Hello, .

UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-

Preliminary: First Stage is MCQs based exam, it has two papers and each one consists of 200 marks,its numbers ain't added to final list, you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

First is GS Paper-I which consists of topics such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change. you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

Second Paper is CSAT which is qualifying by nature, you need to score merely 33% which is 66 marks out of 200, it includes following topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills.

Mains: This is a second stage which it's more of a subjective type, you are required to write answers for Four General Studies Paper such as

GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society, since last past three year more than 75 marks comes from topics pertaining to social issue or society,

GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations, you can link the question of governance with constitutional ideals, policy of the government, articles, supreme court cases, Law Commission reports, NCRWS report, Committee of UN/IMF/World Bank,

GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management, put emphasis on economic survey, introduce SDG wherever possible, map preparation helps in this regard,

GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude, here focus upon the theory part also along with case studies by showing real life example, you can refer betterindia.com (//betterindia.com) for various inspirational stories to write in mains answer sheet.

There're Two Optionals, One Essay, Two Language Paper, In total there are nine papers in Mains, and each paper is of 250 marks, total adds up to 1750 marks.

Interview : The two stages are further followed by personality test of 275 marks.

In order to initiate your preparation, firstly get well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus , learn it by heart as this will enable you to know what to read and what to skip.

As per the recent trends UPSC is framing Prelims questions also based on Mains syllabus, so have an integrated approach towards the preparation

To cover such a humongous syllabus you will have to make a timetable, set targets on a daily,weekly and monthly basis, that's the only way to complete this extensive syllabus.

Newspaper reading is equally vital part of preparation, you can start with any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part. Put a more emphasis on editorial part, it will not only broaden your perspective but help a lot in answer writing,and make sure whatever opinion you form it should be well balanced. You can also make notes of this,it'll be very useful in answer writing.

When it comes to reading books ,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. This will build your foundation strong, as you progress, move on to other relevant books as mentioned below;

For Prelims, you can refer the following books:

History ; NCERT Class XI and XII. India's Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra, For Indian Culture, refer art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Geography ;, NCERT Class VI to XII, GC Leong's Physical Geography, World Atlas

Economics ; NCERT Class XI, Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

International Relations & Polity ; NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs, Indian Polity by Laxmikanth

CSAT ; Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Agarwal, M Tyra's Quicker Maths

Coming to Mains Exam, you can refer the following books for four General Studies Paper;

GS I - For History , Class XI NCERT book with India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra,India after Independence by Bipan Chandra,History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra, For Geography refer World Geography and Geography of India by Majid Hussain, GC Leong's Physical and Human Geography with NCERT Class XI book.

For GS II - Polity and International Relations , refer Indian Polity by Lamikanth,India's Foreign Policy by Rajiv Sikri

For GS III - For Economics refer Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, read ARC report along with Economic Survey and Fiscal Budget.

For GS IV - For Ethics refer a book named Lexicon by Niraj Kumar, also you can go through study material of IGNOU.

Remember to keep your resources minimal, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time, revision is the only key for remembrance.

Writing mains is a huge task, for nine paper it requires immense practice along with knowledge. So, you have to start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can avail that. Try to give a holistic viewpoint while answer writing by providing political,economical and social aspect. You can get topper's answer sheet from various sites, try to analyze and study them minutely, you'll get an ideas about what to write, how to express and present viewpoint in organized manner.

Practice previous year question paper which you can get from the official website of UPSC,in addition mock papers, and test series which you can get it from any of the sites exclusively dedicated to UPSC, it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.

Hello Aspirant ,

I assume that you are asking about UPSC CSE(Union Public Service Commission Civil Services Examination ) .

No , you will not be eligible for UPSC 2025 as the age limit for this exam requires a student to be of minimum 21 years of age as of 1st August of the year of examination but you will be 21 after this age limit that is on 15 December 2025 ,you do not qualify this age limit .

You will be eligible for UPSC 2026 .

For more information visit :

https://competition.careers360.com/exams/upsc-civil-services-exam

Hope this helps.

