IAS (Indian Administrative Service)

The Indian Administrative Service is popularly referred to as the IAS and was formally constituted in 1947. It is the
premier service in India and offers an attractive and challenging career. There is fame and glamour also associated
with this service for those who have excelled in their posts. Even though most people think being the District
Magistrate or Collector is the most powerful and glamorous post, an IAS holds power at all levels of his/her job.
IAS is the service that places the officer right at the top of any government organization. If you are a determined
person you can change a lot of things as an IAS officer.

Nationality

 For IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and IPS (Indian Police Service), applicants must be a citizen of
India.
 Other services require candidates to be either,
1. Citizen of India
2. Subject of Nepal
3. Subject of Bhutan
4. Tibetan refugee who came to India before January 1, 1962 to settle permanently.
5. 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 as on 1st August 2019, while upper age limit is 32 years.
 There is upper age relaxation for reserved category candidates, which is as follows:
1. SC/ST- Up to 5 years
2. OBC- Up to 3 years
3. Defence Services Personnel disabled in operations during hostilities- Up to 3 years
4. Ex-servicemen- Up to 5 years
5. ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military
Service- Up to 5 years
6. PwD (Persons with Disabilities) candidates- Up to 10 years
7. 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.
 Candidates who have appeared for the qualifying examination and are awaiting results or those who are yet
to appear for the qualifying examination are also eligible for the Preliminary Examination. Such candidates
have to produce proof of passing the said examination along with the application for the Main Examination.
 Candidates with professional and technical qualifications recognized by the Government or its equivalent
are also eligible to apply.
 Candidates who have passed the final year of MBBS or any Medical Examination but are yet to complete
the internship can also appear for the Main Examination. However, they must submit a certificate from the
concerned University that they have passed the final professional medical examination

Number of Attempts

General Category OBC SC/ST

6 Attempts till 32 years of Age 9 Attempts till 35 years of Age Unlimited Attempts till 37 years of Age
IAS Exam Pattern: IAS is conducted for selection of officers for Indian Administrative service. The exam is also
known as Civil Services Exam (CSE). The brief for all the three stages of IAS are:

 IAS Prelims Exam

 IAS Mains Exam
 IAS Personality Test

Examination Scheme

Specification Preliminary Mains

Mode Offline Offline
Medium Bilingual (English and Hindi) Bilingual (English and Hindi)
Number of qualifying papers 2 7
Type of questions Objective Both Objective and Subjective
Negative marking for each incorrect One-third (0.33) One-third (only for objective type
answer questions)
Duration of exam 2 Hours per Paper 3 Hours per Paper

Prelims Exam

General Studies - This paper marks will be

Paper - I Syllabus counted for getting to write the Civil Services 200 Marks 02 Hours
Mains exam.
Aptitude test (CSAT) - This paper is of qualifying
Paper- II (CSAT) nature, but candidate must score at least 33%
Syllabus marks in this paper. However, marks of this paper 200 Marks 02 Hours
are not counted for writing the Mains
examination.

The UPSC Prelims exam is meant to serve as a screening test only. The marks of Paper 1 are alone considered for
making the merit list for this exam. Only those candidates who have qualified the Prelims can write the Mains exam.
The marks scored in the Prelim exam is not counted in the final tally of the Mains exam or the Interview. It is
mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the papers of Prelim exam to be qualified for the evaluation purposes.
The candidate will be disqualified in case he or she appears in only one paper of the Prelims exam.

IAS Prelims Syllabus

The syllabus for the Preliminary Exams for Paper-I:

 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
 General Science

The syllabus for the Preliminary Exams for Paper-II:

 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)

Note

 The questions in both Paper-I (current affairs) and Paper-II (aptitude test) will be of multiple choice,
objective type for 200 marks each and the time allotted for each paper is two hours.
 The CSAT aptitude test or Paper-II will be a qualifying paper only with a minimum of 33% to be secured
to qualify for the Mains exam.
 It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the papers of Civil Services (Prelim) examination. The
candidate will be disqualified in case he or she appears in only one paper of the (Prelims) exam. So
appearing in both the papers is mandatory for the evaluation of the (Prelims) exam.

Centers of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination: The Examination will be held at the following Centers:

Agartala Chennai Jorhat Raipur

Agra Coimbatore Kochi Rajkot
Ajmer Cuttack Kohima Ranchi
Ahmedabad Faridabad Kolkata Sambalpur
Aizawl Gangtok Kozhikode (Calicut) Shillong
Aligarh Gaya Lucknow Shimla
Allahabad Ghaziabad Ludhiana Siligudi
Anantpur (Andhra Pradesh) Gorakhpur Madurai Srinagar
Aurangabad Gurgaon Mumbai Thane
Bangalore Gwalior Mysore Thiruvananthapuram
Bareilly Hyderabad Nagpur Tiruchirapalli
Bhopal Imphal Navi Mumbai Tirupati
Bilaspur Indore Gautam Buddh Nagar Udaipur
Dehradun Itanagar Panaji (Goa) Varanasi
Delhi Jabalpur Patna Vellore
Dharwad Jaipur Port Blair Vijayavada
Dispur Jammu Puducherry Vishakhapatnam
Chandigarh Jodhpur Pune Warangal
*The centers and the date of holding the examination as mentioned above are liable to be changed at the
discretion of the Commission.

