UPSC Exam Pattern in 2024 - Prelims, Mains & interview
UPSC Exam Pattern: The civil services exam conducted by UPSC is one of the prestigious exams in the country. Candidates must go through the UPSC civil services exam pattern before starting preparation to get familiarized with the marking scheme and paper type at different stages.
Overview of the UPSC Exam Pattern: The UPSC civil services exam comprises 3 stages - Prelims, Mains & Interview. The Prelims paper consists of 2 papers in objective mode (MCQs-based paper) - GS & CSAT, In which GS comprises subjects like history, economy, polity, environment, geography, and current affairs and CSAT has subjects like maths, reasoning, and English. The Mains section contains 9 papers - 2 language papers (Qualifying in nature), 1 Essay paper, 4 GS papers, and 2 Optional papers. Then, the interview is the final stage of UPSC CSE that contains 275 marks.
Total Marks in UPSC: Prelims: The prelims stage has 2 papers - GS & CSAT. GS has 100 questions and each question carries 2 marks which makes a total of 200 marks. In CSAT, there are 80 questions and each question carries 2.5 marks which makes a total of 200 marks.
Note: The prelims stage is just qualifying in nature and the marks are not counted in final merit.
Mains: The merit section in UPSC CSE contains 7 descriptive papers and 1 Interview session. The descriptive paper contains (UPSC mains total marks) 1750 marks (250 each) and the interview contains 275 marks, hence, the total marks calculated in the final list is 2025 marks.
The civil services exam pattern has been changed multiple times by the UPSC. In 2011, Optional paper was discontinued that was conducted at the preliminary level in objective type. And 2 papers of objective type were introduced in the preliminary stage and the marks of both papers were calculated for the merit. After the recommendation of Prof. Arun Nigavekar's Committee in 2013, the list of optional subjects was revised and 4 conventional papers of General Studies of 250 marks and 2 papers of optional of 250 marks each were introduced. In 2014, the Commission increased the number of attempts from 4 to 6 attempts and the upper age limit from 30 to 32 years. In 2015, General Studies Paper -2 became qualifying in nature and requires 33% to qualify.
The journey of the UPSC civil services examination begins with the Preliminary exam, where candidates initially go through the General Studies paper. Paper -1 (GS) carries 100 questions from topics like - current affairs, polity, History, economics, geography, ecology & environment, and each question carries 2 marks for the correct answer, making it a total of 400 marks. The duration of each paper is 2 hours and both papers are conducted on the same day in two sessions. The marks in GS paper -1 are calculated for the merit and qualified candidates get an opportunity to write UPSC CSE Mains.
CSAT Exam Pattern -But CSAT (paper -2) is qualifying only and carries 80 questions from topics like - Maths, Reasoning, and English comprehension, which means candidates just need to score 33% in CSAT to qualify for the next stage, which is UPSC CSE mains.
| Paper | Duration | Questions | Marks | Nature of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS | 2 Hours | 100 Questions | 200 | Merit (Cut-Off) |
| CSAT | 2 Hours | 80 Questions | 200 | Qualifying (33%) |
To qualify for the mains examination, aspirants need to score marks more than the cut-off in GS Paper, and to qualify for the CSAT, aspirants need to score 33%. Calculate your marks in prelims - UPSC Marks Calculator.
UPSC Prelims syllabus is divided into 2 parts - GS & CSAT. Both papers are conducted in two sessions in a single day. In the first session, GS paper 1 is conducted with a duration of 2 hours, and In the second session, CSAT is conducted with a duration of 2 hours.
GS (General Studies) includes a wide range of subjects like history, polity, economy, environment, and current affairs. The paper 1 of prelims contains 100 questions and each question carries 2 marks and for incorrect answers, there is a negative marking of 1/3rd of the total marks (that is 0.66 marks in paper 1).
| Paper | Duration | Questions | Marks | Nature of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS | 2 Hours | 100 Questions | 200 (2 Marks) | Merit (Cut-Off) |
| CSAT | 2 Hours | 80 Questions | 200 (2.5 Marks) | Qualifying (33%) |
Marking in CSAT - The General Studies Paper - 2 (CSAT) is qualifying in nature and requires 33% marks in this paper. CSAT(Civil Services Aptitude Test) includes maths, reasoning, and comprehension. The CSAT section contains 80 questions that carry 2.5 marks for the right answer and 1/3rd negative marks for each incorrect answer (that is 0.83 marks in paper 2).
| Total Questions | 80 |
| Total Marks | 200 Marks |
| Negative Marks | 1/3rd Marks (0.83 marks) |
Candidates who clear the preliminary stage of UPSC civil services are eligible to sit for the mains stage. The Mains stage of UPSC CSE comprises 9 papers. The first 2 papers are language papers - that are compulsory but qualifying in nature. The candidate needs to score 25% in language papers to qualify. The 7 merit papers are 1 essay, 4 GS, & 2 Optional which carry 1750 marks, and marks scored in these 7 papers are counted for the final merit, and qualified candidates are called for the interview round.
