Union Public Service commission or widely known as UPSC is a constitutional body of India, tasked with conducting exams to fill top positions is various government departments and administration.
In this article we will discuss everything related to UPSC Civil Services examinitation's preliminary and mains syllabus, maximum marks, duration and nature.
UPSC CSE exam pattern
UPSC CSE exam is conducted in three stages, Preliminary, Mains and Interview, Preliminary is just a shortlisting stage, while Mains and Interview marks collectively determines final merit and rank, more details below:
UPSC CSE Preliminary syllabus
Preliminary exam consists of two papers, each 200 Marks and 2 Hour duration, marks obtained in this stage are not considered for final rank. Here only GS paper 1, determines qualification of a candidate for mains exam while GS paper 2 is qualifying in nature, one has to score 33% marks in it.
| Paper |
Max Marks |
Duration |
Nature |
| GS Paper 1 |
200 |
2 Hours |
Determines entry for mains |
| GS Paper 2 |
200 |
2 Hours |
Qualifing in nature, need to score 33% marks only |
UPSC CSE Preliminary - GS Paper 1 Syllabus
UPSC provided preliminary syllabus for GS Paper 1 is not given in details, one can simply refer to mains syllabus based in subjects mentioned, the brief syllabus provided by UPSC is given below:
1) Current events of national and international importance.
2) History of India and Indian National Movement.
3) Indian and World Geography ? Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
4) Indian Polity and Governance ? Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
5) Economic and Social Development Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
6) General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change ? that do not require subject specialization.
7) General Science.
UPSC CSE Preliminary - GS Paper 2 Syllabus
UPSC provided preliminary syllabus for GS Paper 2 includes three subject broadly, Qiantitative Apptitude, Comprehension and Reasoning, recently UPSC has also asked barchart and tabular based questions as well, GS Paper 2 syllabus provided by UPSC is given below:
1) Comprehension.
2) Interpersonal skills including communication skills.
3) Logical reasoning and analytical ability.
4) Decision-making and problem-solving.
5) General mental ability.
6) Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. ? Class X level).
UPSC CSE Mains syllabus
Mains exam consists of a total of 9 papers, Essay, GS1, GS2, GS3, GS4, Optional 1, Optional 2, Indian Language Paper and English language Paper. The main exam has 1750 marks.
UPSC CSE Mains GS Syllabus
UPSC CSE Mains Optional Subjects Syllabus
UPSC CSE Interview
The interview is a face to face process which evaluates a candidate?s potential and commitment to the society. The interview is out of 275 marks. Final ranks are calculated by adding Mains (Out of 1750) and Interview marks (Out of 275) and the rank list will be prepared based on marks scored out of 2025.
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