Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Exam ias exam civil services prelims exam main exam upsc ias question paper

Introduction – IAS

IAS Exam, also known as Indian Administrative Service, is a national level competition exam conducted by UPSC annually to recruit candidates for civil services like IPS, IFS (Foreign), IAAS, IRS, IDAS, CAPF-AF and others.

Civil Services Main Exam Highlights: IAS Exam

Exam Name	Civil Services Main Examination
Exam Type	National Level
Conducting Body	Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
Exam Periodicity	Yearly
Exam Mode	Offline (Pen-Paper Mode)
No. of Papers	Two – written test (9 papers) and an Interview test
Total Marks	Written Test: 1750 marks | Interview Test: 275 marks (with no qualifying marks)
Duration of Exam	3 hrs each
Medium of Exam	Hindi and English (other than the literature of language papers)
No. of Vacancies	796
Official Website	upsc.gov.in

Important Dates: IAS Exam

IAS Exam Event	Dates
Registration	14th Feb 2024 – 5th Mar 2024
Preliminary Exam	26th May 2024
Mains Exam	20th September 2024
IAS Main Result	December / January (Tentative)
IAS Interviews	March (Tentative)

Eligibility Criteria for Civil Services Main Exam

Age Limit & Educational Qualifications for IAS

Candidates have to fulfill the eligibility criteria set by the authorities to take the exam. The eligibility parameters are set on the basis of Nationality, Age Limit, Educational Qualifications, Number of Attempts and Physical Standards. Given below are the IAS Exam Eligibility Criteria:

Nationality

• For IAS and IPS, applicants must be a citizen of India.
• Other services require candidates to be either,
  • Citizen of India
  • Subject of Nepal
  • Subject of Bhutan
  • Tibetan refugee who came to India before January 1, 1962, to settle permanently.
  • An Indian origin migrant from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam who came to permanently settle in India.

Age Limit

• The lower age limit for IAS Exam is 21 years, while the upper age limit is 32 years.
• There is upper age relaxation for reserved category candidates, which is as follows:
  • SC/ST – Up to 5 years
  • OBC – Up to 3 years
  • Defense Services Personnel disabled in operations during hostilities – Up to 3 years
  • Ex-servicemen – Up to 5 years
  • ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military Service – Up to 5 years
  • PwD candidates – Up to 10 years
  • Domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir from January 1, 1980, to December 31, 1989 – Up to 5 years

Educational Qualifications

Applicants must hold a graduate degree or equivalent qualification from a recognized university.

Number of Attempts

Only 6 attempts are allowed for a candidate to clear IAS Exam.

UPSC IAS Exam Syllabus

IAS Syllabus is decided by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) each year. Each stage in the IAS exam has a different syllabus.

• IAS Syllabus for Prelims evaluates a candidate’s knowledge and aptitude in current affairs.
• IAS Syllabus for Main assesses a candidate’s academic expertise in his specialized subject. It also tests his ability to present knowledge in a clear and coherent manner and his overall intellectual traits and understanding of concepts.
• IAS Exam covers questions from History, Polity, Geography and Agriculture, Science and Technology, Ecology and Environment, Economics, Arts and Culture, Social Welfare and GK.
• In Main examination, candidates have to choose two optional subjects in which they have specialization and the level of paper corresponds to the bachelors’ degree.

IAS Syllabus is released on the UPSC Official Website for all the papers in detail. Candidates can check out the detailed syllabus for the related discipline on the important topics to be asked in the exam.

IAS Main Exam Pattern

IAS Main has 9 papers out of which 7 Papers are compulsory and 2 are optional papers that candidates have to choose.

• Out of the 7 papers, 2 are language papers (A and B).
• For paper A, candidate has to choose one of the Indian Language that is included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. Paper B will have questions from English.
• Questions will be subjective in nature.
• Each paper is of 250 marks while language papers are of 300 marks each.
• The marks obtained in the language papers are not counted in the formation of IAS Merit List as they are qualifying in nature.
• The total time duration of IAS Main exam is 3 hours.
• Blind candidates will be given 20 minutes extra for each paper.

