The Civil service examination is a competitive examination which is conducted by the UPSC of the Government of India. This examination is including the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, and Indian Police Service.
The Indian Civil Service Exam (UPSC IAS exam) is conducted in three stages:
- Civil Services Exam (Preliminary) – Objective Type
- Civil Services Exam (Main) – Descriptive Type
- Personality Test / Interview
The whole process of the Indian civil services examination from the notification of the preliminary examination to the declaration of the final score takes place within a year. The selected candidates are recruited and trained for various services by the Central Government. After recruitment, they are allotted different State Cadres as per their preference and ranking.
Civil Service Exam Pattern:
Prelims Exam:
It is the first stage of the Civil Services Exam process. Prelims exam contains two objective type papers of 200 marks each. Only those who score more than the cut off announced by the UPSC for that particular year will be summoned for the main examination. The marks scored in Prelims will not be counted for arriving at the final merit list.
Main Exam:
- Paper-A (Marks 300): Anyone of the Indian languages (Qualifying).
- Paper-B (Marks 300): English (Qualifying).
- Paper-I (Marks 250): Essay Writing.
- Paper-II (Marks 250): General Studies I (history and geography of the world and society, Indian heritage and culture).
- Paper-III (Marks 250): General Studies II (Constitution, polity, Governance, social justice, and international relations).
- Paper-IV (Marks 250): General Studies III (Economic development, biodiversity, Technology, environment, security, and disaster management).
- Paper-V (Marks 250): General Studies IV (Integrity, Aptitude, and Ethics).
- Paper-VI&VII (Marks 250): From the list of optional subjects, two papers on the subject must be selected by the candidate (250 marks for each paper).
Total Marks of Civil Service main Exam: 2025 (Writing Exam(1750) + Personality Test /Interview (275))
Interview process of Civil Service Examination:
Personality test, commonly known as the interview is the final round in the Civil Service Exam selection process. It is the gateway to your dream service. Only those candidates who manage to clear the mains exam cutoff are allowed to attend the interview. At this stage, the candidates are tested for their mental alertness, the balance of judgment, intellectual and moral integrity, etc out of 275 marks. Marks scored by the candidate in the interview will be added to the marks scored by him/her in the mains exam for arriving at the final merit list.
Civil Service Examination Qualification:
Candidates must not be below 21 years of age and more than 32 years of age. The candidate must also have completed graduation in any discipline from a recognized university. All the same, there are age relaxations depending upon the category the candidate belongs to.
Number of attempts
Not a Single attempt test series, a candidate can attempt multiple times for this examination. Here is the list for number of times a candidate can appear in this examination.
- General category candidates = 6
- OBC category candidates = 9
- SC/ST candidates = limitless attempts till 37 years of age.
Appearing to aim one among the papers within the preliminary exam is counted as an effort, including disqualification/ cancellation of candidature. However, applying to take a seat the exam but failing to attend isn’t counted as an attempt.
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