Exam Scheme UPSC CSE

Exam Scheme UPSC CSE, minimum qualifications, Age Limits, Numbers of Attempts allowed, important dates

HOW TO APPLY

Candidates are required to apply online by using the website upsconline.nic.in . It is essential for the applicant to register himself/herself first at One Time Registration (OTR) platform, available on the Commission’s website, and then proceed for filling up the online application for the examination. OTR has to be registered only once in life time. This can be done anytime throughout the year.

Candidate should have details of one Photo ID Card viz. Aadhaar Card/ Voter Card/ PAN Card/ Passport/ Driving Licence/ Any other Photo ID Card issued by the State/Central Government. The details of this Photo ID Card will have to be provided by the candidate while filling up the online application form. This Photo ID Card will be used for all future reference and the candidate is advised to carry this Photo ID Card while appearing for Examination/Personality Test.

PENALTY FOR WRONG ANSWERS:
Candidates should note that there will be penalty (negative marking) for wrong answers marked by a candidate in the Objective Type Question Papers.

MOBILE PHONES BANNED:
(a) The use of any mobile phone (even in switched off mode), pager or any electronic equipment or programmable device or storage media like pen drive, smart watches etc. or camera or blue tooth devices or any other equipment or related accessories either in working or switched off mode capable of being used as a communication device during the examination is strictly prohibited. Any infringement of these instructions shall entail disciplinary action including ban from future examinations.
(b) Candidates are advised in their own interest not to bring any of the banned items including mobile phones/pagers to the venue of the examination, as no arrangement for safe-keeping will be made at the venue of the examination.

Instruction in respect of uploading of Photograph while filling up online application form :-
(a) The photograph, uploaded by candidate should not be more than 10 days old from the start of the online application process (i.e. the application commencement date).

F.No. 1/3/2023-E.I(B) :-
As per the decision taken by the Government for increasing the access of unemployed to job opportunities, the Commission will publicly disclose the scores of the candidates (obtained in the Written Examination and Interview/Personality Test) through the public portals. The disclosure will be made in respect of only those willing candidates who will appear in the Interview/Personality Test for the Civil Service Examination and are not finally recommended for appointment. The information shared through this disclosure scheme about the non-recommended candidates may be used by other public and private recruitment agencies to appoint suitable candidates from the information made available in the public portal.

Centres of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination

The Examination will be held at the following Centres:

Centres of Civil Services (Main) Examination

The Examination will be held at the following Centres:

The Centres and the date of holding the examination as mentioned above are liable to be changed at the discretion of the Commission. Applicants should note that there will be a ceiling on the number of candidates allotted to each of the Centres, except Chennai, Dispur, Kolkata and Nagpur. Allotment of Centres will be on the "first-apply-first allot" basis, and once the capacity of a particular Centre is attained, the same will be frozen. Applicants, who cannot get a Centre of their choice due to ceiling, will be required to choose a Centre from the remaining ones. Applicants are, thus, advised that they may apply early so that they could get a Centre of their choice.

Plan of Examination:
The Civil Services Examination will consist of two successive stages (vide Appendix I Section-I)
(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidates for the Main Examination; and
(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various Services and posts noted above. Applications are now invited for the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination only.

The Candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination will have to apply online again and submit on-line Detailed Application Form-I [DAF-I] along with scanned documents/certificates

The candidates who are declared to have qualified Civil Services (Main) Examination will be required to mandatorily indicate order of preferences only for those services participating in the Civil Services Examination for the year, for which he is interested to be allocated to, in the on-line Detailed Application Form-II [DAF-II], before the commencement of Personality Tests (Interview) of the examination. Further, the candidates who wish to indicate IAS/IPS as their Service preference are advised to indicate all the Zones and Cadres in the order of preference in their on-line DAF-II as per the extant Cadre Allocation Policy applicable for the Civil Services Examination, 2024. With this DAF-II, a candidate will also be required to upload documents/certificates for higher education, achievements in different fields, service experience, OBC Annexure (for OBC category only), EWS Annexure [for EWS Category only], etc.

Eligibility Conditions

(I) Nationality

(1) For the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Police Service, a candidate must be a citizen of India.

