Civil Services Examination (CSE)

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a countrywide competitive exam in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to recruit candidates for different civil services post of the Government of India that includes the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS), among others.

Civil Services Examination Details

Civil Services Exam Conducting Body	UPSC
Civil Services Exam Dates for Prelims	June/ August
Civil Services Exam Dates for Mains	November/ December
Civil Services Exams Eligibility	Indian aged between 21 to 32 years
Age Relaxation	As per Category
Numbers of Attempts For CSE	6 (7 For OBC & Unlimited for SC/ ST)

1. The competitive examination comprises three successive stages:

(i) Civil Services (Preliminary) Examinations (Objective Type) for the selection of candidates for Main Examination.

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

(iii) Civil Services Interview or Personality Test.

2. The 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 Preliminary Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit. The number of Candidates to be admitted to the 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 Preliminary Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission, to the Main Examination.

Note I: The Commission will draw a list of candidates to be qualified for Civil Service (Main) Examination based on the total qualifying marks as may be determined by the Commission, of the two papers put together.

Note II: There will be negative marking for incorrect answers (as detailed below) for all questions except some of the questions where the negative marking will be inbuilt in the form of different marks being awarded to the most appropriate and not so appropriate answer for such questions.

(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.

3. The Main Examination will consist of written examination and an interview 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 for Personality Test will be counted for ranking.

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

Marks thus obtained by the candidates in the Main Examination (written part as well as interview) 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).

(ii). The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English. However, questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation thereof in the question paper.

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

(iv). Each paper will be of two hours duration. Blind candidates will; however, be allowed an extra time of twenty minutes for each paper.

B. MAIN EXAMINATION:

The written examination will consist of the following papers:

Qualifying Papers:

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

Paper- B

English 300 Marks

Papers to be counted for merit

Paper- I

Essay 250 Marks

Paper- II

General Studies–I

(Indian Heritage and Culture, History

and Geography of the World and Society) 250Marks

Paper- III

General Studies –II

(Governance, Constitution, Polity,

Social Justice and International relations) 250 Marks

Paper- III

General Studies –III

(Technology, Economic Development,

Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and

Disaster Management) 250 Marks

Paper- IV

General Studies –IV

(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) 250 Marks

Paper- V

Optional Subject – Paper 1 250 Marks

Paper- VI

Optional Subject – Paper 2 250 Marks

Sub Total (Written test) 1750 Marks

Personality Test 275 Marks

Grand Total 2025 Marks

C.INTERVIEW TEST

1. The candidate will be interviewed by a Board who will have before them a record of his/her career. He/she will be asked questions on matters of general interest. The object of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service by a Board of competent and unbiased observers. The test is intended to judge the mental caliber of a candidate. In broad terms this is really an assessment of not only his/her intellectual qualities but also social traits and his/her interest in current affairs. Some of the qualities 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.

2. The technique of the interview 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 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.

Instructions

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 ‘Essay’, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates will be taken cognizance of who attain such minimum standard as may be fixed by Commission at their discretion for the qualifying papers on ‘Indian Language’ and ‘English’.

(iii) The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, 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:—

Language	Script
Assamese	Assamese
Bengali	Bengali
Gujarati	Gujarati
Hindi	Devanagari
Kannada	Kannada
Kashmiri	Persian
Konkani	Devanagari
Malayalam	Malayalam
Manipuri	Bengali
Marathi	Devanagari
Nepali	Devanagari
Oriya	Oriya
Punjabi	Gurumukhi
Sanskrit	Devanagari
Sindhi	Devanagari or Arabic
Tamil	Tamil
Telugu	Telugu
Urdu	Persian
Bodo	Devanagari
Dogri	Devanagari
Maithilli	Devanagari
Santhali	Devanagari or Olchiki

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

Optional subject list UPSC-CSE

There are 47 subjects which are included in the optional subject list. Some of them are most popular subjects and few are much scoring.

1. Mathematics

2. Political Science

3. History

4. Public Administration

5. Maithili

6. Geography

7. Philosophy

8. Sociology

9. English

10. Hindi

11. Chemistry

12. Physics

13. Animal Husbandry and veterinary Science

14. Anthropology

15. Botany

16. Civil Engineering

17. Commerce and Accountancy

18. Economics

19. Electrical Engineering

20. Geology

21. Law

22. Management

23. Mechanical Engineering

24. Medical Science

25. Psychology

26. Statistics

27. Zoology

28. Assamese

29. Bengali

30. Bodo

31. Dogri

32. Gujrati

33. Kannada

34. Telugu

35. Sindhi

36. Urdu

37. Nepali

38. Oriya

39. Tamil

40. Punjabi

41. Sanskrit

42. Konkani

43. Santhali

44. Marathi

45. Manipuri

46. Kashmiri

47. Agriculture

Eligibility

Eligibility for the examination is as follows:

Nationality

· For the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, the candidate must be a citizen of India.

· For other services, the candidate must be one of the following:

· A citizen of India

· A citizen of Nepal or a subject of Bhutan

· A person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India

Education

All candidates must have as a minimum one of the following educational qualifications:

· A degree from a Central, State or a Deemed university

· A degree received through correspondence or distance education

· A degree from an open university

· A qualification recognized by the Government of India as being equivalent to one of the above

The following candidates are also eligible, but must submit proof of their eligibility from a competent authority at their institute/university at the time of the main examination, failing which they will not be allowed to attend the exam.

· Candidates who have appeared in an examination, the passing of which would render them educationally qualified enough to satisfy one of the above points

· Candidates who have passed the final exam of the MBBS degree but have not yet completed an internship.

· Candidates who have passed the final exam of ICAI, ICSI and ICWAI.

· A degree from a private university.

· A degree from any foreign university recognized by the Association of Indian Universities.

EXAM KENDRA

Civil Services Examination (CSE)