IAS 2026 Recruitment: Eligibility, Vacancies, Application Dates & Process

The Union Public Service Commission will release the UPSC IAS 2026 notification on January 14 on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The Commission will also activate the UPSC CSE (IAS) 2026 online application link on its website. The last date for the UPSC IAS application form is February 3, 2026.

The UPSC CSE (IAS) prelims will be conducted on May 24, 2026.

The Union Public Service Commission mention the application start and end date in the official notification. The Commission released the IAS 2024 notification online on February 14 and mentioned that the last date to apply for the IAS 2024 exam is March 5, 2024.

Every year, the UPSC provide the time frame of 20 days to fill out the IAS applications online. 

The IAS prelims exam is an objective type exam. The IAS prelims is conducted offline and the candidates need to mark their answers on the answer sheet (OMR). There are two papers in the IAS prelims exam. The details of IAS prelims exam is given below:

• General Studies Paper 1
• General Studies Paper 2 ( Aptitude Test)

The Aptitude paper is qualifying only and the passing marks in the aptitude paper is  67.5 marks out of 200.

 The candidates should prepare the five fundamental subjects as mentioned for the IAS prelims exam. These fundamental subjects are

• History
• Geography
• Economy
• Polity
• Current Affairs
• Environment issues
• General Science

The candidates should also prepare the Environmental issues because they have gained more importance in the recent years.

 As the name suggest, the IAS main exam has 9 descriptive papers. The details of these papers are given below:

No, the Union Public Service Commission does not change the IAS syllabus every year. The Commission is required to take the approval of the Ministry of Personnel before changing the syllabus of the IAS exam. So we can say that, the IAS syllabus does not change every year. 

The candidates need to read the Civil Service Exam Notification (IAS notification) as released by the Union Public Service Commission to know all the topics mentioned in the IAS syllabus.

In the IAS interview test, candidates will be judged on different skills mentioned below:

• Mental Alertness
• Critical Powers of Assimilation
• Clear and Logical Exposition
• Balance of Judgement
• Variety and Depth of Interest
• Ability for Social Cohesion and Leadership
• Intellectual and Moral Integrity

The above information is taken from the official notification and mentioned by the Union Public Service Commission.

The Union Public Service Commission made changes in the IAS 2025 application process. The Commission made changes the document uploading process. Now the candidates are required to upload the documents to claim any reservation in the Civil Service (IAS) 2025 exam with the application form. 

The Commission made changes in the photo uploading process  too in the IAS application last year. The candidates were required to show the date of photograph on the image. The photograph, uploaded by candidate should not be more than 10 days old from the start of the online application process. The candidates need to check the official IAS 2024 notification pdf. 

The other important point for uploading the image is 

• The name of candidate and the date on which the photograph was taken are clearly mentioned on the photograph.
• The candidate’s face should occupy 3/4th of the space in the photograph.

The UPSC examination recruits candidates for 24 different Civil Services posts through the Civil Service Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

Some of the various posts that are recruited through the UPSC examination include:

• Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
• Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
• Indian Police Service (IPS)
• Indian Revenue Service (IRS)
• Indian Audit and Accounts Service
• Indian Civil Accounts Service
• Indian Corporate Law Service
• Indian Defence Accounts Service
• Indian Defence Estates Service
• Indian Information Service
• Indian Ordnance Factories Service
• Indian Postal Service
• Indian Railway Accounts Service
• Indian Railway Personnel Service
• Indian Railway Traffic Service
• Indian Trade Service
• Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Services

The last date to apply for the UPSC IAS 2025 exam will be February 21, 2025. The application form is available at upsc.gov.in. Union Public Service Commission released the IAS 2024 notification January 22, 2025 and with its release, the Commission also activate the IAS 2025 application link for the candidates.

Candidates between the ages of 21 and 32 are eligible to apply. The IAS 2025 preliminary exam will be held on May 25, 2025 and the main exam will be held in September 2025.