To be eligible for becoming an Indian Police Services Officer , applicants must possess a degree from an Indian University

Applicants in the final year of a degree course can also appear in the Preliminary Examination taken every year by Union Public Service Commission

Applicants should have attained the age of 21 years

The upper age limit is also relaxed in favour of Defense Services Personnel.

The upper age limit will be relaxed by 3 years for OBC Applicants and 5 years for SC/ST Applicants

Union Public Service Commission conducts exam.

The exam has three phases
Preliminary exam
Main exam
Interview

There two parts to the preliminary exam. Both are objective in nature.

The first paper deals with General Studies and the second one with the selected optional subjects.

The main exam has a total of nine papers.

The first paper is on English and the second an Indian language.

The third is an essay paper.

The fourth and fifth are on general studies.

The last four are on the two selected subjects.

The interview happens in April-May

List of optional subjects for Main Examination:

(i) Mathematics
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Agriculture
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
(xxv) Literature of any one of the following languages:

Hindi, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.