Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts civil services examinations every year for the recruitment of various Group A and Group B positions and Government of India here we are going to provide you some information about UPSC IAS exam pattern.
UPSC examination is one of the recognized examinations in India for civil services. Thousands of students are preparing for the IAS examinations and lakhs of students appear for the examinations every year. For all those aspirant who are preparing for IAS examinations this article will provide them full information about pattern of examination
UPSC IAS Exam is conducted in 3 different stages as:
- UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination
- UPSC Civil Services Mains Examination
- Personality Test/ Interview Process
Finally candidates who clears all the three rounds of the examination will be selected based on their marks for the civil services.
Let’s have a look at all three states of examination individually.
UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination Pattern
- UPSC prelims exam consists of two papers of 200 marks. Both papers contain objective type multiple choice questions and candidates have to appear for both the paper mandatorily.
- Total time duration for each examination is 2 hours.
- Negative marking is applicable on the UPSC prelims examination. One third of the total marks allotted to a question will be deducted if it is wrongly answered by the candidate
- The examination will be conducted in both languages: English and Hindi.
| Name of the Paper | No. of Questions | Total Marks | Examination Nature |
| General Studies Paper I | 100 | 200 | Cut-off Based |
| General Studies Paper II (Aptitude Test) | 80 | 200 | Qualifying |
UPSC Civil Services Mains Exam Pattern
- UPSC IAS mains exam consists of 9 papers which includes seven merit based papers and two qualifying based papers.
- Those candidates who have secured declared cut off marks in prelims are allowed to appear in mains exam.
- Duration of the UPSC IAS mains exam is 3 hours.
| Paper | Subject | Marks | Duration |
| Paper A | Compulsory Indian Language | 300 | 3 Hours |
| Paper B | English | 300 | 3 Hours |
| Paper I | Essay | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper II | General Studies I | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper III | General Studies II | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper IV | General Studies III | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper V | General Studies IV | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper VI | Optional Subject Paper I | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Paper VII | Optional Subject Paper II | 250 | 3 Hours |
| Total | 1750 |
Details of the optional papers are listed below:
- 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
- The literature of any 1 languages from here: Assamese,Konkani, Maithili,Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Urdu and English.
UPSC IAS Personality Test/ Interview Pattern
- As per the UPSC IAS Mains exam the candidates who qualify the UPSC mains exams will be called for the interview or personality test.
- Here the board checks for candidates’ mental and social trends by asking questions of general interest.
- The maximum marks allotted for the interview stage will be 275 marks.
- Total Marks = 1750+275 Marks.
Aspirants who are preparing for UPSC civil services examinations it is necessary for them to understand the exam pattern and get a full knowledge of exam syllabus for UPSC IAS examination for civil services this will make easy to understand the syllabus and the different stage of examination and help aspirants to to prepare themselves in a better scheduled way by understanding UPSC IAS examination pattern.
