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 Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Revenue Service (IRS) among others.

 

Eligibility

The eligibility norms for the examination are as follows:[1]

Nationality

• For the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Police Service, a candidate must be a citizen of India.

• For the Indian Revenue Service, a candidate must be one of the following:

  • A citizen of India

  • a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India

• For other services, a candidate must be one of the following:

  • A citizen of India

  • A citizen of Nepal or a subject of Bhutan

  • a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India

 

Education

All candidates must have a minimum of any of the following educational qualifications:

• A degree from a Central, State or Deemed university[1]

• A degree received through Correspondence Education or Distance

• A degree from an Open University[3]

• A qualification recognized by the Government of India as being

equivalent to either of the above[1] The following candidates are also eligible, but have to submit proof of their eligibility from a competent authority at their institute/university at the time of the main examination, failing which they will not be allowed to attend the exam.[1]

• Candidates who have appeared in an examination, the passing of which

would render them educationally qualified enough to satisfy any of the above points[4]

• Candidates who have passed the final exam of the MBBS degree but

have not yet completed their internship

• Candidates who have passed the Final exam of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI), ICSI and ICWAI

• A degree from a private university

• A degree from any foreign university recognized by Association of

Indian Universities (AIU) .

 

Age

A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on August 1 of the year of examination. Prescribed age limits vary with respect to the caste reservations. For OBC category upper age limit is 35, and for SC/ST it is 37 years. Upper age limit relaxation[5] is provided to certain candidates who are backward with respect to other factors and physically handicapped people.

 

Exam Pattern

The is conducted in two phases - the Preliminary examination, consisting of two objective-type papers (General Studies and Aptitude Test), and the Main examination, consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type followed by the Personality Test (Interview).

1. Preliminary examination

The new pattern includes two papers of two hours duration and 200 marks each. Both papers have multiple choice objective type questions only.They are as under:

• Paper I tests the candidate's knowledge on current events, history of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World Geography, Indian Policy and governance, Economic and social development, environmental ecology, biodiversity, climate change and general science.[8] To qualify minimum marks should be 30.

• Paper II tests the candidates' skills in comprehension, interpersonal skills, communication, logical reasoning, analytical ability, decision making, problem solving, basic numeracy, data interpretation, English language comprehension skills and mental ability.[8] To qualify minimum marks should be 70.

 

 

2.Mains

 

The Civil Services Mains Examination consists of a written examination and an interview.

 

The written examination consists of nine papers, two qualifying and seven ranking in nature.[1] The range of questions may vary from just one mark to sixty marks, twenty words to 600 words answers. Candidates who pass qualifying papers are ranked according to marks and a selected number of candidates are called for interview or a personality test at the Commission's discretion.

 

Paper

Subject

Marks

• Paper A

One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.

(Qualifying) 300 marks

 

• Paper B

English

(Qualifying) 300 marks

 

• Paper I

Essay

250 marks

 

• Paper II

General Studies I ((Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society)

250 marks

 

• Paper III

General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)

250 marks

 

• Paper IV

General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security andDisaster Management)

250 marks

 

• Paper V

General Studies IV(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)

250 marks

 

• Papers VI, VII

Any one subject (having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects

(250 marks for each paper)500

 

Sub Total (Written Test) 1750 marks

Personality Test (Interview) 275 marks

Total Marks    2025 marks

 

 

List of optional subjects for Main Examination:

 

Agriculture

Geography

Physics

botany

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

Geology

Political Science and International Relations

Anthropology

History

Psychology

Botany

LawPublic

Administration

Chemistry

Management

Sociology

Civil Engineering

Mathematics

Statistics

Commerce and Accountancy

Mechanical Engineering

Zoology

Economics

Medical Science

Literature of any one of the following languages in 8th sechudule

Electrical

Engineering

Philosophy

 

Vacancies and Selection

Generally the number of vacancies varies every year. In the preliminary examination, the number of candidate selected for the mains is 11 or 12 times the number of vacancies and in case of the main examination, the number of candidates selected for the interview is twice the number of vacancies. As per existing policies, reservation for SC/ST/OBC is applied to each level of the selection process. For example, if the number of vacancies in a given year is 1000, and 100,000 candidates appear for the preliminary examination; the top 11,000 or 12,000 scorers will be selected for the mains and similarly, out of those 12,000 only the top 2,000 scorers will be called for the interview subject to their respective reservation quota.

In 2006, around 400,000 candidates applied for fewer than 500 vacancies and around 7,500 got through the preliminary and appeared in the Mains exam. In 2010, 5,47,698 candidates appeared for the preliminary exam.[8]

To secure a place in the highly sought after Indian Administrative Service (IAS), a candidate must secure a rank in the top 70, a success rate of around 0.025 percent.

The number of vacancies in 2011 was approximately 880kk.

 

IAS 2015 Application Fee:

 

Candidates are required to pay an application fee of Rs 100 (rupees hundered only). 

 

Mode of Payment: 

 

•Cash payment at any Branch of SBI. 

•Payment through net banking facility of State Bank of India/State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur/State Bank of Hyderabad/State Bank of Mysore/ State Bank of Patiala /State Bank of Travancore 

•Visa/Master Credit/Debit Card.

 

(Female/SC/ST and PH category candidates who are exempted from payment of application fee). 

 

Syllabus

To download complete IAS syllabus Click here

 

Exam Centers

AGARTALA

GHAZIABAD

GAUTAM BUDDH NAGAR

AGRA

GORAKHPUR

PANAJI (GOA)

AJMER

GURGAON

PATNA

AHMEDABAD

GWALIOR

PORT BLAIR

AIZAWL

HYDERABAD

PUDUCHERRY

ALIGARH

IMPHAL

PUNE

ALLAHABAD

INDORE

RAIPUR

ANANTHAPURU

ITANAGAR

RAJKOT

AURANGABAD

JABALPUR

RANCHI

BENGALURU

JAIPUR

SAMBALPUR

BAREILLY

JAMMU

SHILLONG

BHOPAL

JODHPUR

SHIMLA

BILASPUR

JORHAT

SILIGURI

CHANDIGARH

KOCHI

SRINAGAR

CHENNAI

KOHIMA

THANE

COIMBATORE

KOLKATA

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

CUTTACKK

OZHIKODE (CALICUT)

TIRUCHIRAPALLI

DEHRADUN

LUCKNOW

TIRUPATI

DELHI

LUDHIANA

UDAIPUR

DHARWAR

MADURAI

VARANASI

DISPUR

MUMBAI

VELLORE

FARIDABAD

MYSURU

VIJAYAWADA

GANGTOK

NAGPUR

VISHAKHAPATNAM

GAYA

NAVI MUMBAI