IAS Exam 2020 - Prelims Admit Card, Dates, Syllabus, and Pattern

IAS exam 2020: Union Public Service Commission has released the revised exam calendar of the UPSC Civil Services exam on June 5, 2020. As per the revised calendar, UPSC IAS prelims would now be conducted on October 4, 2020 while the UPSC IAS Mains exam will be conducted on January 8, 2021. The commission has postponed the IAS exam due to COVID - 19 pandemic situation.

Previously, IAS Prelims 2020 was scheduled to be held on May 31, 2020 while Mains exam was scheduled for September 18, 2020. IAS exam is conducted to recruit candidates for the prestigious civil services of the country.

IAS exam is conducted in three stages i.e. Prelims, Mains, and Personality Test. As the exam is conducted nationwide, it is highly competitive and considered to be the toughest exam in the country.

Many candidates work hard to crack the exam but they fail to ace the IAS exam in the first attempt. A right preparation strategy and accurate guidance can help you nail the exam and you can make it to the reputed administrative positions of the country.

To help you out to understand what the exam is about and what all criteria you need to fulfil to appear in the exam, we have curated this article to give you detailed information on the IAS exam. So, let's go through the article without wasting a bit of a second.

Check Revised UPSC Exam Calendar 2020

UPSC 2020 Recent Update

Union Public Service Commission has released IAS Admit Card in online mode at its official website on September 1, 2020. The admit card will be available up to 4 PM on October 4, 2020. Candidates can download the IAS admit card here.

IAS exam 2020 - Highlights

Exam Conducting Body	Union Public Service Commission
Full-Form	India Administrative Services
Periodicity	Once in a Year
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/
Application Mode	Online (Over)
Application Fee	100
Exam Mode	Offline
Stages of Exam	Prelims, Mains, Personality Test
Number of Vacancies	796
Helpline Number	011-23098543 / 23385271 / 23381125 / 23098591

IAS exam 2020 Important Dates

UPSC has released the exam dates of prelims and mains exam in UPSC exam calendar 2020. Later, in the IAS notification 2020, the commission has released all the dates of the various events of the exam. In the table given below, we have curated the list of all the exam events along with its dates.

Events	Dates
IAS exam notification 2020	February 12, 2020
UPSC IAS Application Form Filling Starts	February 12, 2020
UPSC IAS Application Form Filling Ends	March 3, 2020
UPSC IAS Prelims Admit Card Release	September 1, 2020
UPSC IAS Prelims Exam 2020	May 31, 2020 October 4, 2020
UPSC IAS Prelims Result 2020	To be Notified
UPSC IAS Mains Admit Card Release	To be Notified
UPSC IAS Mains Exam 2020	September 18, 2020 January 8, 2021
UPSC IAS Mains Result 2020	To be Notified
UPSC IAS Personality Test 2020	March 2021

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IAS exam 2020 Eligibility Criteria

Nationality

For All India Services (IAS and IPS), the candidate must be a citizen of India. For Other Services like IRS, IAAS, IRTS, etc., the candidate must be either:

a Citizen of India, or
a Citizen of Nepal, or
a Subject of Bhutan, or
a Tibetan refugee, who came over to India before 1st January 1962 to permanently settle in India, or
a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam to permanently settle in India.

Educational Qualification

Candidates must hold the graduation or equivalent qualification from the recognized universities.

Age limit

The lower age limit for IAS exam 2020 is 21 years as on August 2020 and the upper age limit is 32 years.

The age relaxation is provided for OBC, SC, ST, Physically challenged and Ex-servicemen. The age relaxation detail is mentioned below:

Category	Upper age limit after relaxation
OBC	35 years
SC / ST	37 years
Physically Challenged	42 years
Ex-Servicemen	37 years
Defense Services Personnel disabled	35 years
ECOs/SSCOs - completed five years of Military Service	37 years

Number of Attempts

UPSC provides 6 attempts IAS exam in general Category, For OBC the number of attempts is 9 and SC / ST - there is no restriction on several attempts.

