IAS Exam Pattern & Syllabus
Last verified 31 Jul 2026
The UPSC Civil Services Examination (IAS) exam pattern is set out below. Yes — one third of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer in the Preliminary Examination. There is no negative marking in the Main Examination, which is entirely descriptive.
UPSC Civil Services Examination (IAS) exam pattern
| Paper | Subjects | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims Paper-I | General Studies | 100 | 200 | 2 hours |
| Prelims Paper-II | CSAT — comprehension, reasoning, basic numeracy (qualifying at 33%) | 80 | 200 | 2 hours |
| Mains Paper-A | Indian Language (qualifying) | Descriptive | 300 | 3 hours |
| Mains Paper-B | English (qualifying) | Descriptive | 300 | 3 hours |
| Mains Paper-I | Essay | Descriptive | 250 | 3 hours |
| Mains Paper-II to V | General Studies I, II, III and IV | Descriptive | 250 each | 3 hours each |
| Mains Paper-VI and VII | Optional Subject Paper 1 and Paper 2 | Descriptive | 250 each | 3 hours each |
| Personality Test | Interview board | — | 275 | — |
Total marks
Mains written 1750 marks + Personality Test 275 marks = 2025 marks.
Where to get the official syllabus
The complete syllabus is printed inside the Examination Notice itself, in the section headed "Scheme and Subjects for the Examination". UPSC does not publish a separate syllabus document, so the notice PDF linked at the foot of this page is the authoritative source.
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.
Answering conventions UPSC enforces
- Question papers are set in both Hindi and English, and answers may be written in either.
- Illegible handwriting attracts a deduction from the total marks — this is stated explicitly in the notice.
- Credit is given for orderly, effective and exact expression with economy of words. Marks are not awarded for superficial knowledge.
- Non-programmable scientific calculators are allowed in conventional (descriptive) papers only, never in objective papers.
- Only the international form of Indian numerals (1, 2, 3…) may be used.