UPSC (Union Public Service Commission)

About

The Union Public Service Commission is India’s Chief regulating body which is responsible

for conducting a number of competitive exams to recruit for various Civil Service Vacancies

for the Government of India.

Examinations Conducted by UPSC

Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam (In May)

Civil Services (Main) Exam (In October/November)

Indian Forest Service Examination (In July)

Engineering Services Examination (In June)

Geologist Examination (in December)

Special Class Railway Apprentices Examination (In July)

National Defence Academy & Naval Academy Examination (In April & September)

Combined Defence Services Examination (In February & August)

Combined Medical Services Examination (In January)

Indian Economic Service/Indian Statistical Service Examination (In November)

Section Officers/Stenographers (Grade-B/Grade-I) Limited Departmental Competitive

Examination (In December)

Central Police Forces (Assistant Commandants) Examination (In October)

Components of Civil Service Exams

Civil Services Exams (CSE) are conducted in two stages viz. UPSC preliminary Exam and UPSC

Main Exam. The Preliminary Exam consists of objective type questions used to select

candidates for the Main Exam which is of descriptive and essay type answering.

IPS (Indian Police Service)

IAS (Indian Administrative Service)

IFS (Indian Foreign Service)

Central Services, Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’

Group ‘A’ Services include Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service, Indian Audit and

Accounts Service, Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise), Indian Defence

Accounts Service, Indian Revenue Service (I.T.), Indian Ordnance Factories Service

(Assistant Works Manager, Non-technical), Indian Postal Service, Indian Civil Accounts

Service, Indian Railway Traffic Service, Indian Railway Accounts Service, Indian Railway

Personnel Service, Posts of Assistant Security Commissioner in Railway Protection Force

(RPF), Indian Defence Estates Service, Indian Information Service (Junior Grade), Indian

Trade Service, (Gr. III), Indian Corporate Law Service.

Group ‘B’ Services include Railway Board Secretariat Service (Section Officer's Grade),

Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (Section Officer's Grade), Customs Appraisers'

Service, Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar

Haveli Civil Service and Police Service, Pondicherry Civil Service and Police Service.

The Preliminary Exam

Comprises two compulsory papers of 200 marks each; both of which consist of

objective type (multiple choice) questions

The General Studies Paper – II will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying

marks fixed at 33%

Each paper will be of 2 hours each

The Preliminary exam consists of two papers of Objective Type (multiple choice questions)

which carry a maximum of 400 marks. This exam is meant as a screening test to select

candidates for the Main Examination. The marks obtained in the Preliminary Exam are not

counted towards for the final order of merit. There is negative marking. For a wrong answer,

0.33% of the marks assigned are cut as penalty.

The Main Exam

The Main Exam consists of written examination and an interview test. The written exam

consists of 9 papers of conventional essay type.

Comprises two qualifying papers –

1. Paper A - One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the

Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution 300 marks

2. Paper B – English 300 marks

The aforementioned papers are of qualifying nature and thus are not counted for

ranking. 25% marks in each of the papers are needed for the marks obtained in the

below mentioned papers to be counted for merit.

Papers to be counted for merit

1. Paper I – Essay 250 marks

2. Paper II – General Studies I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography

of the World and Society) 250 marks

3. Paper III – General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and

International Relations) 250 marks

4. Paper IV – General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity,

Environment, Security and Disaster Management) 250 marks

5. Paper V – General Studies IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) 250 marks

6. Paper VI – Optional Subject - Paper I 250 marks

7. Paper VII – Optional Subject - Paper II 250 marks

The list of optional subjects for Main Examination are - 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, Zoology, Literature of the

following languages :

Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani,

Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali,

Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu & English

8. Personality Test 275 marks

Qualities of the candidate to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of

assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgment, variety and depth of

interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.