UPSC Civil Services (CSE) — Services, Eligibility, Pattern & Syllabus

Section 1

Key Postings & Administrative Portfolios

The CSE recruits into the All India Services (AIS) and a range of Central Civil Services (Group A & Group B). The final service allocation depends on rank and the preferences in the Detailed Application Form (DAF).

Service Category	Official Service Name	Core Nature of Work & Governance Portfolio
All India Services (AIS)	Indian Administrative Service (IAS)	Coordinates general state and central administrative structures; runs district collectorates, revenue systems, and frames top-tier public policies.
All India Services (AIS)	Indian Police Service (IPS)	Commands state police networks; maintains public security, counter-terrorism channels, and leads elite central agencies (CBI, IB, RAW).
All India Services (AIS)	Indian Forest Service (IFoS)	Manages environmental conservation, national parks, anti-poaching operations, and preservation of national ecological assets.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Foreign Service (IFS)	Directs India's international diplomacy, manages global embassies, processes geopolitical policies, and protects trade interests abroad.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Revenue Service (IRS - IT)	Manages direct tax governance; enforces compliance for corporate and personal income taxes and counters domestic financial fraud.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Indirect Taxes)	Administers GST implementation, customs border checks at entry ports, anti-smuggling barriers, and international trade regulation.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS)	Executes high-level performance and fiscal compliance audits of all state/central ministries and PSUs under the CAG.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS)	Directs internal accounting of ministries; handles government payment rollouts, revenue tracking, and official budgeting audits.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS)	Manages financial audits and payroll systems for the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force), DRDO, and Border Roads Organisation.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES)	Administers expansive land properties and cantonment municipalities owned across India by the Ministry of Defence.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS)	Regulates corporate governance under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; prevents white-collar crime and enforces the Companies Act.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Postal Service (IPoS)	Commands operations, banking/insurance divisions, and rural financial inclusion structures of the India Post network.
Central Services — Group A	Indian P&T Accounts & Finance Service (IP&TAFS)	Audits revenues and assesses license fees and spectrum metrics for the Departments of Posts and Telecommunications.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Information Service (IIS)	Coordinates official public media briefs, advertisements, and communication feeds across Doordarshan, AIR, and the PIB.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Trade Service (ITS)	Formulates foreign trade rules, coordinates export incentives, and runs regional operations under the DGFT.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS)	Directs operations, financial budgets, logistics channels, and human resources of the unified Indian Railways system.
Central Services — Group A	Indian Railway Protection Force Service (IRPFS)	Ensures security, law enforcement, and protection of passengers and infrastructure within the commercial limits of Indian Railways.
Central Services — Group B	Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service	Provides civilian secretarial, executive administrative support, and registry tracking to the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence.
Central Services — Group B	DANICS (Civil Service for UTs)	Civil administration backbone for Union Territories (Delhi, Lakshadweep, etc.); handles postings like Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs).
Central Services — Group B	DANIPS (Police Service for UTs)	Manages police administration and internal security across the Union Territories, tracking local law enforcement as ACPs/DySPs.
Central Services — Group B	PONDICS (Puducherry Civil Service)	Runs district land records, revenue systems, and local development programs within the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Central Services — Group B	PONDIPS (Puducherry Police Service)	Coordinates local law enforcement, emergency management, and crime prevention explicitly inside the borders of Puducherry.

Section 2

Educational & Nationality Eligibility

Educational Qualification

Must hold a Bachelor's Degree (Graduation) in any stream/discipline from a recognized Central, State, or Deemed University.
Final-year undergraduate students are fully eligible to apply provisionally for the Preliminary Exam, provided they submit proof of passing before registering for the Mains Exam.
Note: No minimum graduation percentage or CGPA baseline is required.

Nationality Mandate

For IAS & IPS: the candidate must be a citizen of India.
For other services: must be a citizen of India, a subject of Nepal/Bhutan, or a Tibetan refugee settled permanently before January 1, 1962.

Section 3

Age Limits & Attempt Windows (as of August 1st)

Candidate Category	Minimum Age	Maximum Age Limit	Permitted Test Attempts
General Category & EWS	21 Years	32 Years	6 Attempts
Other Backward Classes (OBC)	21 Years	35 Years (3-Yr Relaxation)	9 Attempts
Scheduled Castes / Tribes (SC / ST)	21 Years	37 Years (5-Yr Relaxation)	Unlimited (Until Age Limit)
Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD)	21 Years	42 Years (10-Yr Relaxation)	9 Attempts (Gen/OBC) / Unlimited (SC/ST)
Defense Personnel (Disabled)	21 Years	35 (Gen) / 38 (OBC) / 40 (SC/ST)	As per category benchmarks
Ex-Servicemen (5+ Yrs)	21 Years	37 Years (Ceiling Extension Applied)	As per category benchmarks

Section 4

Three-Tier Exam Pattern & Architecture

Stage 1: Preliminary Examination (Screening)

Conducted in a single day across two mandatory sessions, this stage acts purely as a filtering mechanism. The marks obtained here are not aggregated into the final merit calculation.