Here is the brief about all the papers in IAS Main

Papers	Subjects	Marks
Paper 1	Essay writing	250
Paper 2	General Studies I Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society	250
Paper 3	General Studies II Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations	250
Paper 4	General Studies III Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management	250
Paper 5	General Studies IV Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude	250
Paper 6	Optional Subject – Paper 1	250
Paper 7	Optional Subject – Paper 2	250
Personal Interview		275
Grand Total		2025

Question Papers

Year: 2020

Name of Exam (Civil Services Main Exam – 2020)	Question Papers
Hindi (Compulsory)	Download
Mathematics (Question Paper – I)	Download
Philosophy (QP – I)	Download
Political Science and International Relations (QP – I)	Download
Psychology (QP – I)	Download
Public Administration (QP – I)	Download

Year: 2019

Name of Exam (Civil Services Main Exam – 2019)	Question Papers
English Literature (Question Paper – I)	Download
Hindi Literature (Question Paper – I)	Download
Philosophy (QP – I)	Download
Political Science and International Relations (QP – I)	Download
Psychology (QP – I)	Download
Public Administration (QP – I)	Download

UPSC IAS Exam Centers

UPSC Main Exam will be held in numerous IAS Exam Centres in 24 different cities across India listed below:

Ahmedabad	Dehradun	Mumbai
Aizawl	Delhi	Patna
Allahabad	Dispur (Guwahati)	Raipur
Bengaluru	Hyderabad	Ranchi
Bhopal	Jaipur	Shillong
Chandigarh	Jammu	Shimla
Chennai	Kolkata	Thiruvananthapuram
Cuttack	Lucknow	Vijayawada

How to Check IAS Result?

UPSC IAS Prelims Result will be declared in July (Tentative) at upsc.gov.in.
IAS Main Result will be declared in December / January (Tentative).
Candidates need to follow the below steps to access IAS Result:

• Visit the official UPSC website of IAS
• Click on the link which says ‘View IAS Result’
• Find your roll number in the list of the roll numbers mentioned in the PDF
• Download PDF for future reference

IAS Exam Cutoffs

IAS Exam Cutoff Marks is the minimum score that must be obtained by the candidate in order to qualify the exam.

• Candidates scoring more than or equal to the cutoff marks are eligible for the next stage of IAS selection process.
• The cutoff for both prelims and main depends upon a number of factors like the difficulty level of the exam, vacancies available and number of appearing candidates etc.
• The cutoff for each stage is released by the authorities post the completion of entire process of civil services examination. Meanwhile, candidates can check IAS Expected Cutoff for different categories as tabulated below:

IAS Exam Cutoffs (Category-wise)

Category	Preliminary	Main	Final
General	150-200	660-679	860-889
OBC	140-201	600-631	809-845
ST	103-180	610-620	800-815
SC	101-185	615-633	815-835
PH 1	101-170	550-615	800-820
PH 2	89-120	550-630	780-835
PH 3	60-125	450-515	690-726

IAS Selection Process

The selection process of IAS Exam is a 3 stage assessment, wherein, candidates have to appear for Prelims, main and Personal Interview round.

• Preliminary exam is a Screening Test.
• There are two papers for candidates to attempt compulsorily in IAS Exam Prelims.
• Further, on the basis of IAS Exam result for prelims, candidates register for main exam.
• IAS Exam main will cover 9 conventional essay type papers, 2 being optional in them.
• The main exam and interview session form the basis of a candidate’s selection.
• After the IAS Exam main examination of 1750 marks, candidates have to clear the cut off as decided by UPSC.
• Those who clear the cut off are called for the Interview session which is the last stage of IAS Selection Process.
• Marks obtained in personal interview out of the total of 275 marks will also be considered while preparing the list of finally selected candidates.

UPSC IAS Exam (Civil Services Main Exam) FAQ's

Ques.: What are some tricky Interview questions?

Ans.: Read here:
Civil Services (UPSC) Interview Questions
Common Puzzles Questions
Trickiest Interview Questions
Tricky Interview Questions

Ques.: Tell us some inspiring stories who cracked IAS Exam?

Ans.: Read here: Success Stories by Civil Services Toppers – UPSC

Ques.: What are the minimum qualifying marks for clearing IAS interview?

