UPSC IAS Exam 2020 - Notification, Dates, Eligibility, Application Process, Pattern and Syllabus

UPSC IAS Exam 2020 - Dates

UPSC IAS Eligibility Criteria 2020

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

1. a Citizen of India, or
2. a Citizen of Nepal, or
3. a Subject of Bhutan, or
4. a Tibetan refugee, who came over to India before 1st January 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, or
5. 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 with the intention of permanently settling in India.

Educational Qualification

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

Age limit

The lower age limit for UPSC 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:

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 number of attempts.

Read More: UPSC Eligibility Criteria 

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 centre level. At times, they also get posted on deputation to the various posts on Central Government.

IAS Career Structure

In 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.

UPSC IAS Application Form 2020

UPSC IAS Exam 2020 application form will be available from 12th February 2020 onwards. Aspirants preparing for UPSC IAS 2020 exam need to register online from the official website - upsconline.nic.in.

Check the procedure to fill the form for UPSC IAS Exam 2020

1. Check the eligibility for UPSC IAS exam before start applying.
2. Visit UPSC official website upsconline.nic.in and click on “Online Application For Various Examinations of UPSC”
3. Fill the details asked in Part 1 of Registration and complete the process of Part 1 of UPSC IAS prelims exam application
4. 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.
5. Confirmation email will be sent to your registered email once IAS application form filling is done.

List of posts under UPSC Civil Services Exam

UPSC IAS Admit Card 2020

Admit card / Hall ticket for UPSC IAS prelims exam will be released on April 2020 (tentative) candidates can download the UPSC IAS exam admit card from the official website (upsc.gov.in) once the admit card is released for UPSC Civil Services Prelims Exam.

Read More: UPSC Admit Card Download Procedure

UPSC 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.

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 UPSC IAS exam mains. The total marks are 200.

UPSC IAS Mains Pattern

*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 IAS Mains exam. Qualified candidates need to appear before the UPSC board for interview. The IAS interview is conducted to assess the personality of candidates. The marks alloted for IAS interview is 275 marks.

Read More: IAS Exam Pattern 

UPSC IAS 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

UPSC IAS Mains Syllabus

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

Literature of any one of the following language:

Books List for UPSC 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:

How to prepare for UPSC IAS exam 2020?

To clear UPSC IAS exam 2020, candidates should prepare for 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 analyse the UPSC previous year question papers to understand the nature and type of questions asked by UPSC, that will help candidates what to read and how to read.

The preparation for 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 books as mentioned in this article. For current affairs preparation candidates need to read one national newspaper regularly (recommended The Hindu / Indian Express). 

Create your own 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 UPSC IAS exam 2020 here

UPSC IAS Exam Prelims Answer Key

UPSC releases the official answer key for 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 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

UPSC IAS Exam Result

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

Find the expected dates of UPSC IAS exam results provided below:

UPSC IAS Exam Cut off marks

IAS Cut off marks is 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:

UPSC 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 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 UPSC IAS exam 2020 are listed below:

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 UPSC 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 skilful 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 criticise 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 incompetency 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. The aim of this decision is 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 IAS Full form?

Q. What is UPSC IAS Exam?

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

Q. What is the salary of the IAS Officer?

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

Q. When UPSC releases notification for IAS Exam?

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

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

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 IAS prelims exam to qualify for UPSC IAS Mains?

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

Q. What is the full form of UPSC?

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

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

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

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

Q. What qualification required for IAS and IPS?

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

Q. How many attempts can I give for UPSC IAS Exam?

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

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

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

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

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

Q. What is the syllabus of UPSC IAS exam?

Q. What is the job of an IAS officer?

Q. What rank should you get for IAS?

Q. What is a foundation course for IAS?