The UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE) annually to select candidates for prestigious positions in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and various other central civil services. The UPSC CSE Notification for the year 2024 has been released, marking the beginning of this rigorous yet rewarding journey. This guide provides an in-depth overview of the UPSC IAS Examination, covering eligibility criteria, the selection process, application procedures, and invaluable preparation tips.
The commission announced 1056 vacancies for recruitment to IAS, IPS, and IFS posts through the UPSC CSE 2024 Examination. The UPSC CSE Notification outlines the schedule, syllabus, and other important details for aspirants. It serves as the gateway for thousands of dedicated candidates aspiring to serve the nation through administrative roles. Check out all the important information in the table below:
UPSC IAS Exam 2024 - Important Updates |
|
Exam Conducting Organization |
Union Public Service Commission |
Exam Name |
Civil Services Examination 2024 |
Vacancies |
1056 |
Application Dates |
14 February to 05 March 2024 |
Application Mode |
Online |
Examination Mode |
|
Frequency of Exam |
Annually |
Selection Process |
|
UPSC Civil Services Prelims according to the official UPSC exam calendar is scheduled to beh held on 16 June 2024. Aspiring candidates can check all of the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2024 essential dates in the table below.
Event |
Date |
Notification Release Date |
14 February 2024 |
Application Start Date |
14 February 2024 |
Last Date to Apply |
05 March 2024 |
Prelims Admit Card Release Date |
7 June 2024 |
Prelims Exam Date |
16 June 2024 |
Prelims Result Date |
1 July 2024 |
Mains Admit Card Release Date |
September 2024 |
Mains Exam Date |
20 to 29 September 2024 |
Mains Result Date |
To be released |
Interview Date |
To be released |
Final Selection Result |
To be released |
Get all the relevant links for UPSC IAS Examination 2024 in the table below:
Official Website |
|
Official Notification |
|
Apply Link |
|
Admit Card |
Click Here |
Prelims Result |
Will be activated |
Final Result |
To be released |
The examination is being conducted for approximately 1056 vacancies as of now. The commission will notify the final vacancies and the bifurcation of the vacancies according to the services and posts listed below.
(i) Indian Administrative Service |
(xii) Indian Railway Protection Force Service, Group ‘A’ |
(ii) Indian Foreign Service |
(xiii) Indian Revenue Service (Customs & Indirect Taxes) Group ‘A’ |
(iii) Indian Police Service |
(xiv) Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) Group ‘A’ |
(iv) Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xv) Indian Trade Service, Group ‘A’ (Grade III) |
(v) Indian Civil Accounts Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xvi) Indian Railway Management Service, Group ‘A’ |
(vi) Indian Corporate Law Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xvii) Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service, Group ‘B’ (Section Officer’s Grade) |
(vii) Indian Defence Accounts Service, Group ‘A’ |
xviii) Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Service (DANICS), Group ‘B’ |
(viii) Indian Defence Estates Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xix) Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service (DANIPS), Group ‘B’ |
(ix) Indian Information Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xx) Pondicherry Civil Service (PONDICS), Group ‘B’ |
(x) Indian Postal Service, Group ‘A’ |
(xxi) Pondicherry Police Service (PONDIPS), Group ‘B’ |
(xi) Indian P&T Accounts and Finance Service, Group ‘A’ |
- |
To be eligible for the UPSC IAS Examination, candidates must meet certain criteria:
Post |
Nationality |
The Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Police Service |
Citizen of India |
Other services |
or
or
or
|
The candidate must be between 21 and 32 years of age as of 1 August 2024, with certain relaxations for specific categories.
Relaxation in Upper Age
Category |
Upper Age Relaxation |
SC/ST |
5 years |
OBC |
3 years |
Defence Services Personnel, disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof |
3 years |
Ex-Servicemen including Commissioned Officers and Emergency Commissioned Officers (ECOs)/ Short Service Commissioned Officers (SSCOs) |
5 years |
PwD (a) blindness and low vision; (b) deaf and hard of hearing; (c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy; (d) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness; and (e) multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindnes |
10 years |
A candidate must hold a degree from a recognized university or possess an equivalent qualification.
Every candidate who appears in the examination is allowed six (6) attempts at the CSE. Candidates from the SC/ST/OBC and PwBD categories who are otherwise eligible will have a relaxation in a number of attempts. The details are as follows:
Category |
Number of attempts |
SC/ST |
Unlimited |
OBC |
09 |
PwBD |
|
Note:
A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Police Service on the basis of the results of an earlier examination and remains a member of that Service is ineligible to apply for the Indian Police Service.
The application process for the UPSC IAS Examination involves the following steps:
Follow the steps mentioned below to apply easily:
Candidates applying for the CSE 2024 will required to pay an application fee according to their category. The application fee can be paid online or offline. Category-wise application fee is listed in the table below
Category |
Application Fees |
General & OBC (Male) |
Rs. 100/- |
SC/ST/PwBD |
Exempted from payment of fees |
Female Candidates |
Payment of the application fee can be made in any State Bank of India branch by cash or by credit card, debit card, master card, RuPay card, or UPI payment, by using the net banking facility of any bank.