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

 Any Indian Language

 English Language Paper
 The papers on Essay, General Studies and Optional Subject of only such candidates who attain
25% marks in both the language papers as a minimum qualifying standard in these qualifying
papers, will be taken cognizance of, for evaluation.
 In case a candidate does not qualify in these language papers, then the marks obtained by such
candidate will not be considered or counted.
One of the Indian Language to be selected by the
Paper-A candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth 300 Marks 03 Hours
Schedule to the Constitution
Paper-B English 300 Marks 03 Hours
Structure of the Language Papers: The types of questions asked are-

1. Essay - 100 marks

2. Reading comprehension - 60 marks
3. Précis Writing - 60 marks
4. Translation:
 English to compulsory language (e.g. Hindi) - 20 marks
 Compulsory language to English - 20 marks
5. Grammar and basic language usage - 40 marks

The rest of the seven papers can be written in any of the languages mentioned under the Eighth Schedule of the
Constitution of India or in English.
Paper-I Essay 250 Marks 03 Hours
Paper-II General Studies - I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and 250 Marks 03 Hours
Geography of the World and Society)
Paper-III General Studies - II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social 250 Marks 03 Hours
Justice and International relations)
Paper-IV General Studies -III (Technology, Economic Development, 250 Marks 03 Hours
Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster
Management)
Paper-V General Studies –IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) 250 Marks 03 Hours
Paper-VI Optional Subject - Paper 1 250 Marks 03 Hours
Paper-VII Optional Subject - Paper 2 250 Marks 03 Hours

Note: Marks obtained by the candidates for the Paper I-VII only will be counted for merit ranking. However, the
Commission will have the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all of these papers.

For The Language Medium/Literature of Languages, the Scripts to be used by the Candidates will be as
under:
Language Script Language Script
Assamese Assamese Punjabi Gurumukhi
Bengali Bengali Sanskrit Devanagari
Gujarati Gujarati Sindhi Devanagari or Arabic
Hindi Devanagari Tamil Tamil
Kannada Kannada Telugu Telugu
Kashmiri Persian Urdu Persian
Konkani Devanagari Bodo Devanagari
Malayalam Malayalam Dogri Devanagari
Manipuri Bengali Maithilli Devanagari
Marathi Devanagari Santhali Devanagari or Olchiki
Nepali Devanagari
Odia Odia

Note: For Santhali language, question paper will be printed in Devanagari script; but candidates will be free to
answer either in Devanagari script or in Olchiki.

List of Optional Subjects for Main Examination

Agriculture Animal Husbandry and Anthropology Botany

Veterinary Science
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
Literature of any one of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri,
Zoology Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi,
Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

Centers of Civil Services (Mains) Examination

Ahmedabad Chennai Jaipur Raipur

Aizawl Cuttack Jammu Ranchi
Allahabad Dehradun Kolkata Shillong
Bangaluru Delhi Lucknow Shimla
Bhopal Dispur (Guwahati) Mumbai Thiruvananthapuram
Chandigarh Hyderabad Patna Vijayawada
*The centers and the date of holding the examination as mentioned above are liable to be changed at the
discretion of the Commission.

IAS Personality Test: A test of 275 Marks would be taken of the candidates qualified in Mains Exam. This would
include Psychometric Test, Assessment Test as well as the Personal Interview. Marks obtained in the test would be
added in the calculation for the declaration of the final Merit list.

 All candidates qualifying the Mains examination will proceed towards the Personality Test.
 The objective of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public
service by a Board of competent and unbiased observers. He will be asked questions on matters of general
interest.
 The test is intended to judge the mental caliber of a candidate.
 In broad terms, this is really an assessment of not only his intellectual qualities but also social traits and his
interest in current affairs.
 Some of the qualities to be judged are mental alertness, critical powers of assimilation, clear and logical
exposition, balance of judgment, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership,
intellectual and moral integrity.
 This test will be conducted in the language of choice.
 The interview will be graded for 275 marks. The total marks of IAS is 2025 marks
 Candidates will be ranked on basis of the grand total and called for the final interview.

List of Civil Services: Here is the complete list of the civil services for which combined examinations are held.

1. Indian Administrative Service

2. Indian Foreign Service
3. Indian Police Service

Group A Services

 Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Service

 Indian Audit and Accounts Service
 Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise)
 Indian Defence Accounts Service
 Indian Revenue Service (I.T.)
 Indian Ordnance Factories Service (Assistant Works Manager, Administration)
 Indian Postal Service
 Indian Civil Accounts Service
 Indian Railway Traffic Service
  Indian Railway Accounts Service
 Indian Railway Personnel Service
 Indian Railway Protection Force (Assistant Security Commissioner)
 Indian Defence Estates Service
 Indian Information Service (Junior Grade)
 Indian Trade Service, Group 'A' (Gr. III)
 Indian Corporate Law Service

Group B Services

 Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (Section Officer's Grade)

 Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service
 Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police
Service
 Pondicherry Civil Service
 Pondicherry Police Service

Indian Forest Service: A combined Preliminary examination is held for Indian Forest Service and Indian Civil
Services.

Other UPSC Services exams held for Various Jobs & Posts: The UPSC also holds various exams for other
services some of which are

 Engineering Services Examination

 Geologists Examination
 Special Class Railway Apprentices Exam
 National Defence & Naval Academy
 Combined Defence Services Examination
 Combined Medical Services Examination
 Indian Economic / Statistical Service
 S.O./Stenographer Limited Departmental Competitive Exam
 Central Police Forces (Assist Commandants)

Physical Standards: Candidates must be physically fit according to physical standards for admission to Civil
Services Examination, 2019.

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year for IAS exam coaching. We provide coaching in accordance to the exam pattern so, that aspirants
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