(2) For other services, a candidate must be either:—
(a) a citizen of India, or
(b) a subject of Nepal, or
(c) a subject of Bhutan, or
(d) a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, or
(e) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c), (d) and (e) shall be a person in whose favour a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

A candidate in whose case a certificate of eligibility is necessary, may be admitted to the examination but the offer of appointment may be given only after the necessary eligibility certificate has been issued to him/her by the Government of India.

(II) Age Limits:

(1) A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on the 1st of August, 2024 i.e., the candidate must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1992 and not later than 1st August, 2003.

(2) The upper age-limit prescribed above will be relaxable:
(a) up to a maximum of five years if a candidate belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe;
(b) up to a maximum of three years in the case of candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes who are eligible to avail of reservation applicable to such candidates;
(c) up to a maximum of three years in the case of Defence Services Personnel, disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof;
(d) up to a maximum of five years in the case of ex-servicemen including Commissioned Officers and Emergency Commissioned Officers (ECOs)/ Short Service Commissioned Officers (SSCOs) who have rendered at least five years Military Service as on 1st August, 2024 and have been released:
(i) on completion of assignment (including those whose assignment is due to be completed within one year from 1st August, 2024, otherwise than by way of dismissal or discharge on account of misconduct or inefficiency); or
(ii) on account of physical disability attributable to Military Service; or
(iii) on invalidment.
(e) up to a maximum of five years in the case of ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military Service as on 1st August, 2024 and whose assignment has been extended beyond five years and in whose case the Ministry of Defence issues a certificate that they can apply for civil employment and that they will be released on three months notice on selection from the date of receipt of offer of appointment.
(f) up to a maximum of 10 years in the case of candidates belonging to Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) categories viz.
(i) blindness and low vision;
(ii) deaf and hard of hearing;
(iii) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;
(iv) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness;
(v) multiple disabilities from amongst person under clauses (i) to (iv) including deaf-blindness.

(III) Minimum Educational Qualification:

A candidate must hold a Graduate degree of any of the Universities incorporated by an Act of the central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or possess an equivalent qualification.

Note-I : Candidates who have appeared at a qualifying examination the passing of which would render them educationally qualified for the Commission’s Examination but have not been informed of the result as also the candidates who intend to appear at such a qualifying examination will also be eligible for admission to the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination. All candidates who are declared qualified by the Commission for taking the Civil Services (Main) Examination will be required to produce proof of passing the requisite qualifying examination along with their application (i.e. Detailed Application Form-I) for the Main Examination, failing which such candidates will not be admitted to the Main Examination. Such proof of passing the requisite qualifying examination should have been issued latest by the closing date of Detailed Application Form-I of the Main Examination.

Note-II : In exceptional cases, the Commission may treat a candidate who does not have any of the foregoing qualifications as a candidate, provided that the candidate has passed an examination conducted by any other institution the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission justifies the admission to the Civil Services Examination.

Note-III : Candidates possessing professional and technical qualifications which are recognised by Government as equivalent to professional and technical degree would also be eligible for admission to the Civil Services Examination.

Note-IV : Candidates who have passed the final professional M.B.B.S or any other equivalent professional examination leading to a medical degree or certificate but have not completed their internship by the time of submission of their applications for the Civil Services (Main) Examination, will be provisionally admitted to the Civil Services Examination, provided they submit along with their application a copy of certificate from the concerned authority of the University/Institution that they had passed the requisite final professional examination. In such cases, the candidates will be required to produce at the time of their interview the original degree or a certificate from the concerned competent authority of the University/Institution that they had completed all requirements (including completion of internship) for the award of the Degree.

(IV) Number of attempts:

Every candidate appearing at the examination, who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six (6) attempts at the CSE. However, relaxation in the number of attempts will be available to the SC/ST/OBC and PwBD category candidates who are otherwise eligible. The number of attempts available to such candidates as per relaxation is as under:

Note-I :The terms – GL for General, EWS for Economically Weaker Sections, SC for Scheduled Castes, ST for Scheduled Tribes, OBC for Other Backward Classes and PwBD for Persons with Benchmark Disability – are used for denoting the categories of candidates taking an attempt at the Examination.

Note-II :An attempt at a Preliminary Examination shall be deemed to be an attempt at the Civil Services Examination.

Note-III :If a candidate actually appears in any one paper in the Preliminary Examination, it will be deemed that the candidate has made an attempt at the Examination.