The UPSC IAS Examination comprises two stages:
This stage consists of two objective-type papers - General Studies Paper-I and General Studies Paper-II (CSAT). The marks obtained in this stage are qualifying in nature and are not counted for the final merit.
This stage is further divided into two stages, i.e., the written descriptive examination and the personality test.
There will be a prelim examination to select the most qualified candidates for the main exam. Candidates who pass the preliminary examination will be considered for the main examination.
Check out the detailed UPSC Prelims Exam pattern below.
UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern |
|||
Subject |
No. of Questions |
Marks |
Exam Duration |
Paper I - General Studies |
100 |
200 |
2 Hours |
Paper II - Aptitude Test (CSAT) |
80 |
200 |
2 Hours |
Total |
180 |
200 |
Main Examination
UPSC Mains Exam Pattern |
|||
Paper |
Subject |
Marks |
Exam Duration |
Qualifying Papers |
|||
Paper-A |
Compulsory Indian language |
300 |
3 hours |
Paper-B |
English |
300 |
3 hours |
Papers to be counted for merit |
|||
Paper-I |
Essay |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-II |
General Studies-I |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-III |
General Studies-II |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-IV |
General Studies-III |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-V |
General Studies-IV |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-VI |
Optional Subject - Paper 1 |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Paper-VII |
Optional Subject - Paper 1I |
250 Marks |
3 hours |
Total |
1750 |
The UPSC Mains Exam Pattern comprises two optional papers, each worth 250 points. Candidates may choose their favorite optional subject from the list below for Papers VI and VII of the mains test.
(i) Agriculture |
(xiv) Management |
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science |
(xv) Mathematics |
(iii) Anthropology |
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering |
(iv) Botany |
(xvii) Medical Science |
(v) Chemistry |
(xviii) Philosophy |
(vi) Civil Engineering |
(xix) Physics |
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy |
(xx) Political Science and International Relations |
(viii) Economics |
(xxi) Psychology |
(ix) Electrical Engineering |
(xxii) Public Administration |
(x) Geography |
(xxiii) Sociology |
(xi) Geology |
(xxiv) Statistics |
(xii) History |
(xxv) Zoology |
(xiii) Law |
- |
(xxvi) Literature in any one of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English. |
Candidates are recommended to read the syllabus published in this section for the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination, as the syllabus has been revised on a regular basis in various topics.
Part A—Preliminary Examination |
||
Paper |
Subject |
Topics |
Paper I |
General Studies |
|
Paper II |
CSAT |
|
Part B—Main Examination |
||
Qualifying Papers |
||
Paper-A |
Compulsory Indian language |
(i) comprehension of given passages. (ii) precise writing. (iii) Usage and Vocabulary. (iv) Short Essays. (v) Interpreting English into Indian languages and vice-versa. |
Paper-B |
English |
(i) Comprehension of given passages. (ii) precise Writing. (iii) Usage and Vocabulary. (iv) Short Essays. |
Papers to be counted for merit |
||
Paper-II |
General Studies-I |
|
Paper-III |
General Studies-II |
|
Paper-IV |
General Studies-III |
|
Paper-V |
General Studies-IV |
|
Paper-VI |
Optional Subject - Paper 1 |
Refer to the official notification for optional subjects and topics. |
Paper-VII |
Optional Subject - Paper 1I |
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will shortly make the UPSC CSE Prelims Admit Card available on its official website. Candidates must present their UPSC IAS Admit Card 2024 in order to enter the exam centre. Those who do not comply will be barred from taking the UPSC IAS Recruitment 2024 exam.
Simply follow these simple steps to obtain your 2024 admission card:
Step 1: Go to the UPSC website's official page.
Step 2: Click on the ADMIT CARD tab on the homepage and click the, “Download UPSC IAS (Prelims) Admit Card 2024” link.
Step 3: Enter your login information, i.e. your Reg. No. and Password and your Admit Card will be displayed on the screen.
Step 4: Save the Admit Card PDF to your device and print out two or three copies of it for later use.
The UPSC Civil Services Examination Result 2024 will be released once the examination procedure is completed. The results for each stage will be posted on the commission's official website. You can access your UPSC IAS results by entering the URL mentioned below. After the exam, the link for the UPSC IAS Prelims/Mains 2024 will be activated.
After the exam selection process is completed, the IAS Cut Off 2024 for Prelims, Mains, and Final Selection, as well as the IAS Result 2024, will be released. The IAS Prelims 2024 will be held on 16 June 2024. This year, the expected UPSC Prelims 2024 cut-off is 85-90 marks.
Previously, UPSC announced the IAS cut-off 2023 for Prelims, Mains, and Final Interview.
The UPSC Final Cut-Off 2023
Remember, the UPSC IAS Examination is a challenging yet immensely rewarding journey. With dedicated preparation and a focused approach, success is within reach.