Hello,

Hope you are doing good.

Coming to your question, There are three stages in the IAS selection process :

1. Stage I: Preliminary Examination (IAS Prelims)

2. Stage II: Mains Examination (IAS Mains)

3. Stage III: UPSC Personality Test (IAS Interview)

IAS Prelims

It is a qualifying exam and candidates have to get a minimum of 33 % to be qualified for the Mains.Consists of 2 compulsory papers- General Ability Test (GAT) and the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT). All questions are objective in nature with negative marking for each wrong answer, where One-third of marks allotted to each question is deducted for a wrong answer.

IAS Mains

It is a written descriptive examination and comprises 9 papers and these are as follows: Paper-A (Compulsory Indian Language); Paper –B (English) which are qualifying in nature, while the other papers like Essay, General Studies Papers I, II, III, and IV, and Optional Papers I and II are considered for the final ranking. Candidates who score above the prescribed cut-off marks in the IAS exam (Mains) will get the summons for the Personality Test. The final ranking is based on the marks obtained by the candidate  in the Main Examination and Personality Test/Interview Round of the IAS exam.

IAS Interview

This is a face-to-face discussion round with the board members where the candidates are assessed by the board members on their personality traits to know if they are fit for a career in the civil services or not. The UPSC personality test will be held only in the UPSC Bhavan in New Delhi.

Hope this was useful

Good luck