Read More: UPSC Eligibility Criteria

IAS officer's Salary

Grade	Pay Scale	Grade Pay	Post
Junior Scale	50,000-1,50,000	16,500	Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), SDO or Sub Collector
Senior Time Scale	50,000-1,50,001	20,000	District Magistrate (DM), collector, joint secretary of a government ministry
Junior Administrative Grade	50,000-1,50,002	23,000	Special secretary or head of various government departments
Selection Grade	1,00,000-2,00,000	23,000	Secretary to a ministry
Super Time Scale	1,00,000-2,00,000	26,000	Principal Secretary
Above Super Time Scale	1,00,000-2,00,000	30,000	varies
Apex Scale	2,25,000 (Fixed scale)	NA	Chief Secretary of states, union Secretaries in-charge of various ministries of Govt of India
Cabinet Secretary Grade	2,50,000 (Fixed)	NA	Cabinet Secretary of India

IAS Career Options

IAS officers hold the various administrative posts like District Collector, Heads the Departments and Head the Public Enterprises at the state and center level. At times, they also get posted on deputation to the various posts on Central Government.

IAS Career Structure

Entry Level	SDM (Sub-Divisional Magistrate in a sub-division of a district or section officer at Central Govt.
	District Magistrate - Collector in a district or Deputy Secretary in Central Govt.
	Special Secretary of State govt.
	Principal Secretaries in State Govt / Additional Secretary in Central Govt
Top Most Position in IAS	Chief Secretary of a state / Union Secretary in the various Ministries of Govt of India.

In the UPSC Civil Services exam, based on rank and requirement, the cadre system will be allocated to candidates by DoPT. It is not necessary, that every once will get the home cadre, candidates may get any state allocated based on the availability, rank, category and various other factors.

IAS exam 2020 Application Form

IAS exam 2020 application form was available till March 3, 2020. Aspirants preparing for UPSC IAS 2020 exam had to register online from the official website - upsconline.nic.in.

Check the procedure to fill the form for IAS exam 2020

Visit UPSC official website upsconline.nic.in and click on “Online Application For Various Examinations of UPSC”
Fill the details asked in Part 1 of Registration and complete the process of Part 1 of UPSC IAS prelims exam application
Login to Part II registration by entering your date of birth and registration id and make the payment, upload photo, signature, and ID details to complete the application process.
A confirmation email will be sent to your registered email once the IAS application form filling is done.

List of posts under UPSC Civil Services Exam

UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE) - Group A Services
Indian Administrative Services (IAS)	Indian Civil Accounts Services
Indian Foreign Services (IFS)	Indian Railway Traffic Services (IRTS)
Indian Police Services (IPS)	Indian Railway Accounts Services (IRAS)
Indian P & T Accounts & Finance Services	Indian Railway Personnel Services
Indian Audit and Accounts Services (IAAS)	Indian Railway Protection Force (Assistant Security Commissioner)
Indian Revenue Services (Customs and Central Excise) - IRS Customs	Indian Defence Estates Services
Indian Defence Accounts Services	Indian Information Services (Junior Grade)
Indian Revenue Services (I.T.) - IRS (I.T.)	Indian Trade Services, Group 'A' (Gr. III)
Indian Ordnance Factories Services (Assistant Works Manager, Administration)	Indian Corporate Law Services
Indian Postal Services (IPoS)

UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE) - Group B Services
Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services (Section Officer's Grade)	Pondicherry Civil Services
Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Services	Pondicherry Police Services
Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Services

IAS exam 2020 Admit Card

IAS Admit card / Hall ticket for UPSC prelims exam has been released on September 1, 2020. Candidates can download the IAS exam admit card from the official website (upsc.gov.in).

IAS exam Pattern

UPSC IAS Prelims Exam Pattern

The UPSC IAS Prelims exam is divided into two papers: Paper 1 for General Studies and Paper 2 for Civil Services Aptitude Test.

Number of Papers	2
Type of Questions	MCQs
Number of Questions in GS Paper 1	100
Number of Questions in GS Paper 2	80
Total Marks	400
Exam Duration	2 Hours
Negative Marks	1/3rd marks will be deducted for wrong answers
Medium of Exam	English and Hindi
Mode of Exam	Offline - Mark answers on OMR Sheet
Cut off Marks based on	GS Paper 1 alone (GS Paper 2 Qualifying in nature)

Note: Paper 2 or the CSAT paper is a qualifying paper and the cut-off marks are 33% of the total marks of the CSAT paper. A candidate needs to score 66 marks (the 33% cut-off score) to qualify for the IAS exam mains. The total marks are 200.

