Civil Services Examination Structure
The Civil Services Examination is the Union Public Service Commission's recruitment examination for the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, and other Group A and Group B civil services. The 2026 notification describes the exam as a sequence of Preliminary Examination, Main Examination, and Interview/Personality Test, with only the Main written papers and interview marks counted for final ranking.1
2026 Schedule
UPSC notified the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026 on 4 February 2026, set the preliminary examination date as 24 May 2026, and listed 27 February 2026 at 18:00 as the last date for applications in the examination notification archive.2
The 2026 notice said the preliminary examination would recruit for approximately 933 vacancies, including 33 vacancies reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disability categories; UPSC noted that the final vacancy number could change after cadre-controlling authorities confirmed firm numbers.1
Preliminary Examination
The Preliminary Examination has two objective-type papers, each carrying 200 marks. UPSC treats the preliminary stage as a screening test for admission to the Main Examination, and preliminary marks do not count toward the final order of merit.1
General Studies Paper II in the Preliminary Examination is qualifying, with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33 percent. UPSC draws the list for the Main Examination using the 33 percent criterion in GS Paper II and the qualifying marks it determines for General Studies Paper I.1
Wrong answers in the objective papers carry negative marking. For a wrong answer, one-third of the marks assigned to that question is deducted; if a candidate marks more than one answer, UPSC treats it as a wrong answer; unanswered questions carry no penalty.1
Main Examination
The Main Examination consists of a written examination and an Interview/Personality Test. The written examination has nine conventional essay-type papers, of which two language papers are qualifying in nature.1
The qualifying papers are Paper A, an Indian language selected from languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, and Paper B, English; each carries 300 marks and does not count for ranking. The seven merit-counting written papers are Essay, four General Studies papers, and two papers in one optional subject, each carrying 250 marks.1
The merit-counting written papers add up to 1,750 marks. The Interview/Personality Test carries 275 marks, bringing the grand total for final merit to 2,025 marks.1
Optional Subject
For the Main Examination, candidates choose one optional subject from a list that includes Agriculture, Anthropology, Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, Geography, History, Law, Mathematics, Political Science and International Relations, Public Administration, Sociology, and several other disciplines. Literature of one of the listed languages, including English and languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Sanskrit, and others, is also available as an optional subject.1
Ranking
UPSC summons candidates for the Interview/Personality Test after they obtain the minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the Main Examination as fixed by the Commission. The 2026 notice says the number of candidates called for the Interview/Personality Test will be about twice the number of vacancies to be filled.1
Final ranking is based on marks obtained in the Main Examination written part and the Interview/Personality Test. Service allocation then uses the candidate's rank and the preferences expressed for services and posts.1