Note-IV :Notwithstanding any subsequent disqualification/cancellation of candidature, the fact of appearance of the candidate at the Examination will count as an attempt.

(V) Restrictions on applying for the examination:

(1) A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Foreign Service based on the results of an earlier Examination and continues to be a member of that Service will not be eligible to appear at the Civil Services Examination-2024. In case such a candidate is appointed to the IAS or IFS after the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination-2024 is over and the candidate continues to be a member of that Service, the candidate shall not be eligible to appear in the Civil Services (Main) Examination-2024 notwithstanding having qualified in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination-2024. If such a candidate is appointed to the IAS or IFS after the commencement of the Civil Services (Main) Examination-2024 but before the result thereof is declared by the Commission and continues to be a member of that Service, the candidate shall not be considered for appointment to any Service/Post on the basis of the result of the CSE-2024.

(2) A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Police Service based on the results of an earlier Examination and continues to be a member of that Service shall not be eligible to opt for the Indian Police Service on the basis of the result of the CSE-2024.

(VI) Medical and Physical Standards:

Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Civil Services Examination, 2024 as per guidelines given in Appendix-III of Rules for Examination published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 14th February, 2024.

FEE

Candidates (Except Female/SC/ST/Persons with Benchmark Disability Candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) are required to pay fee of Rs. 100/- (Rupees One Hundred only) either by remitting the money in any Branch of State Bank of India by cash or by using Net Banking facility of any bank or by using Visa/Master/RuPay/Credit/Debit Card/UPI Payment.

All candidates, whether already in Government Service, Government owned industrial undertakings or other similar organizations or in private employment should submit their applications direct to the Commission.

Persons already in Government Service, whether in a permanent or temporary capacity or as work charged employees other than casual or daily rated employees or those serving under the Public Enterprises are however, required to submit an undertaking that they have informed in writing to their Head of Office/Department that they have applied for the Examination. Candidates should note that in case a communication is received from their employer by the Commission withholding permission to the candidates applying for/appearing at the examination, their application will be liable to be rejected/candidature will be liable to be cancelled.

APPENDIX I

SECTION I : PLAN OF EXAMINATION

The Civil Services Examination will consist of two successive stages (vide Appendix I Section-I)

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) for the selection of candidates for the Main Examination; and

(ii) Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various Services and posts noted above.

The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will consist of two papers of Objective type (multiple choice questions) and carry a maximum of 400 marks in the subjects set out in sub-section (A) of Section II. This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only; the marks obtained in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit. The number of candidates to be admitted to the Civil Services (Main) Examination will be about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number of vacancies to be filled in the year through this Examination. Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Civil Services (Main) Examination.

Note-I :The Commission will draw a list of candidates to be qualified for Civil Services (Main) Examination based on the criterion of minimum qualifying marks of 33% in General Studies Paper-II of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination and total qualifying marks of General Studies Paper-I of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination as may be determined by the Commission.

Note-II :There will be negative marking for incorrect answers as detailed below :

(i) There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one-third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty.
(ii) If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happen to be correct and there will be same penalty as above for that question.
(iii) If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

The Civil Services (Main) Examination will consist of a Written Examination and an Interview/Personality Test. The Written Examination will consist of 9 papers of conventional essay type in the subjects set out in sub-section (B) of Section-II out of which two papers will be of qualifying in nature. [Also see Note (ii) under Para-I of Section II-(B)]. Marks obtained for all the compulsory papers (Paper-I to Paper-VII) and Marks obtained in Interview/Personality Test will be counted for ranking.

Candidates who obtain such minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the Civil Services (Main) Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion, shall be summoned by them for an Interview/Personality Test, vide sub-section (C) of Section-II. The number of candidates to be summoned for Interview/Personality Test will be about twice of the number of vacancies to be filled. The Interview/Personality Test will carry 275 marks (with no minimum qualifying marks).

Marks thus obtained by the candidates in the Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written part as well as Interview/Personality Test) would determine their final ranking. Candidates will be allotted to the various Services keeping in view their ranks in the examination and the preferences expressed by them for the various Services and posts.

SECTION II: Scheme and Subjects for the Preliminary and Main Examination

A. PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

The Examination shall comprise of two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each. Note:

(i)Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be of two hours duration.

(ii)The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

(iii)The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.

(iv)Details of the syllabi are indicated in Part A of Section III.