UPSC IAS Mains Pattern

Total Number of Papers in UPSC Mains Exam	9
Qualifying papers - marks not included in the merit	2 (English and Indian Language*)
Competitive papers - marks included in the merit	7 (1 Essay Paper, 4 GS Papers, 2 Optional Papers)
Exam Type	Subjective
Competitive papers marks	250 Marks for each paper
Duration of Exam	3 hours for each paper
Total Marks in UPSC IAS Mains exam	1750 Marks
Exam Mode	Offline
Medium of Exam	English, Hindu and all Indian Languages listed under schedule 8 of Indian Constitution

*Note: The only exception to the paper A format on Indian Language is for candidates belonging to or appearing from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.

UPSC IAS Interview Pattern

UPSC shortlist candidates based on the performance in the IAS Mains exam. Qualified candidates need to appear before the UPSC board for an interview. The IAS interview is conducted to assess the personality of the candidates. The marks allotted for the IAS interview is 275 marks.

Read More: IAS Exam Pattern

IAS exam 2020 Syllabus

UPSC provides the IAS exam syllabus at the time of notification every year. In the syllabus, there is no change since the 2015 exam. Download UPSC Syllabus for IAS exam here

UPSC IAS Prelims Syllabus

GS Paper 1	GS Paper 2 (CSAT)
Modern History and INM	Comprehension
India and World Geography	Logical Reasoning
Polity and Governance	Decision Making
Economic and Social Development	General Mental Ability & Data Interpretation
Ecology and Environment	Class 10 Level numeracy
Science and Technology	Interpersonal Skills and Communication
Current Affairs	English language comprehension

UPSC IAS Mains Syllabus

Paper	Syllabus Topics	Marks
Paper A	Indian languages (candidates should be select one of the Indian languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution). (Qualifying)	300
Paper B	English (Qualifying)	300
Paper I	Essay	250
Paper-II	General Studies I (Indian heritage and culture, History and Geography of India and the World)	250
Paper III	General Studies II (Governance, constitution, polity, social justice, and International relations)management	250
Paper IV	General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, biodiversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)	250
Paper V	General Studies IV (ethics, integrity, and aptitude)	250
Paper VI and VII	Two papers on optional. Candidate should opt subject from the list provided by UPSC.	500

List of Optional Subjects included in UPSC IAS Mains Exam

For the UPSC CSE Mains, there is a list of optional subjects. The candidate has an option to choose only one of the listed subjects. In other words, there is only 1 optional subject to write during the UPSC CSE mains.

Click on the icon to go to the respective optional subject syllabus page.

Veterinary

Anthropology

Botany

Chemistry

Civil Engg

Commerce

Economics

Electrical

Geography

Geology

History

Law

Management

Mathematics

Mechanical

Medical

Philosophy

Physics

PSIR

Psychology

Pub Ad

Sociology

Statistics

Zoology

Agriculture

The literature of any one of the following language:

Books List for IAS exam Preparation 2020

In UPSC Civil Services exam candidates need to stick to standard preparation books and read these books as many times as possible instead of reading the same subject from multiple books.

The important books for IAS Exam preparation are listed below:

Subject	Must Read (NCERT)	Primary Material	Reference Material
History	OLD NCERTs: Ancient India RS Sharma Medieval India Sathish Chandra Modern India Bipan Chandra New NCERTs: 9th to 12th Standard New NCERTs Themes in Indian History	Brief History of Modern India (Spectrum)
Geography	Geography NCERTs 6th to 12th Contemporary India (9th and 10th standard) Fundamentals of Physical Geography (11th Standard) India Physical Environment (11th Standard) Fundamentals of Human Geography (12th Standard) India People and Economy (12th Standard)	Certificate Physical and Human Geography by Goh Cheng Leong	School Atlas - Oxford or Orient BlackSwan School Atlas
Indian Polity	Political Science NCERTs (11th and 12th Standard) Indian Constitution at Work Politics in India Since Independence	Indian Polity - Laxmikanth
Science	Science NCERTs (6th to 12th Standard)	Hindu Newspaper Science and Tech Weekly Column (Sunday)
Indian Economy	Economy 11th and 12th NCERTs Micro and Macroeconomics Indian Economic Development	Indian Economy - Ramesh Singh
Art and Culture	Art and Culture NCERTs (11th Standard) Introduction to Indian Art	Indian Art and Culture By Nitin Singhania
Environment	Science Biology 12th Standard NCERT (Last four Chapters 13 to 16)	Shankar IAS Environment Material (Act, Policies, and Convention)	IGNOU Environment notes.
Current Affairs		The Hindu or Indian Express	Live Mint, Economic Times, Business Standard
Magazines		Yojana	Kurukshetra Frontline Economic and Political Weekly
Year Book		India Year Book - PIB Publication

How to prepare for IAS exam 2020?

