UPSC Exam Pattern - Prelims, Mains & interview
UPSC Exam Pattern: The civil services exam conducted by UPSC is one of the prestigious exams in the country. Candidates must go through the UPSC civil services exam pattern before starting preparation to get familiarized with the marking scheme and paper type at different stages.
Overview of the UPSC Exam Pattern: The UPSC civil services exam comprises 3 stages - Prelims, Mains & Interview. The Prelims paper consists of 2 papers in objective mode (MCQs-based paper) - GS & CSAT, In which GS comprises subjects like history, economy, polity, environment, geography, and current affairs and CSAT has subjects like maths, reasoning, and English. The Mains section contains 9 papers - 2 language papers (Qualifying in nature), 1 Essay paper, 4 GS papers, and 2 Optional papers. Then, the interview is the final stage of UPSC CSE that contains 275 marks.
Total Marks in UPSC: Prelims: The prelims stage has 2 papers - GS & CSAT. GS has 100 questions and each question carries 2 marks which makes a total of 200 marks. In CSAT, there are 80 questions and each question carries 2.5 marks which makes a total of 200 marks.
Note: The prelims stage is just qualifying in nature and the marks are not counted in final merit.
Mains: The merit section in UPSC CSE contains 7 descriptive papers and 1 Interview session. The descriptive paper contains (UPSC mains total marks) 1750 marks (250 each) and the interview contains 275 marks, hence, the total marks calculated in the final list is 2025 marks.
| Paper | Duration | Questions | Marks | Nature of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS | 2 Hours | 100 Questions | 200 | Merit (Cut-Off) |
| CSAT | 2 Hours | 80 Questions | 200 | Qualifying (33%) |
To qualify for the mains examination, aspirants need to score marks more than the cut-off in GS Paper, and to qualify for the CSAT, aspirants need to score 33%.
The prelims paper (GS & CSAT) of the civil services exam has a negative marking scheme, and 1/3rd of the marks will be deducted for every incorrect response.
| Paper | Duration | Marks | Nature of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Language (Paper A) | 3 Hours | 300 | Qualifying |
| English Language (Paper B) | 3 Hours | 300 | |
| Essay | 3 Hours | 250 | Count For Merit |
| GS Paper 1 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 2 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 3 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 4 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Optional Paper 1 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Optional Paper 2 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Total Mains Marks | 1750 Marks | ||
| Interview / Personality Test | 275 Marks | ||
| Total | 2025 Marks | ||
Qualifying Paper: The two language papers in the UPSC CSE mains exam are qualifying in nature, which means aspirants are required to score 25% in those language papers.
Merit-based Paper: To qualify for the interview round of the UPSC civil services, candidates must score the specified marks in merit papers {Essay, GS1,2,3&4 and Optional (Paper 1 & 2)}.
| Prelims | Mains | |
|---|---|---|
| Papers | 2 (Qualifying) | 9 {2 (Qualifying) +7 (Merit)} |
| Marks | 400 (200 each) | 2350 {300x2 + 250x7} |
| Type | Objective | Subjective |
| Negative Marking | 1/3rd | No |
| Duration | 2 Hours (each) | 3 Hours (each) |
Did You Know: If aspirants fail to score 25% in the language paper, then the rest of the paper's marks will not be disclosed by the UPSC.
The optional section of UPSC CSE mains carries 500 marks. This section is divided into 2 papers and each paper carries 250 marks. Here is the list of optional papers:
| 1. Agriculture | 2. Anthropology | 3. Chemistry | 4. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | 5. Botany |
| 6. Geology | 7. Law | 8. Mathematics | 9. History | 10. Management |
| 11. Psychology | 12. Sociology | 13. Zoology | 14. Public Administration | 15. Statistics |
| 16. Commerce & Accountancy | 17. Electrical Engineering | 18. Civil Engineering | 19. Economics | 20. Geography |
| 21. Medical Science | 22. Physics | 23. Mechanical Engineering | 24. Philosophy | 25. Political Science and International Relations |
| 26. Literature (English + Languages Mentioned in Schedule - 8): Bengali, Dogri, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi, Santhali, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, and English. | ||||
This is the last and final round for the UPSC civil services mainly assessing the candidate's suitability for a career in civil services and adaptability to handle administrative roles. The interview round carries 275 marks and counts for merit in the final result.