UPSC IAS Exam - Prelims Syllabus

Civil Services Examination - Preliminary Examination Syllabus 

The Preliminary Examination will consist of two papers of objective type (multiple choice questions) and carry a maximum of 400 marks. This examination is meant to serve as a screening test only.

• Only those candidates who are declared by the Commission to have qualified in the Preliminary Examination in the year will be eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.
• The marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination Examination by the candidates who are declared qualified for admission to the Main Examination will not be counted for determining their final order of merit.
• The number of candidates to be admitted to the Main Examination will be about twelve to thirteen times the total an approximate number of vacancies to be filled in the year for various Services and Posts.

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Civil Services Examination - Preliminary Examination Syllabus

Paper I - (200 marks) Duration: 2 Hours

• Current Events of National and International Importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity, and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization.
• General Science.

Paper-II - (200 marks) Duration: 2 Hours

• Comprehension; Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills.
• Logical Reasoning and Analytical Ability.
• Decision Making and Problem Solving.
• General Mental Ability.
• Basic Numeracy (Numbers and their Relations, Orders of Magnitude, etc.) (Class X level).
• Data Interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. — Class X level).

Note 1: Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
Note 2: The questions will be of multiple-choice, objective type.
Note3: Candidates are advised to go through the Syllabus published in this Section for the Preliminary Examination and the Main Examination, as a periodic revision of the syllabus has been done in several subjects.