Ans.: There are no minimum marks to qualify the interview round. However, the interview round carries 275 marks.

Ques.: What are the number of vacancies available through IAS each year?

Ans.: The number of available vacancies is noted in each of the advertisements. They vary every year. However, in the last 4 years, the number of vacancies has varied between 1000-1200.

Ques.: I have studied from an Open University? Am I eligible to apply for IAS?

Ans.: Yes, you can apply only if it is a recognized university and you possess the educational qualifications prescribed for the exam.

Ques.: How many times can students appear for an IAS exam? Is there any kind of restriction that students need to face for appearing in the exam?

Ans.: General category candidates can sit for the exam for maximum 6 times. There is no restriction for reserved category candidates (OBC- NCL category- 9 attempts), they can appear as many times as they want.

Ques.: What is the salary of an IAS officer?

Ans.: The 7th Pay Commission recommendations were approved by Cabinet on June 29, 2016. Now the basic pay of entry level IAS officers is INR 56100. Allowances like Dearness Allowance (DA), House Rent Allowance (HRA) and Travel Allowance (TA) will be extra. The salary will increase as experience increases. So, IAS Salary = Basic Pay + HRA + DA + TA

Ques.: I don’t have my class X and XII Marksheet. Can I still sit for IAS?

Ans.: Yes, provided the graduation has been completed from a recognized University and you possess the educational qualifications prescribed for the exam.

Ques.: If students are unable to clear the Phase II exam can they able to appear for the interview round?

Ans.: No, students qualifying IAS main exam will only be called for interview round.

Ques.: What are the important details that students need to provide while filling the application form?

Ans.: The details that students need to provide while filling the application form are applicants name, fathers name, mothers name, address, contact no., and email ID etc.

Ques.: What are the documents that students need to bring along with them on the exam day?

Ans.: On the examination day, students need to bring their admit card and ID proof along with them.

Ques.: Except for the branches of SBI bank can students pay the application fees to other banks?

Ans.: No, the application fees can only be paid at SBI branches.

Ques.: Name the subjects from which the questions will be asked in IAS Prelims exam?

Ans.: In IAS Prelims exam, the questions will be asked from the subjects namely General Studies and Aptitude Test.

Ques.: In how many sections the IAS main exams is divided and name the subjects from which the questions will be asked.

Ans.: The IAS Main exam is divided into 9 sections and the subjects from which the questions asked are Modern Indian Language Skills, English Language Skills, Essay Writing, General Studies – I, General Studies – II, General Studies – III, General Studies – IV, Optional Subject Paper – 1 and Optional Subject Paper – 2.

Ques.: In which medium the exam is conducted and what is the total time duration to complete the paper?

Ans.: The exam is conducted in both the English and Hindi medium. For prelims exam, total time duration given to complete per paper is 2 hours and for Main, to complete per paper 3 hours will be given.

Ques.: What are the types of questions asked in the both the Prelims and main exam?

Ans.: The questions in the prelim exam are of objective type and for main exam; the questions are of both objective and subjective type.

Ques.: What is the marking scheme of IAS Prelims exam? Is there is any marks deduction for wrong answers?

Ans.: In IAS Prelims exam, each question in general studies carries 2 marks and civil service aptitude test carries 2.5 marks. For every incorrect answer, 0.33 marks will be deducted as penalty.

Ques.: Where to report if the students found any discrepancy in the admit card?

Ans.: In the case of any discrepancy in the admit card, students have to instantly report the higher authorities.

Ques.: Why the cut off marks are so important in the recruiting process and who will consider it?

Ans.: Cut off are important in recruiting process for short listing the students. UPSC board will consider the cut off marks.

Ques.: List down the impact of cut off marks in all the stages while short listing the candidates?

Ans.: At the time of prelims exam, cut off marks is applicable to shortlist the candidates for IAS main exam Cut off of main exam helps to select students for the personal interview

Ques.: How will the final merit list be prepared and when is merit list declared?

Ans.: For preparing the final merit list, both the marks of written test and final interview will be taken into consideration and merit list will be prepared after the declaration of the result.