To clear the IAS exam 2020, candidates should prepare for the civil services exam with complete dedication and hard work.

Before starting the IAS exam preparation, candidates should understand the IAS exam pattern and IAS syllabus. Also, they need to analyze the UPSC previous year question papers to understand the nature and type of questions asked by UPSC, which will help candidates what to read and how to read.

The preparation for the IAS exam starts with NCERT textbooks, which provides the basics and conceptual knowledge of all syllabus subject topics. Apart from NCERTs, candidates need to follow one standard book as mentioned in this article. For current affairs, preparation candidates need to read one national newspaper regularly (recommended The Hindu / Indian Express).

Create your annual plan and daily plan, which will be helpful to structure your IAS exam preparation.

For more detailed preparation strategy read our Smart Strategy with month-wise preparation tips to crack IAS exam 2020.

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IAS exam Prelims Answer Key

UPSC releases the official answer key for the IAS prelims exam once the exam process is over, i.e. after the declaration of Final result. Candidates can check the official answer key and their marks in the upsc website (upsc.gov.in).

We at NeoStencil in association with top IAS coaching institutes release the IAS answer key on the day of the UPSC prelims exam to help aspirants check their expected score using our score calculator and predict the cut off marks to guide aspirants for further IAS mains exam preparation.

UPSC Prelims 2019: Answer Key with Score Calculator

IAS exam Result

For the civil services exam, UPSC releases three stages of exam result: IAS Prelims result, IAS mains Result, and IAS final result. Candidates can check their results on the official website. In the meantime, we at NeoStencil announce the result information on our result pages.

Find the expected dates of IAS exam results provided below:

IAS exam Results 2020	Release Date	Result Page
UPSC IAS Prelims Result	Mid-July, 2020 (Tentative)	Check here
UPSC IAS Mains Result	December 2020/ January 2021 (Tentative)	Check here
UPSC IAS Final Result	March / April 2021	Check here

IAS exam Cut off marks

IAS Cut off marks are the minimum marks required to qualify the exam. UPSC civil services exam is conducted in three stages and at every stage the cut off marks are different - IAS Prelims Cut off, IAS Mains cut off and IAS Final cut off marks.

The cut off marks depend on various factors like the number of vacancies, the difficulty level of the question, the number of applicants. The official cut off marks will be released after the declaration of final results on their official website.

Candidates can check the official cut off marks of 2018 provided below:

Category	UPSC IAS Prelims Cut off 2018	UPSC IAS Mains Cut off 2018	UPSC IAS Final Cut off 2018
General	98	774	982
OBC	96.66	732	938
SC	84	719	912
ST	83.34	719	912

Read more: IAS Cut Off Marks

IAS exam Online Coaching

We at NeoStencil in association with top IAS coaching institute offer UPSC IAS online coaching for all stages of IAS exam - Prelims, Mains and Interview, which also includes prelims and test series.

In the 2018 result, 124+ candidates are online students of NeoStencil, in that 5 toppers in the top 20. Overall along with our partner institutes, we delivered 500+ results in the UPSC civil services exam 2018.

List of Online courses offered for IAS exam 2020 are listed below:

UPSC GS Paper 1 Courses	UPSC Public Administration Courses	UPSC Political Science Coaching
UPSC GS Paper 2 Courses	UPSC Sociology Coaching	UPSC Economics Optional Coaching
UPSC GS Paper 3 Courses	UPSC Philosophy Optional Coaching	UPSC General Studies Coaching
UPSC GS Paper 4 Courses	UPSC Geography Optional Coaching	UPSC Current Affairs Coaching
UPSC Essay Courses	UPSC Anthropology Coaching	UPSC GS Test Series
UPSC coaching online courses

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What is IAS?

Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is classified as a 'Category A service' in the government service. IAS, IPS, and IFS are three of the most sought-after posts. IAS officers are given strategic positions in the Union Government, State Government, and PSUs.