B. MAIN EXAMINATION

The Written Examination will consist of the following papers:—

Qualifying Papers:

Papers to be counted for merit :

Candidates may choose any one of the optional subjects from amongst the list of subjects given in para 2 below:—

Note :

(i)The papers on Indian languages and English (Paper A and paper B) will be of Matriculation or equivalent standard and will be of qualifying nature. The marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.

(ii)Evaluation of the papers, namely, 'Essay', 'General Studies' and Optional Subject of all the candidates would be done simultaneously along with evaluation of their qualifying papers on ‘Indian Languages’ and ‘English’ but the papers on Éssay', General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance who attain 25% marks in ‘Indian Language’ and 25% in English as minimum qualifying standards in these qualifying papers.

(iii)The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.

(iv)Marks obtained by the candidates for the Paper I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.

(v)For the Language medium/literature of languages, the scripts to be used by the candidates will be as under :—

Note :For Santhali language, question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.

List of optional subjects for Main Examination

(i)Agriculture

(ii)Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

(iii)Anthropology

(iv)Botany

(v)Chemistry

(vi)Civil Engineering

(vii)Commerce and Accountancy

(viii)Economics

(ix)Electrical Engineering

(x)Geography

(xi)Geology

(xii)History

(xiii)Law

(xiv)Management

(xv)Mathematics

(xvi)Mechanical Engineering

(xvii)Medical Science

(xviii)Philosophy

(xix)Physics

(xx)Political Science and International Relations (xxi) Psychology (xxii) Public Administration

(xxi)Sociology

(xxii)Statistics

(xxiii)Zoology

(xxiv)Literature of any one of the following 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

Note :

(i)The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.

(ii)Each paper will be of three hours duration.

(iii)Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and Paper-B, in any one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India or in English. Notwithstanding this, the Candidate will have the choice to write the Optional Papers in English also if candidates opt to write Paper I-V except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and Paper-B, in any one of the language included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.

(iv)Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in any one of the languages included in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India mentioned above may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. Candidates should, however, note that if they misuse the above rule, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to them and in extreme cases; their script(s) will not be valued for being in an unauthorized medium.

(v)Candidates should note that if any irrelevant matter/signages/marks etc. are found written in the answer script(s), which would not be related to any question/answer and/or would be having the potential to disclose the candidate’s identity, the Commission will impose a penalty of deduction of marks from the total marks otherwise accruing to the candidate or will not evaluate the said script(s) on this account.

(vi)The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.

(vii)The details of the syllabi are set out in Part B of Section III.

……………

(i)The Commission have discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects of the examination.

(ii)If a candidate’s handwriting is not easily legible, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to the candidate.

(iii)Marks will not be allotted for mere superficial knowledge.

(iv)Credit will be given for orderly, effective and exact expression combined with due economy of words in all subjects of the examination.

(v)In the question papers, wherever required, SI units will be used.

(vi)Candidates should use only International form of Indian numerals (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc.) while answering question papers.

(vii)Candidates will be allowed the use of Scientific (Non-Programmable type) Calculators at the conventional (Essay) type examination of UPSC. Programmable type calculators will however not be allowed and the use of such calculators shall tantamount to resorting to unfair means by the candidates. Loaning or interchanging of calculators in the Examination Hall is not permitted. It is also important to note that candidates are not permitted to use calculators for answering objective type papers (Test Booklets). They should not therefore bring the same inside the Examination Hall.

C. Interview/Personality Test

The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of the candidate’s career. The candidate will be asked questions on matters of general interest. The object of the Interview/Personality Test is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a Board of competent and unbiased observers. The Interview/Personality Test is intended to judge the mental calibre of a candidate. In broad terms this is really an assessment of not only intellectual qualities but also social traits and interest in current affairs. Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.

2. The technique of the Interview/Personality Test is not that of a strict cross-examination but of a natural, though directed and purposive conversation which is intended to reveal the mental qualities of the candidate.

3. The Interview/Personality Test is not intended to be a test either of the specialized or general knowledge of the candidates which has been already tested through their written papers. Candidates are expected to have taken an intelligent interest not only in their special subjects of academic study but also in the events which are happening around them both within and outside their own State or Country as well as in modern currents of thought and in new discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of well-educated youth.

FAQs

CIVIL SERVICES EXAMINATION

CIVIL SERVICES (MAIN) EXAMINATION