UPSC ESE 2026: Notification, Vacancy, Syllabus, Cut Off, Result

UPSC ESE (Engineering Services Examination) is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit for Group A and Group B engineering posts across the Indian Railways, Central Engineering Services, Military Engineer Services, Central Water Engineering Service, Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Indian Naval Armament Service and the Indian Radio Regulatory Service. The ESE 2027 notification declares approximately 480, including 19 for Persons with Benchmark Disability; the ESE 2026 notification declared approximately 474.

UPSC ESE selection process

1. Preliminary Examination — Stage I (objective)
2. Main Examination — Stage II (conventional, descriptive)
3. Personality Test

UPSC ESE selection runs through the stages below, each of which must be cleared in sequence.

1. Preliminary Examination — Stage I (objective)
2. Main Examination — Stage II (conventional, descriptive)
3. Personality Test

Exam pattern by stage

Document verification

UPSC verifies eligibility against original documents only after a candidate has qualified for the Interview or Personality Test. Until that point, admission to every stage is purely provisional — the issue of an e-Admit Card does not mean your candidature has been cleared. A candidate can therefore sit and clear a paper and still be found ineligible later.

Final merit

Merit is prepared from the marks that count for this examination, and posts are allotted by merit-cum-preference against the confirmed vacancies. Ties are broken by rules published by the Commission — typically the marks in the compulsory papers, and where those are equal, seniority in age.

UPSC ESE exam pattern

Total marks

Prelims 500 + Mains 600 + Personality Test 200 = 1300 marks.

Negative marking

Yes — one third of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer in the Preliminary Examination. The Main Examination is conventional and carries no negative marking.

UPSC does not normalise marks

This is the single most common misconception carried over from SSC. UPSC conducts each paper in one sitting with one question paper, so there are no shifts to equate and no normalisation formula. A published UPSC cut off is a raw mark you could actually have scored on the paper — which is why the figures are clean numbers rather than five-decimal scores.

What is next for UPSC ESE

The ESE 2026 Main Examination was held on 21 June 2026, its result was declared on 24 July 2026 and the Personality Tests run from 21 September to 30 October 2026. The ESE 2027 notification was released on 16 September 2026 (applications closed 6 October 2026), with the Preliminary Examination on 31 January 2027.

ESE Eligibility

UPSC ESE eligibility requires the following. A degree in Engineering from a recognised university, or Sections A and B of the Institution Examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India), or an equivalent recognised qualification. Candidates apply under one of four disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, or Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering. The age limit is 21 to 30 years as on 1 January 2027 for ESE 2027 — born between 2 January 1997 and 1 January 2006.

Educational qualification

A degree in Engineering from a recognised university, or Sections A and B of the Institution Examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India), or an equivalent recognised qualification. Candidates apply under one of four disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, or Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering.

Age limit

21 to 30 years as on 1 January 2027 for ESE 2027 — born between 2 January 1997 and 1 January 2006. (ESE 2026 counted age on 1 January 2026: born between 2 January 1996 and 1 January 2005.) The upper limit is relaxable up to 35 years for Government servants of the departments listed in the notice.

Age relaxation

A candidate who belongs to SC, ST or OBC and is also an Ex-serviceman or PwBD candidate is eligible for cumulative relaxation under both heads.

Number of attempts

No limit on attempts within the age window.

Nationality

A candidate must be a citizen of India, or fall within the other categories of nationality set out in the Examination Notice — which for most services include subjects of Nepal and Bhutan, Tibetan refugees who came to India before 1 January 1962, and persons of Indian origin who have migrated from certain countries with the intention of permanently settling in India.

ESE Application Form

UPSC ESE applications are submitted online at upsconline.nic.in. Since 2025 UPSC uses a four-module portal, and three of those modules can be completed before the notification is even published.

Important dates — ESE 2026

Application fee

₹200. Female, SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempted.

The URN and the Common Application Form

UPSC issues every candidate a Universal Registration Number (URN), which is registered once in a lifetime and is common to every UPSC examination. The Application Number, by contrast, is generated per examination and changes each time. Keep both — UPSC asks for them in any future correspondence.

How to apply

1. Create an account on upsconline.nic.in.
2. Complete Universal Registration to generate your URN. This can be done at any time — you do not need to wait for a notification.
3. Fill the Common Application Form (CAF) with your personal details, qualification and category, and upload the supporting documents. A live photograph must be captured at this stage in addition to the uploaded photo.
4. Open the examination-specific module during the application window, choose your centre and options, pay the fee and submit.

UPSC advises using an Aadhaar card as the identity document, because it verifies automatically and avoids manual checks later.

Correcting your application

UPSC provides a one-time facility to update the URN profile. Changes made to the profile do not flow back into applications already submitted — they apply only to applications made after the profile is re-locked. This catches people out every cycle.

ESE Vacancy

UPSC ESE vacancies for ESE 2027: approximately 480, including 19 for Persons with Benchmark Disability (ESE 2026: approximately 474).

Posts covered

Group A and Group B engineering posts across the Indian Railways, Central Engineering Services, Military Engineer Services, Central Water Engineering Service, Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Indian Naval Armament Service and the Indian Radio Regulatory Service.

Pay

Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹56,100 basic) at entry.

How UPSC announces vacancies

UPSC publishes an approximate vacancy figure in the Examination Notice and states in the same paragraph that the number is liable to alteration. The final figure is settled once the cadre controlling authorities confirm their requirements, which is usually after the Main Examination. The number in the notice is therefore an indication, not a commitment.

Reservation

Vacancies are reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark Disability as fixed by the Government. The notice sets out the category-wise break-up, including the sub-categories of disability against which each PwBD vacancy is identified.

ESE Salary & Job Profile

UPSC ESE posts carry Pay Level 10 of the 7th CPC Pay Matrix (₹56,100 basic) at entry, plus Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Transport Allowance.

Posts and pay

Group A and Group B engineering posts across the Indian Railways, Central Engineering Services, Military Engineer Services, Central Water Engineering Service, Indian Ordnance Factories Service, Indian Naval Armament Service and the Indian Radio Regulatory Service.

Allowances

Because HRA and Transport Allowance are city-linked, two officers on identical basic pay take home noticeably different amounts — a metro posting pays more in allowances than a district posting, though the district posting usually comes with official accommodation and a vehicle.

Career progression

Promotion follows time scales fixed for the service, moving through Junior Time Scale, Senior Time Scale, Junior Administrative Grade, Selection Grade and above. The pay matrix levels rather than the entry salary are what make these posts competitive over a career.