UPSC Prelims and Mains Pattern Syllabus

Here is a complete list of subjects for IAS/UPSC exams as per the UPSC Syllabus. IAS Examination, also called Indian Administrative Services Examination is one of the civil services among others and is considered toughest and prestigious examinations conducted in India. Hence to face this challenge that gives a chance to get most eminent designation offered by Indian Government a comprehensive look throughout the syllabus is essential, especially for those candidates who are going to appear for UPSC exams or IAS for the first time.

The IAS Syllabus and other services like Income Tax and the IPS is the same, as it is considered as single exam and conducted by UPSC, which also sets the syllabus.

UPSC Civil Services Exam is conducted in three phases:

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination or CSAT (Objective Section)

Phase 2: Main Examination (Subjective Section)

Phase 3: Interview (Vocal Section)

Phase 1: Preliminary Examination – CSAT Syllabus:

CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test is the first phase of preliminary examination of UPSC. This test is intended to assess the aptitude of examinees in solving the ‘Reasoning and Analytical’ questions.

IAS prelims exam consists of two papers of objective type, each of 200 marks (total of 400 marks) and two hours of duration and candidates must take both the papers.

The preliminary examination is meant for screening the candidate and the marks obtained by a candidate in the prelims who qualifies to the mains exam will not be be taken in account to determine their final merit.

Syllabus for Paper 1

• Current events of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization General Science

1. a) IAS Preliminary Exam:

Paper	Subjects	Total Marks	Duration
I	General Studies	200 marks	2 hours
II	Aptitude Skills	200 marks	2 hours

Paper 2 Syllabus

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills;
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problem-solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. – Class X level)

Important to note

Note 1 : Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%
Note 2 : The questions will be of multiple choice, objective type.
Note 3: It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. Therefore a candidate will be disqualified in case he/she does not appear in both the papers of Civil Services (Prelim) Examination.

Mains Syllabus

The phase 2 tests candidate’s academic talent in depth and his/her ability to present understanding in a reasonable way. The IAS mains examination is designed to analyze the comprehensive intellectual quality and the understanding of candidates rather than just determining their information and memory.

The UPSC mains exam consists of 9 papers, in which two are qualifying papers of 300 marks each:

1. Any Indian Language
2. English

These two papers just need to qualify which is compulsory and marks obtained will not be considered or counted.

And the rest of seven papers can be written in any of the languages mentioned as in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution or in English. Below given the remaining seven papers:

Paper	Subject	Marks
Paper 1	Essay	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) (Marks carried by General Studies was 4X250=1000)	250
Paper 6	Optional Subject – Paper 1	250
Paper 7	Optional Subject – Paper II (Candidate is allowed to take up literature as an optional subject” and candidate need not to be a graduate in that language’s literature.)	250

 

Candidates may choose any one of the ‘Optional Subjects’ from the list of subjects given below:

Optional Subjects	Literature Language
Agriculture	Assamese
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science	Arabic
Anthropology	Bengali
Botany	Bodo
Chemistry	Dogri
Civil Engineering	French
Commerce and Accountancy	German
Economics	Gujarati
Electrical Engineering	Hindi
Geography	Kannada
Geology	Kashmiri
History	Konkani
Law	Maithili
Management	Malayalam
Mathematics	Manipuri
Mechanical Engineering	Marathi
Medical Science	Nepali
Philosophy	Oriya
Physics	Persian
Political Science and International Relations	Punjabi
Psychology	Russian
Public Administration	Sanskrit
Sociology	Santhali
Statistics	Sindhi
Zoology	Tamil
–	Telugu
–	Urdu
–	English

 

Candidates who obtain minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the UPSC Main Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion enters the next and final phase that is the ‘personality test’ or ‘Interview’ round.

• Candidates who qualify the UPSC Mains Exam will move to the next and final phase called ‘Personality Test/Interview’ who will be interviewed by a Board who will have candidates resume. The interview round is held by a Board of competent and unbiased intended to assess social traits and his interest in current affairs and analyze the personal aptness of the candidate for a career in public service. Some of the qualities evaluated during the personality test are mental alertness, clear and logical exposition, critical powers of assimilation, variety and depth of interest, balance of judgment, intellectual and moral integrity ability for social cohesion and leadership,.
• The interview is more of purposive conversation intended to divulge the mental qualities of the candidate.
• Candidate can give interview in their preferred language as UPSC will make arrangement for the translators
• c) Interview Test:

The Interview test will be of 275 marks.

The total mark of the written examination is 1750 Marks.

The Interview/Personality Test will be of 275 marks.

The Grand Total 2025 Marks.