Paper	Questions	Total Marks	Nature	Core Focus Areas
General Studies I (GS-1)	100 MCQs	200	Determines Cut-off	History, Geography, Polity, Economy, Environment, Science & Tech, Current Affairs.
GS-2 (CSAT)	80 MCQs	200	Qualifying (Min 33%)	Reading comprehension, logical reasoning, basic numeracy, data interpretation.

Negative Marking Penalty: An objective penalty system applies to both papers. Each incorrect response penalizes the candidate by 1/3rd of the marks allocated to that question (−0.66 for GS-1 and −0.83 for CSAT).

Stage 2

Main Examination (Descriptive Writing)

Candidates who cross the GS-1 cut-off and secure at least 33% in CSAT qualify for the Mains — nine comprehensive, subjective essay-type papers taken over a 5-day period.

A. Qualifying Papers (excluded from final merit; 25% minimum required)

Paper A (Indian Language): 300 Marks. Any modern Indian language selected from the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Paper B (English Language): 300 Marks. Matriculation-level reading comprehension, précis writing, vocabulary, and grammar.

B. Merit-Determining Papers (1,750 Total Marks)

Performance in these seven papers forms the core basis for selection to the interview round and ultimate rank assignment.

Paper Code	Subject & Scope	Maximum Marks	Time Provided
Paper I	Essay (writing two comprehensive, multi-dimensional essays)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper II	General Studies I (Indian Heritage, Culture, History, World Geography, and Society)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper III	General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice, and International Relations)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper IV	General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, Biodiversity, Security, and Disaster Management)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper V	General Studies IV (Ethics, Integrity, Aptitude, and Behavioral Case Studies)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper VI	Optional Subject - Paper I (candidate's chosen discipline)	250 Marks	3 Hours
Paper VII	Optional Subject - Paper II (advanced concepts of the selected discipline)	250 Marks	3 Hours

Stage 3

Personality Test (Interview) & Final Ranking

Total Allocation: 275 Marks. Conducted by a board at the UPSC headquarters in New Delhi.
Evaluation Objective: Rather than reassessing textbook knowledge, the panel judges the candidate's personal suitability for public service — mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, balance of judgment, clear and logical exposition, and intellectual integrity.

Final Ranking & Allocation: The conclusive merit list is out of a cumulative 2,025 marks (1,750 Written Mains + 275 Personality Test). Service allocation (IAS, IFS, IPS, etc.) is processed according to the final rank standing and the preferences submitted in the candidate's Detailed Application Form (DAF).

Mains

Official Optional Subject List

Candidates choose one optional subject (two papers, 500 marks total). Options include core disciplines and the literature of listed languages.

Optional Disciplines

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.

Literature of 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.

Roadmap

UPSC CSE Annual Examination Cycle

The recruitment process spans approximately a one-year cycle, from the initial notification through detailed academic evaluations and personal assessments.

Phase / Landmark Event	Standard Timeline	Operational Status / Stance
Official Notification Release	Early February	Opens the online application module on upsc.gov.in.
Application Window Close	Late February	Gives candidates exactly 20–24 days to submit their basic profile preferences.
Application Correction Window	Late February - Early March	A dedicated 7-day window to correct mistakes or modify digital identifiers.
Admit Card Release	Early May	Issued digitally roughly 2 to 3 weeks prior to the screening exam.
Phase I: Preliminary Examination	Mid to Late May (Sunday)	A single-day objective hurdle — GS Paper I (Morning) and CSAT Paper II (Afternoon).
Prelims Result Declaration	Mid to Late June	Shortlists the top candidates eligible for the written descriptive test.
Detailed Application Form I (DAF-I)	July	Mandatory secondary application where qualified candidates select optional subjects.
Phase II: Main Written Exam	Late August / September	A rigorous 5-day descriptive exam window across 9 comprehensive papers.
Mains Result Declaration	November - December	Announces the shortlist of candidates clearing the written cutoff.
Detailed Application Form II (DAF-II)	December - January	Service preferences (IAS, IPS, IFS, etc.) and state cadre choices are locked.
Phase III: Personality Test (Interview)	February - April	Structured face-to-face board assessments at the UPSC Headquarters.
Final Selection Merit List	April - May	Final rank compilation (Mains + Interview) dictates the allocation of cadres.

Strategy

Key Planning Metrics for Aspirants

The Prelims-Mains Window: UPSC typically allocates roughly 85 to 90 days between the Preliminary screening date and the start of the Mains framework. These 3 months are heavily constrained by answer-writing practice and optional revision — as a best practice, start Mains preparation alongside Prelims preparation.
Coinciding Exams: The Indian Forest Service (IFoS) Preliminary Examination runs on the exact same day as the Civil Services Prelims using the common GS and CSAT papers. However, the IFoS descriptive Mains are held separately later in November.

UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE)