About IAS Exam

Civil Services Exam

Eligibility Criteria

Civil Services Exam Eligibility Criteria: Union Public Service Commission’s (UPSC) Civil Services Examination eligibility details are mentioned below…

1. Age Limit: A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on 1st August, 2019, i.e. he must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1987 and not later than 1st August, 1998.
   The upper age limit relaxations given below.
   • The Age relax able for SC, ST’S candidates 5 years
   • Age relax able for OBC candidates 3 years
   • Age relax able for 3 years in case of defense services personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or disturbed area.
   • 5 years Age relax able for Ex-service men including commissioned officers and ECOs/ SSCOs who have completed an initial period of a assignment of 5 years military service. (As on 01 August, 2008)
   • 5 years age relax able in the case of ECOs/ SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of 5 years of military service.(As on 01 August, 2008).
   • Ten years age relaxation for blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, locomotors disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy, autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness and deaf-blindness candidates.
2. Minimum Educational Qualification: The candidate must hold a Degree of any of 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:
   • Candidates who have appeared at an examination the passing of which would render them educationally qualified for the Commission’s examination but have not been informed of the results as also the candidates who intend to appear at such a qualifying examination will also be eligible for admission to the Preliminary Examination.
   • In exceptional cases the Union Public Service Commission may treat a candidate who does not have any of the foregoing qualifications as a qualified candidate provided that he/ she has passed examination conducted by the other Institutions, the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission justifies his/ her admission to the examination.
   • Candidates possessing professional and technical qualifications which are recognized by Government as equivalent to professional and technical degree would also be eligible for admission to the examination.
   • Candidates who have passed the final professional M.B.B.S. or any other Medical Examination 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 Examination provided they submit along with their application a copy of certificate from the concerned authority of the University/ Institution.
3. Number of Attempts: Maximum of 6 attempts are allowed. No restriction for SC, ST candidates and 9 attempts are allowed for OBC, Physically handicapped candidate belonging to the General Category.
4. Physical Standards: The candidate must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Civil Services Examination.

Exam Pattern

Civil Services Exam consists of 2 stages

1. Preliminary Examination (Objective Type)
2. Main Examination (Written and Interview)

1. Preliminary Examination:
   The Examination shall comprise two compulsory papers of 200 marks each.
   1. Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions).
   2. The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English
   3. Each paper will be of two hours duration
      Blind candidates will however be allowed an extra time of twenty minutes at each paper
   NOTE:
   • The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, shall thus comprise of two compulsory papers of which Paper-I will be of 200 marks and Paper II will be of 200 marks.
   • Final merit for qualifying the candidates for the Civil Services (Main) Written Examination will be drawn by using the aggregate marks obtained in Paper-I out of 200 marks and marks obtained in Paper-II out of 200 marks.
2. Main Examination:
   
   1. 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	Subject	Max. Marks
      Paper-I	Essay	250
      Paper-II	General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)	250
      Paper-III	General Studies-II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)	250
      Paper-IV	General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)	250
      Paper-V	General Studies-IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)	250
      Paper-VI	Optional subject Paper-I	250
      Paper-VII	Optional subject Paper-II	250
      Sub-total	Written Test	1750
      	Personality Test	275
      	Grand Total	2025

      Note:

      1. 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.
      2. The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidate hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
      3. 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.

      List of optional subjects for Main Examination:

      1. Agriculture
      2. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
      3. Anthropology
      4. Botany
      5. Chemistry
      6. Civil Engineering
      7. Commerce and Accountancy
      8. Economics
      9. Electrical Engineering
      10. Geography
      11. Geology
      12. History
      13. Law
      14. Management
      15. Mathematics
      16. Mechanical Engineering
      17. Medical Science
      18. Philosophy
      19. Physics
      20. Political Science and International Relations
      21. Psychology
      22. Public Administration
      23. Sociology
      24. Statistics
      25. Zoology
      26. Literature of any one 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 and English.

      Note:

      1. The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
      2. Each paper will be of three hours duration.
      3. Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the qualifying language papers Paper -A and Paper-B, in any of the languages included in the Eighth schedule to the constitution of India or in English.
      4. The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
   2. Personality Test / Interview: The maximum marks for interview is 275 marks. The candidate will be interviewed by a Board of competent and unbiased observers who will have before them a record of his/ her career. The object of the Interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for the Service. The candidate will be expected to have taken an intelligent interest not only in his/ her subjects of academic study but also in events which are happening around him/ her both within and outside his/ her own state or country, as well as in modem currents of thoughts and in new discoveries which should rouse the curiosity of well educated youth
   3. Final Selection: 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.