Union Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination, abbreviated as UPSC CSE, is an ALL INDIA EXAM conducted by the union public service commission to recruit qualified candidates into the various posts of Indian civil services like IAS IPS, IFS, IRS, etc.
Candidates who aspire to become civil servants take this examination and work very hard to reach the last examination stage. This particular exam is considered to be one of the toughest exams in India. UPSC CSE is the only exam in India which is conducted for almost 1 year.
Stages of UPSC CSE
UPSC CSE is conducted in 3 stages
1. Preliminary exam (shortly called as prelims)
2. Mains exam
3. Personality test (personal interview)
1. Preliminary Exam
The preliminary exam is the 1st stage of UPSC CSE. One has to get qualified for this exam to step into the next stage. This exam consists of 2 papers, each of 200 marks; on a total of 400 marks. 2 hours of duration is given to attempt each paper. One paper is conducted in the morning session and the other in the afternoon session. These papers are complete of objective type, where MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) are given. One needs to select one option from the given options.
1st paper contains questions regarding general awareness and current affairs.
2nd paper contains the questions regarding aptitude and analytical skills, which also includes the general English
2nd paper is of qualifying nature, and its score is not counted for merit.
No. of papers: 2
Marks :
paper 1:- 100
paper 2:- 100
Duration :
paper 1:- 2 hours
paper 2:- 2 hours
2. Mains
Mains is the 2nd stage of UPSC CSE. One needs to get qualified in Prelims to attempt the Mains exam. This exam is conducted for 5 (4.5) days. Here, the candidate needs to attempt 9 papers, each of duration, 3 hours.
The first paper is regarding any Indian language listed in the 8th schedule of the Indian constitution. The candidate needs to select any one language.
The second paper is all about the language English.
The first and second papers each carry 300 marks.
Next comes Paper 1, which is generally called Essay paper. Here one needs to write the essays as per the questions asked. This paper carries a total of 250 marks.
Paper 2 to 4, i.e., paper 2, paper 3, paper 4, paper 5, are of general studies, each carrying 250 marks. The total score of General studies is 1000 marks.
Paper 6 and paper 7 are optional subjects. The candidate needs to select one subject from the list of optional subjects and attempt two papers, i.e., paper 6 and paper 7, each comprising 250 marks.
Note: ALL THE MAINS PAPERS HAVE the SAME DURATION OF TIME
Paper-A and Paper-B are of qualifying nature and, therefore, are not counted in merit.
| PAPER | TOPIC | MARKS | DURATION |
| Paper-A | Indian language | 300 | 3 hours |
| Paper-B | English | 300 | 3 hours |
| Paper-1 | Essay | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-2 | General Studies-1 | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-3 | General Studies-2 | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-4 | General Studies-3 | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-5 | General Studies-4 | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-6 | Optional subject | 250 | 3 hours |
| Paper-7 | Optional subject | 250 | 3 hours |
| TOTAL MARKS |
2350-900=1750 |
3. Personality test (Interview)
This is the 3rd stage of the exam. It is purely an interview where the candidate is tested in various aspects. There is no fixed duration of time for the interview, but generally, candidates are interviewed for almost 30 minutes. This stage carries 275 marks.
This is all about the UPSC CSE. Hope this information is helpful.
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