UPSC Civil Service Syllabus and Exam Pattern

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a countrywide competitive exam in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to recruit candidates for different civil services post of the Government of India that includes the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS), among others.

The examination is conducted in three stages and they are:

The entire process of the civil services examination from the notification of the preliminary examination to the declaration of the final results takes place roughly within a year. The candidates who get selected are recruited and trained for various services by the Central Government and then allotted to different State Cadres.

List of Indian Civil Services Post

Given below is the complete list of posts for which candidates are recruited through the civil services examination conducted every calendar year by the UPSC.

The civil services posts are categorized into two categories: Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’.

Group ‘A’ services includes three All India Services (the IAS, IPS and the IFS) and 18 other services as indicated in the table below. Group ‘B’ has five services under it.

A candidate must be one of the following to get into the Indian Revenue Service:

A candidate must be one of the following to get into other services:

Education

Candidates should have at least one of the following educational qualifications:

Candidates who meet the below criteria are also eligible to take the exams, however one should submit the proof of eligibility from a proficient authority of their university/institution during the UPSC Mains Examination, failing which the candidate may not be allowed to take the exam.

Age

A candidate should have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years as on August 1 of the year of the examination. So, for the 2018 UPSC CSE, a candidate must have attained at least 21 years and not yet attained 32 years of age as on 1 August 2018. There are relaxations in the age criterion for the reserved category.

Numbers of attempts

The number of times a candidate may attempt the exam is limited and again it is based on the category and is as follows:

If a candidate appears for one of the papers in the preliminary examination then it is considered as an attempt, which also includes ineligibility or withdrawal of the application. But, if a candidate applies to take the exam but fails to attend the exam then it is not considered as an attempt.

Civil Services Posts/Vacancies and Selection

Normally, the number of vacancies differs every year. The number of candidates who clear the preliminary examination and qualify for the mains exam is generally 11 or 12 times the number of vacancies while the number of candidates selected for the final interview is twice the number of vacancies or posts to be filled.

According to the prevalent norms, reservation in vacancies for SC, ST and OBC category is applicable at every level of the selection process.

Civil Services Exam Pattern

Preliminary Exam

The civil services preliminary examination pattern was based on the recommendations of the Kothari Commission (1979) till 2010, and the exam had two papers namely, General Studies as paper 1 and any one of the optional subjects among 23 subjects as paper 2 for a total of 300 marks.

Once in every 10 to 15 years, the prelims exam pattern saw minor changes, until in 2011 when it was completely overhauled. The optional prelims paper was done away with and in its place, the CSAT paper was made paper 2. The Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT) aims to assess the analytical abilities and understanding of a candidate rather than their ability to memorize. At present, the new prelims exam includes two papers for two hours duration with 200 marks for each paper. Both the papers are objective in nature with negative marking for incorrect answers.

The two papers of prelims are defined as below:

In May 2015, the Government of India declared that CSAT Paper II of the civil services prelims exam will qualifying in nature and not counted for the merit ranking list, however, candidates should score at least 33% in the CSAT paper order to move to next stage of the examination i.e., the UPSC mains.

Mains Exam

The Civil Services Mains Examination is a written descriptive examination and consists of nine papers out of which two are qualifying in nature and seven are ranking in nature.

List of Languages

The examination can be taken in the following languages and the script is mentioned in the brackets:

Optional subjects

There are 26 optional subjects available for Papers VI and VII among which candidates can choose any subjects.

The optional subjects papers are of Post Graduate level. In general, the optional Paper I is theoretical while Paper II comprises of Current Affairs based questions also.

Candidates who pass in the qualifying papers are ranked according to the marks scored in other papers and are selected and called for interview or a personality test at the discretion of the commission.

Interview

The interview round is officially called the “UPSC Personality Test” and is the final hurdle to cross in order to clear the UPSC CSE. The main aim of the personality test, as the name suggests, is to assess the personality of the candidate. A competent group of eminent people, known as the UPSC board, tests the candidate’s qualities and readiness for a job in the demanding civil services through the interview. The interview does not take the form of a one-sided interrogation, but that of a purposeful discussion through which the board aims to get a picture of the mental toughness, character, clarity of thought, decision-making skills, analytical abilities, rationality, ethical values, leadership qualities, etc. of the prospective officer.

The results of the personality test, i.e., the whole UPSC CSE process, are released about 2 months after the interview round. After that, the service allocation is done according to preference lists, categories and ranks of the candidates. Generally, the service training starts in September in the various training academies in the country as per the service allotted.