The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) among other

Phases of the Civil Service Exam

Phase I: Preliminary examination - A qualifying test advertisied in Feb–March and held in June–July each year. Results are published in mid-August.

Phase II: Main examination - Held in October every year. Results are usually published in the second week of March.

Phase III: Personality Test (intervieww) - held in December each year. Final results are usually announced in May .

The training program for the selected candidates usually commences the September.

Preliminary Exam

UPSC Prelims Exam Papers Duration Questions Marks
Paper I – General Studies: 2 Hours 100 200
Paper II – Aptitude: 2 Hours 80 200


Syllabus
General Studies Paper I Syllabus
Current events of national and international importance
History of India and Indian national movement
Indian and World Geography- Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the world
Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political system, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights issues, etc.
Economic and Social development – sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives etc.
General issues on environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate change-that donot require subject specialization
General science

Aptitude Syllabus
Comprehension
Interpersonal skills including communication skills
Logical reasoning and analytical ability
Decision making and problem solving
General mental ability
Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude etc.) (Class X level), Data Interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level)
Questions relating to English Language Comprehension skills of Class X level. (will be tested through passages from English language only without providing Hindi translation)