The 2 compulsory language papers are English and a regional language paper. The duration of the paper is 3 hours and it carries 300 marks. Both papers are qualifying in nature and require 25% for qualification. In the regional language paper, Candidates have to write answers in the regional language.
The essay paper carries 250 marks and the candidate has to write on any 2 questions in 1000-1200 words each and each question carries 125 marks. The duration of the exam is 3 hours. The marks in the essay paper are calculated for merit.
The General Studies paper comprises 4 papers - GS1, GS2, GS3 & GS4. Each paper consists of 20 questions. The first 10 questions carry 10 marks and have a word limit of 150 words and the last 10 questions carry 15 marks and have a word limit of 250 words. The duration of each paper is 3 hours and the total marks are 250 for each paper. The marks in these papers are calculated for merit.
There are a total of 48 optional subjects in UPSC CSE. Candidates have to choose one optional subject from the list. There are 2 papers for optional and each paper requires in-depth knowledge of the subject. The duration of each paper is 3 hours and each paper carries 250 marks. And the marks of optional papers are calculated for merit.
| Paper | Duration | Marks | Nature of Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Language (Paper A) | 3 Hours | 300 | Qualifying |
| English Language (Paper B) | 3 Hours | 300 | |
| Essay | 3 Hours | 250 | Count For Merit |
| GS Paper 1 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 2 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 3 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| GS Paper 4 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Optional Paper 1 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Optional Paper 2 | 3 Hours | 250 | |
| Total Mains Marks | 1750 Marks | ||
| Interview / Personality Test | 275 Marks | ||
| Total | 2025 Marks | ||
Qualifying Paper: The two language papers in the UPSC CSE mains exam are qualifying in nature, which means aspirants are required to score 25% in those language papers.
Merit-based Paper: To qualify for the interview round of the UPSC civil services, candidates must score the specified marks in merit papers {Essay, GS 1, 2, 3 &4 and Optional (Paper 1 & 2)}.
| Prelims | Mains | |
|---|---|---|
| Papers | 2 (Qualifying) | 9 {2 (Qualifying) +7 (Merit)} |
| Marks | 400 (200 each) | 2350 {300x2 + 250x7} |
| Type | Objective | Subjective |
| Negative Marking | 1/3rd | No |
| Duration | 2 Hours (each) | 3 Hours (each) |
Did You Know: If aspirants fail to score 25% in the language paper, then the rest of the paper's marks will not be disclosed by the UPSC.
The optional section of UPSC CSE mains carries 500 marks. This section is divided into 2 papers and each paper carries 250 marks. Here is the list of optional papers:
| 1. Agriculture | 2. Anthropology | 3. Chemistry | 4. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | 5. Botany |
| 6. Geology | 7. Law | 8. Mathematics | 9. History | 10. Management |
| 11. Psychology | 12. Sociology | 13. Zoology | 14. Public Administration | 15. Statistics |
| 16. Commerce & Accountancy | 17. Electrical Engineering | 18. Civil Engineering | 19. Economics | 20. Geography |
| 21. Medical Science | 22. Physics | 23. Mechanical Engineering | 24. Philosophy | 25. Political Science and International Relations |
| 26. Literature (English + Languages Mentioned in Schedule - 8): Bengali, Dogri, Hindi, Kashmiri, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Punjabi, Santhali, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, and English. | ||||
Candidates who qualify for the mains stage are called for the Interview round at Dholpur house in New Delhi. This is the last and final round for the UPSC civil services mainly assessing the candidate's suitability for a career in civil services and adaptability to handle administrative roles. The interview round carries 275 marks and counts for merit in the final result. The total marks of those 7 qualifying papers in the mains stage (1750) and 1 interview round (275 marks) are counted for the final merit list.