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UPSC Exam Pattern 2024: Prelims, Mains, and Interview – A Comprehensive Overview

PWOnlyIAS December 05, 2023 05:36 1963 0

The UPSC Exam 2024 consists of three stages: Preliminary Examination, Mains Examination, and Personality Test. Prelims is a screening test with two papers. Mains includes 7 descriptive papers and language papers. The Personality Test is the final interview stage.

UPSC Exam Pattern 2024: Prelims, Mains, and Interview – A Comprehensive Overview

UPSC Exam Pattern: Stage of Prelims, Mains, Personality Test

Stage of Examination Description
Stage 1 Preliminary Examination
Stage 2 Mains Examination
Stage 3 Personality Test

Decoding Each Stage in the UPSC Civil Service Examination

Stage I: UPSC Exam Pattern – UPSC Prelims

  • First Stage: Prelims is the first stage of the UPSC Civil Service Examination process. It is basically a screening test to select the students for the next stage of the Exam Process. 
  • Objective Paper: The Preliminary exam comprises two objective-type papers of 200 marks each. 
  • General Studies Paper: Only those who manage to score more than the cut-off declared by the UPSC for that particular year will be selected for the next stage of the examination. 
  • CSAT Paper: The Civil Services Aptitude Test is a qualifying paper wherein a student needs to get atleast 33% marks (66/250) in the CSAT Paper
  • Role in Exam Process: However, the marks scored in Prelims will not be counted for arriving at the final merit list.
  • Negative Marking in UPSC
    • There will be a negative marking in UPSC of 1/3 of the mark allotted to that question.
    • This means for IAS Prelims Paper 1, there will be a negative marking of 0.66.
    • For CSAT, the negative marking will be 0.83.

Stage II: UPSC Exam Pattern – UPSC Mains

  • Second Stage: The Main exam is the next stage in the Civil Services Selection Process. 
  • 7 Descriptive Papers: Mains exam comprises 7 descriptive papers namely an Essay paper, 4 General Studies Papers, 2 Optional Papers (of own choice to be selected from the list of Civil Services Exam Optional Subjects), 
  • 2 Language Papers: There are 2 language papers (qualifying papers wherein candidates need to score at least 25% in each paper in order to qualify).
  • Exemptions to Language Paper: The paper A on Indian Language will not, however, be compulsory for candidates hailing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim. 
Descriptive Paper of UPSC Exam Pattern Details of UPSC Exam Pattern
Paper I
  • Essay 
Paper II
  • General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, history and geography of the world and society)
Paper III
  • General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social justice, and International Relations)
Paper IV
  • General Studies III (Technology, economic development, biodiversity, environment, security and disaster management)
Paper V
  • General Studies IV (Ethics, integrity and aptitude)
Papers VI, VII
  • Two papers on subjects to be selected by the candidate from the list of optional subjects below (250 marks for each paper)
Language Paper (A)
  • One of the Indian languages (listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India) mentioned below to be selected by the candidate (Qualifying)
Language Paper (B)
  • English (Qualifying)

 

Stage III: UPSC Exam Pattern – UPSC Interview/Personality Test

  • The final and most important step in the cycle of the exam is the UPSC Interview/ Personality Test. 
  • The interview is of 275 marks, for a maximum possible score of 2025. 

UPSC Exam Scoring: Decoding Paper Marks and Interview

Papers Subjects Marks
Paper A One of the Indian languages (listed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India) mentioned below to be selected by the candidate (Qualifying) 300
Paper B English (Qualifying) 300
Paper I Essay 250
Paper II General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, history and geography of the world and society) 250
Paper III General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social justice and international relations) 250
Paper IV General Studies III (Technology, economic development, biodiversity, environment, security and disaster management) 250
Paper V General Studies IV (ethics, integrity and aptitude) 250
Papers VI, VII Two papers on subjects to be selected by the candidate from the list of optional subjects below (250 marks for each paper) 250
Sub Total (Written Test) 1750
Personality Test (Interview) 275
Total Marks 2025

 

Must Read
NCERT Notes For UPSC UPSC Daily Current Affairs
UPSC Blogs UPSC Daily Editorials
Daily Current Affairs Quiz Daily Main Answer Writing
UPSC Mains Previous Year Papers UPSC Test Series 2024

 

UPSC Exam Pattern FAQs

As per the UPSC Official Notification, the total marks of the IAS exam would be 2025, out of which the Mains exam carries 1750, and the interview round has 275 marks.

No, Candidates should remember that the prelims stage is only the screening test to find eligible candidates for the next round (Mains), hence marks scored in the Preliminary exam will not be counted in the final result

7 Descriptive Papers: Mains exam comprises 7 descriptive papers namely an Essay paper, 4 General Studies Papers, 2 Optional Papers (of own choice to be selected from the list of Civil Services Exam Optional Subjects), 2 Language Papers: There are 2 language papers (qualifying papers wherein candidates need to score at least 25% in each paper in order to qualify).

The final and most important step in the cycle of the exam is the UPSC Interview/ Personality Test. The interview is of 275 marks, for a maximum possible score of 2025.

Stage of Examination Description Stage 1 Preliminary Examination Stage 2 Mains Examination Stage 3 Personality Test
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Quick Revise Now !
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD SOON
UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
Integration of PYQ within the booklet
Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध
Quick Revise Now !
UDAAN PRELIMS WALLAH
Comprehensive coverage with a concise format
Integration of PYQ within the booklet
Designed as per recent trends of Prelims questions
हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध

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