Civil Service Examination is a national level competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the selection of prolific aspirants towards the Indian Administrative System. This examination is held for the pots of IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS etc.
CSE is a three-tier exam with two successive stages that is, preliminary and followed by mains Exam.
Both are offline examinations and Female, SC/ST/ DISABLED are exempted from the fee payment.
Before applying for the exam the candidates have to register for UPSC. This registration can be done at any time before the examinations.
The Indian candidates can apply for Civil service examination.
The subject of Nepal, Bhutan, Tibetan refugee who came to India before January 1st 1962, can also apply for the exam.
Candidates should have a minimum age of 21 years and a maximum of 32 years.
There will be age relaxation for certain categories, they are:
SC/ST – 5years.
OBC- 3 years
Defence Services Personnel, disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country -3 years
Ex-servicemen including commissioned officers and ECOs/SSCOs – 5years
PwD – 10years
Aspirants should hold graduation from any recognised university or colleges. Those who are appearing in the final year exams at the time of preliminary exams can also apply for Civil Service Examination. But they have to submit the certificate of their graduation at the time of the Mains exam.
There are limits for attempting the CES examination. The restrictions for the attempts are not applicable for SC/ST category.
Category
Number of Attempts(Allowed)
General/Economically Weaker Section(EWS)
6
Other Backward Classes
9
Person with Disabilities
Till the age limit
UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination in 3 tests, such as,
Preliminary Exam
Mains Exam
Personal test/interview
Exam Pattern of Preliminary Examination.
The preliminary exam consists of two papers- General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper-II.
All are multiple-choice questions.
General Studies Paper I includes 100 questions that carry 200 marks.
General Studies Paper-II includes 80 questions that carry 200 marks.
The total duration of the preliminary exam is 2 hours.
The medium of both papers will be in English and Hindi.
Exam Pattern of Mains Examination
Mains consist of 2 qualifying papers, that is, 9 essay type questions and personality interview.
This is a written examination and the duration of each paper is 3 hours followed by a personal interview.
SUBJECTS
MARKS
EssaySection 1 Essay 200 MarksSection 2 English Comprehension & English Précis 100 Marks (Of Matriculation/ Xth standard level)
250
General Studies – I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History, and Geography of the World and Society)
250
General Studies – II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations)
250
General Studies –III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)
250
General Studies -IV(Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude)
250
Optional Subject – Paper 1
250
Optional Subject – Paper 2
250
Grand Total
1750
Syllabus of Civil Service Examination
Civil Service Examination is a 3 tier exams with 2 stages.
Stage 1 – Preliminary exams (Objective questions)
Stage 2 – Mains exam (Written test and personal interview)
Candidates who pass the preliminary exam can attend the Mains. Applicants have to submit separate applications for both exams.
Syllabus- Preliminary exam
Paper- I
General Science.
Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
History of India and Indian National Movement
General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialisation.
Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
Current events of national and international importance.
Economic and Social Development Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
Paper-II
English Language Comprehension skills (Class X level).
Comprehension
Decision-making and problem-solving
Logical reasoning and analytical ability
General mental ability
Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)
Syllabus- Mains
SUBJECTS
TOPICS
Any Indian language mentioned in the 8th schedule of the constitution
Comprehension of given passagesPrecise writingUsage and vocabularyShort essaysTranslation from English to the Indian language and vice-versa
English language
Comprehension of given passagesPrecise writingUsage and Vocabulary.Short essays
Essay
Essay will be on multiple topics.
General Studies 1
Indian heritage and culturehistory and geography of the world and society
Technologyeconomic developmentbio diversity, environmentsecurity and disaster management
General Studies 4
Ethics and human InterfaceHuman ValuesAttitudeAptitude and foundational values for civil serviceEmotional intelligence-conceptsContributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and worldPublic/civil service values and ethics in public administrationProbity in governance
Optional papers – I & II
Group-I
Agriculture Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Anthropology Botany Chemistry Civil Engineering Commerce and Accountancy Economics Electrical Engineering Geography Geology History Law Management Mathematics Mechanical Engineering Medical Science Philosophy Physics Political Science and International Relations Psychology Public Administration Sociology Statistics Zoology
At first, visit the official website of UPSC and select the option ‘Apply Online’.
Select the online application for various exams of UPSC.
For applying the exam, the candidates have to register in UPSC before applying an exam conducted by UPSC.
After registration, candidates can apply for the exam by entering the name, parent’s name, date of birth, gender, religion, Nationality, Education qualifications and communication address.
Applicants have to provide a valid email id and Mobile number for future reference.
Candidates have to select the language of questions, exam centres and also mention the number of attempts if the candidate has already attended the same.
Aspirants have to upload the scanned image of passport size photograph and signature in the prescribed format.
Fees are required for the Civil Service Exam. Application fees can be paid either online using Debit/Credit Card/Net Banking or offline using bank challan.
Category
Preliminary Exam Fee
Mains Exam Fee
General/ OBC
Rs 100
Rs 200
Females/ SC/ ST/ Persons with Benchmark Disability
Nil
Nil
Candidates have to apply separately for Preliminary and Mains examination.