Hello,

When it comes to eligibility criteria for UPSC Civil Service Examination, then candidates need to pass graduation in any discipline from a recognized university, candidates in the final year of graduation too are eligible to apply provisionally, the minimum age required regarding this is 21 years as on 1st August of the appearing year, now coming to your question, if you're currently in Xth standard then there is long time for UPSC, next two years of school, and three/four/five years of graduation depending upon the duration of the course you will choose, anyway see there is no such restrictions of belonging to specific stream for qualifying UPSC, yes people from arts/humanities background havee advantage of being acquainted with the syllabus as in they already have studied history, political science, geography, economics etc at 10+2 and graduation level, and there  is considerable overlap with the syllabus of GS and optional paper, however if you go by previous year trends of toppers they come from diverse backgrounds as that of medical, engineering, commerce etc, so choose stream at 10+2 level as per your interest, aptitude, skill etc, if you have interest in humanities group, go for the same, and if in future you have interest for graduation in political science, history, sociology, public administration, economics, law, geography etc, you may follow this route, else if you want to have back up then there is engineering, management, medical to name a few, it's not your stream selection which is the factor in deciding the success of any candidates, rather it's his/her single minded focus, determination, discipline, perseverance which pays off, so think thoroughly what you intend to do, you want to appear for with or without back up plan.

Hi aspirant,

The date of birth mentioned by you is not valid and does we cannot predict whether you would be eligible for writing the UPSC examination in 2025 or not in terms of age limitations. If your age would lie between 21 to 32 years by the end of August 2025, you would be eligible for writing the UPSC examination because candidates in their final year or awaiting results, candidates are also eligible to appear for UPSC preliminary Examination.

Hope it helps!

Hi

Guessing you from general category .

Yes, you will be eligible for UPSC 2023 with your mentioned date of birth on 26th November 1991

This is because,

To be  eligible ,you  should not be more than  32 years  old  as on 1st August of the year of appearing for UPSC examination i.e as on 1st August 2023 for UPSC 2023 and you fulfill this criteria with your mentioned date of birth as  you will be 31 years old as on 1 August 2023 i. e less than 32 years and thus eligible.

For reference, UPSC eligibility  criteria is provided below:-

----------)You  must  have  a  bachelor's  degree in any, discipline    from a  recognised university.

----------) Minimum  age  limit :-  you  need to  be at least  21  years  old   to be  eligible as on 1st of August of the year of filling the form.

----------) Maximum  age  limit :-as on 1st August of the year of examination

• General category :-32 years

• Obc :- there's 3  year  relaxation on upper age limit for  obc , so upper age limit is 35.

• Sc/st :- 5 years relaxation, so upper age limit is 37.

For detailed  information related to UPSC eligibility criteria ,  you can visit our page at

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria/amp

To help you further, here's a brief of your UPSC examination pattern

Your UPSC civil services examination consists of three stages

********prelims exam :- it is objective paper and is of qualifying nature , so you just  need to at least qualify it to be eligible for mains examination, the score /marks obtained by you in your prelims examination is not added up or used in your final merit. Your prelims exam consist of 2 papers: -

-----) general studies  1

-----) general studies II ( csat )

You get 2 hours for each paper

********Mains exam. :- it is descriptive /written examination . There are a total of 9 papers  which are listed below:-

-----) compulsory indian language.

-----) english

-----) essay

-----) general studies I

-----) general studies II

-----) general studies III

-----) general studies IV

-----) optional I

-----) optional II

The compulsory indian language and english are qualifying in nature . You just need to qualify them. The marks obtained by you in these two papers will not be counted towards merit list.

*********Interview :- After qualifying mains, you have to go through interview round, and it is more of test of your personality rather than knowledge.

For detail examination pattern check out :- https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-exam-pattern

Thank you

Hello Aspirant,

See as per your Date of Birth your age in 2026 would be 19 years and the age limit for UPSC IAS exam is 21 year to 32 year with following age relaxation as per the reservation criteria of UPSC, so you will not be eligible to appear from UPSC 2026, but you can appear from UPSC 2028 :-

>>>> OBC - 3 years

>>>> SC/ ST - 5 years

>>>> Defense Services Personnel, who got disabled during operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence - 3 years

>>>> Ex-servicemen including Commissioned Officers (CO) and ECOs/ SSCOs who will render at least five years Military Service as of August 1, 2021, and have been released - 5 years

ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military Service as of 1st August 2021 - 5 years

>>>> In the following cases: blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, locomotor disability including acid attack, cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, victims and muscular dystrophy, intellectual disability, autism, specific learning disability and mental illness - 10 years

>>>> Candidates ordinarily domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir from January 1, 1981, to December 31, 1989. - 5 years

>>>> So as per the age criteria you are eligible for UPSC IAS exam from 2028 because the candidate should have crossed age of minimum 21 years on the August 1st of examination year.

You can check out the detailed eligibility criteria for UPSC IAS from the link given below :-

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria

I hope this information helps you.

Good Luck!!

