 marks) Duration : Two hours

• 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, Biodiversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization
• General Science.

Note: There will be a penalty (negative marking) for wrong answers

Paper II- (200 marks) Duration: Two hours

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills.
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problemsolving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data suffi ciency etc. – Class X level).
• English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).

Note 1: Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level (last item in the Syllabus of PaperII) will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.

Note 2: The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.

IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Mains

IAS mains is an offline exam. UPSC Mains stage consists of 9 papers conducted over 5-7 days. every paper is of 3 hours and extra 30 minutes extra is given to blind students. 1750 is the total marks for the main examination.

Qualifying Paper

1. Paper A – One of the Indian languages included in the VIII Schedule in the Constitution 300 Marks.
2. Paper B – The 2nd exam is an English paper. And it also carries 300 marks.

Paper	Subject	Duration	Total marks
Paper A	Compulsory Indian language	3 hours	300
Paper B	English	3 hours	300
Paper I	Essay	3 hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I	3 hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II	3 hours	250
Paper IV	General Studies III	3 hours	250
Paper V	General Studies IV	3 hours	250
Paper VI	Optional I	3 hours	250
Paper VII	Optional II	3 hours	250

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	Zoology

UPSC Interview

final stage of the UPSC/IAS Exam before the final results are declared. Officially it is called the Interview/Personality Test and counted as a part of the Mains Examination for merit ranking purposes. 

 

Also Read:-

• UPSC Eligibility Criteria | IAS, IPS Exam Eligibility