It is very important to know what IAS is before one takes a plunge into this competitive warfare. A person appointed through the Civil Services Exam has personal morality and professional responsibility, to oversee important matters related to the able administrative functioning of a vast country like India. People who have complete information about Indian Civil Services are motivated enough to take multiple attempts to crack the IAS exam.

IAS officers initially work at the sub-divisional level in the state administration. They also work as a sub-divisional magistrate, overseeing administration/development of the specialist work area they are assigned to. An IAS Officer is expected to perform diverse roles like that of a Collector, Commissioner, Chief Secretary, PSU Head, Cabinet Secretary and more. There is an ample scope to gain more experience and handle challenges to make a positive impact on a million lives.

History of IAS exam

When India was declared a democratic nation, it was a moment to reckon with. Going strong and globally unified with its democratic beliefs and values, at the Centre and state level both, these public representatives are successfully performing the duties of a responsible elected official. The system at the central and state level need to work in sync to bring a change. One needs to make judicious use of the evolving state machinery to create and execute effective policy-making decisions.

The set of skillful and knowledgeable government officials are formally called bureaucrats.

The history of Indian Civil Services under the British dictation was a one-way command structure. It was the political system existing during the British Raj which led to the implementation of wrong policies for Indian governance.

Factually, only later, Article 311 of the Constitution in 1949 was conceptualized to encourage bureaucrats to inquire or even criticize their superiors. If they did so on justified grounds, there was no fear of losing their jobs in the pretext of an imposed penalty for incompetence or individual wrongdoing by their superiors or the system.

The apex court's decision has given a further flex-muscle to the Indian Civil Service officers. It has recently notified the Centre and the State Governments to establish a Civil Services Board and handle the bureaucratic affairs of transfers, postings, promotions, inquiries, rewards and punishments, disciplinary action and stipulating job tenure of the bureaucrats. This decision aims to reduce dependency on political interference concerning bureaucracy.

Today, the Indian system of bureaucracy is focused towards delivering in good public faith and a step towards achieving the objective is to enthuse the masses and thus raise the public participation level, entice the youths to join the Indian Civil Services system and thus, make a big leap forwards in general administrative procedure.

Roles & Responsibilities of an IAS officer

An IAS Officer is part of the administrative unit of the executive branch of the Government of the Republic of India. The prime responsibility of an Indian Civil Service official is to handle the various Government Affairs including the officers appointed at the central or the state level.

A Civil Services officer plays a significant role in the administration and execution of the day-to-day matters concerning the vast landscape of our country's governance. An IAS Officer has the authority to appropriate all important matters, specifically the policy-making decisions and is empowered with essence or custodianship to operate the nation.

An IAS Officer is allocated the task of managing various administrative departments and the respective function of each of these departments. Their role can include policy framing, acting in an advisory role to the ministries and the responsibility for effective execution of designated or appointed duties as an IAS officer in charge of the administration of single (small) administrative units.

An IAS officer is also responsible for maintaining the law and order situation, supervising revenue administration and general administration of the designated area under his/her official jurisdiction. Some of the prime functions of an IAS Officer are donning the role of a Chief Development Officer or District Development Commissioner, Executive Magistrate, overseeing and implementing State level and Central Government policies, supervising the expenditure of Public Funds among others.

FAQs related to UPSC Civil Services Exam (IAS, IPS, IRS)

Q. What is the IAS exam?

A. Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer is one of the strong pillars of the Indian bureaucratic system. The IAS exam (Civil Services Exam) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on all India basis to recruit directly for IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS and other Group A and B officers.

The exam is conducted in three phases Prelims, Mains and Interview. The notification for the CSE exam is released by UPSC every year in February month.

Q. What is the salary of the IAS Officer?

A. At the entry-level the salary of an IAS officer after the implementation 7th pay commission is 56000 as basic pay apart from these allowances - DA, HRA, and TA will be provided.

In the IAS officer pay scale, there are various levels as you progress in the ladder your pay scale will increase accordingly. For more read our IAS officer salary article here.

Q. When UPSC releases notification for IAS Exam?

A. UPSC releases the official notification for the Civil Services Preliminary examination in February / March of every year. In the notification, UPSC provides the total number of vacancies, eligibility criteria, Syllabus and all other details related to the civil services exam (CSE).