Dear Student ,

Yes , you're eligible for UPSC exam 2023 as you'll be turned 22 at the time of application .

The basic eligibility criteria for UPSC CSE exam is :

• Should obtain graduation in any stream
• Age limit should be between 21 to 32 years
• Max number of attempts for General candidates : 6

To know more about the exam, refer this :

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria

Hope this helps !

Hi

Yes, you will be eligible for UPSC 2025 with your mentioned date of birth on 28th October 1990 being from obc

This is because,

To be  eligible ,you  should not be more than  35 years  old  as on 1st August of the year of appearing for UPSC examination being from obc i.e as on 1st August 2025 for UPSC 2025 and you fulfill this criteria with your mentioned date of birth as  you will be 34 years old as on 1 August 2025 i. e less than 35 years  and thus eligible.

For reference, UPSC eligibility  criteria is provided below:-

----------)You  must  have  a  bachelor's  degree in any, discipline    from a  recognised university.

----------) Minimum  age  limit :-  you  need to  be at least  21  years  old   to be  eligible as on 1st of August of the year of filling the form.

----------)  Maximum  age  limit :-as on 1st August of the year of examination

• General category :-32 years

• Obc :- there's 3  year  relaxation on upper age limit for  obc , so upper age limit is 35.

• Sc/st :- 5 years relaxation, so upper age limit is 37.

For detailed  information related to UPSC eligibility criteria ,  you can visit our page at

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria/amp

To help you further, here's a brief of your UPSC examination pattern

Your UPSC civil services examination consists of three stages

********prelims exam :- it is objective paper and is of qualifying nature , so you just  need to at least qualify it to be eligible for mains examination, the score /marks obtained by you in your prelims examination is not added up or used in your final merit. Your prelims exam consist of 2 papers: -

-----) general studies  1

-----) general studies II ( csat )

You get 2 hours for each paper

********Mains exam. :- it is descriptive /written examination . There are a total of 9 papers  which are listed below:-

-----) compulsory indian language.

-----) english

-----) essay

-----) general studies I

-----) general studies II

-----) general studies III

-----) general studies IV

-----) optional I

-----) optional II

The compulsory indian language and english are qualifying in nature . You just need to qualify them. The marks obtained by you in these two papers will not be counted towards merit list.

*********Interview :- After qualifying mains, you have to go through interview round, and it is more of test of your personality rather than knowledge.

For detail examination pattern check out :- https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-exam-pattern

Thank you

Hi

No, you are not eligible for UPSC 2023 with your mentioned date of birth  on 14th August 2002

This is because,

To be  eligible ,you  need to  be at least  21  years  old  as on 1st August of the year of appearing for UPSC examination i. e 1st August 2023 in case of  UPSC 2023 but you fail to fulfil this as you will be 21 years old on 14th August 2023 with your  date birth i. e after 1st August 2023 and thus not eligible for UPSC 2023

You will become eligible in 2024 i. e for UPSC 2024

For reference, UPSC eligibility  criteria is provided below:-

*******You  must  have  a  bachelor's  degree in any, discipline    from a  recognised university.

*******Minimum  age  limit :-  you  need to  be at least  21  years  old   to be  eligible as on 1st of August of the year of filling the form.

*******Maximum  age  limit :-  32 years , also there's 3  year  relaxation on upper age limit for  obc and of  5 years  for sc/st category.

********Attempt limit:- The maximum of times one can appear in UPSC is given below category wise :-

• General/ EWS - 6

• OBC or  General PwD - 9

• SC/ ST - No limit ,   can appear till upper age limit .

For detailed  information related to UPSC eligibility criteria ,  you can visit our page at

https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria/amp

To help you further,

UPSC Examination pattern is given below:-

Your UPSC civil services examination consists of three stages

*******prelims exam :- it is objective paper and is of qualifying nature , so you just  need to at least qualify it to be eligible for mains examination, the score /marks obtained by you in your prelims examination is not added up or used in your final merit. Your prelims exam consist of 2 papers: -

-) general studies  1

-) general studies II ( csat )

You get 2 hours for each paper

*******Mains exam. :- it is descriptive /written examination . There are a total of 9 papers  which are listed below:-

-) compulsory indian language.

-) english

-) essay

-) general studies I

-) general studies II

-) general studies III

-) general studies IV

-) optional I

-) optional II

The compulsory indian language and english are qualifying in nature .

*******Interview :- After qualifying mains, you have to go through interview round, and it is more of test of your personality rather than knowledge.

For detail examination pattern check out :- https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-exam-pattern

Thank you