Q. Can I write the UPSC IAS prelims exam in my regional language?

A. In the UPSC IAS Prelims Exam, the board provides objective questions (MCQs) in English and Hindi Language only.

Q. Can I write my UPSC IAS Mains exam in my regional language?

A. Yes, you can write the UPSC IAS Mains exam in your regional language. UPSC allows candidates to write mains exams in their regional languages which are mentioned in Schedule 8 of the Indian constitution.

List of Languages candidates are allowed to write in UPSC Mains exam - 1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili, (22) Dogri and (23) English

Q. How many marks should I get in the IAS prelims exam to qualify for UPSC IAS Mains?

A. Every year the IAS Prelims exam cut off marks to qualify for UPSC Mains exam varies depending upon the number of vacancies and difficulty level of the question paper.

To be on the safer side to qualify for the mains exam, candidates should secure more than 100+ marks in UPSC Prelims GS Paper 1.

Q. What is the full form of UPSC?

A. Union Public Service Commission is the full form of UPSC. UPSC is the exam conducting body and recommends for various services in the central government vacancy like IAS, IPS, IRS, IFoS, IES, Statistical Officers, Economic Services, Medical Services, Geological Officers and other Group A and Group B services.

Q. What is the total number of vacancies for the UPSC Civil Services Exam?

A. The total number of vacancies varies from 700 to 1100 depending upon the requirement of the Central Government. The exact number of vacancies will be available UPSC Prelims notification.

Q. Every year how many IAS and IPS officers are selected from the Civil Services exam?

A. Out of total vacancies, every year 180 IAS Officers and 150 IPS officers are selected from the Civil Services exam.

Q. What is the minimum qualifying marks for IAS exam Interview?

A. In the IAS interview, there are no minimum qualifying marks. Candidates will be allocated marks based on their interview performance. The maximum marks for the UPSC IAS interview are 275.

Candidates are shortlisted for civil services posts based on Mains written marks out of 1750 and interview marks 275 marks.

Q. What qualifications required for IAS and IPS?

A. The minimum qualification required to become IAS and IPS officer is graduation from a recognized university. For IPS you need to qualify physical fitness test.

Q. Can students apply for IAS Exam if he/she gets a degree from a foreign university?

A. Yes, candidates who graduated from foreign universities can apply for the civil services exam but they should ensure that they need to get the equivalent certificate from the Association of Indian Universities as per the eligibility clause of UPSC notification.

Q. How many attempts can I give for IAS exam?

A. For the General category total 6 attempts, OBC - 9 attempts and for SC/ST there is no upper limit they are eligible to appear for exams till 37 years of age.

Q. How and where to fill the application form for UPSC Civil Services Exam?

A. Candidates appearing for the Civil Services exam need to apply for the exam online. The application form is available on the upsconline.nic.in website.

Q. What is the minimum and maximum age limit of General, OBC, SC, and ST?

A. The minimum age limit to appear for the Civil Services exam is 21 years and maximum age limit varies for different categories. For General - 32 years, OBC - 35 years, SC/ST - 37 years

Q. What is the application fee for IAS Prelims and IAS Mains Exam?

A. The application fee for the IAS Prelims exam is Rs 100; Fee is exempted for SC/ST, PH and women candidates. The application fees for IAS Mains exam is Rs 200.

Q. How to pay the application fee for IAS Prelims and Mains Exam?

A. Candidates can pay the fee in the online mode using debit/credit/net banking or offline from SBI branches.

Q. What if I failed the interview round, will I get another chance?

A. If the candidate failed on the interview round, then he needs to appear for the next Civil Services exam and crack all the phases - Prelims and Mains to appear for Interview.

Q. What is the syllabus of the IAS exam?

A. The syllabus of the IAS exam is provided elaborately on UPSC notification for IAS Prelims and IAS Mains exams for both General Studies and optional subjects.

Q. What is the job of an IAS officer?

A. The functions of the IAS officer are to maintain law and order, revenue management, central and state government schemes implementation and managing day to day activities for the smooth functioning of district administration.

Q. What rank should you get for IAS?

A. The rank is based on the merit score that you get both on IAS mains written and interview cumulatively. Depending upon the category the minimum rank for IAS varies accordingly. As per the last few year data, for general 105-110 rank; for OBC 260 to 280; for SC 580 to 620 and ST 630 to 650. Note: Depending upon the vacancies the minimum rank will vary accordingly.

Q. What is a foundation course for IAS?

A. The foundation course is for officers trainee for those candidates recommended by UPSC based on Civil Services examination