The Civil Service (IAS) recruitment 2026 will start with the release of official notification. The Union Public Service Commission will release the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) notification on January 14, 2026, to notify the official commencement of IAS recruitment. The Commission will also activate the UPSC CSE(IAS) 2026 application form link on the official website - upsc.gov.in. The candidates will be require to login with their UPSC OTR(One Time Registration) number and password to fill the form. The UPSC will conduct the Civil Service Prelims (CSP) 2026 on May 24, 2026.
The candidates who appeared in the IAS main exam 2025 are waiting for their result. The Commission is expected to release the UPSC main result 2025 in the last week of November. The selected candidates will be called to UPSC Bhawan, New Delhi for the face to face Personality Test.
- UPSC CSE (IAS) 2026 Application
- UPSC IAS 2026 Exam Dates & Schedule
- IAS Prelims Exam 2026
- IAS Main Exam
- IAS interview
- IAS 2025 Recruitment FAQs
UPSC CSE (IAS) 2026 Application
The UPSC Civil Service (IAS) exam recruitment process will take over a year to complete. There will be three stages in the UPSC IAS exam 2026. These thress stages are
- UPSC IAS Prelims Exam
- UPSC IAS Main(written) Exam
- UPSC IAS main (interviews)
The UPSC Civil Service (IAS) recruitment 2026 will start with the application process and end with the release of Cutoff and marksheet of the candidates appeared in the main exam. The Civil Service (IAS) main exam was conducted in the last week of August and the Commission is expected to release the UPSC main result in November 2025.
The candidates must refer to the UPSC notification to get the important details about the IAS eligibility criteria, age limit, number of attempts, list of optional subjects, exam pattern, syllabus and other important constituents of IAS exam. There are around nine lakh candidates who fill the UPSC application for the exam.
Also Read: UPSC Exam Timing 2025
IAS application is one of the most important constituents because one mistake can lead to the rejection of the UPSC application or any wrong detail can lead to the rejection of candidature at a later (at document verification) stage. The service preference and state preference is given by the candidates in the IAS main Detailed Application Form (DAF). It is considered for the service allocation and state cadre allocation. The important point is that it cannot be changed once the form is submitted to the UPSC.
See here: IAS Syllabus
Commonly asked questions
The Union Public Service Commission provides only 23 days to fill the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) application form online. The UPSC IAS 2026 notification was released at upsc.gov.in.The last date to fill the online applications was February 27, 2026.
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.
UPSC IAS 2026 Exam Dates & Schedule
Take a look at the table below for the complete schedule of IAS 2026 exam
| Dates | Past Exam Dates |
|---|---|
| 24 May ' 26 | IAS Prelims 2026 Exam Date |
| May ' 26 | IAS Prelims Admit Card 2026 Issue Date |
| 04 Feb ' 26 - 24 Feb ' 26 | UPSC IAS 2026 Application Dates |
IAS Prelims Exam 2026
The UPSC will conduct the CSP exam on May 24, 2026. The Commission will conduct the IAS prelims exam offline in the pen and paper mode. The Commission will release the IAS Prelims result 2026 within a fortnight from the exam. The selected candidates will be required to fill the Detailed Application Form (DAF-1) to appear in the IAS main exam. The UPSC admit card for the IAS prelims exam is issued three weeks before the exam mentioning the IAS exam centre. There are designated UPSC exam centres at all the state capitals.
See here: IAS cut off
Commonly asked questions
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 must prepare the five fundamental subjects as notified for the IAS prelims exam. These are History, Geography, Economy, Polity, Current Affairs, General Science. The candidates should also prepare the Environmental issues too.
IAS Main Exam
The Union Public Service Commission will conduct the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) Main exam from August 21, 2026. The Commission will conduct the IAS main exam in the pen and paper mode. In the UPSC main exam, the Commission ask the desciptive questions where the candidates are required to write the essay type conventional answers in the question-cum-answer booklet provided by the Commission. There are nine papers in total out of which two language papers are of qualifying in nature only. But they are very important because the evaluation of other answer sheets are subject to the passing of the candidate in this language paper. The IAS main exam syllabus is the broadest in comparison to any other exam.
The structure of the IAS main exam is as follows.
| Paper |
Description |
Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A |
One of the Indian languages to be selected by the candidate from the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the constitution(Qualifying only) |
300 |
| B |
English(Qualifying Only) |
300 |
| 1 |
Essay |
250 |
| 2 |
General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) |
250 |
| 3 |
General Studies –II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations) |
250 |
| 4 |
General Studies –III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management) |
250 |
| 5 |
General Studies –IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) |
250 |
| 6 |
Optional Subject - Paper 1 |
250 |
| 7 |
Optional Subject - Paper 2 |
250 |
| Sub-Total (Written Test) |
1750 |
|
The candidate needs to appear in all the papers and there are individual minimum qualifying marks for each of the general studies paper except the optional subject paper.
The candidates are arranged according to their marks secured in the IAS main (written) exam and the IAS main exam cut off is arrived at. The marks of the last selected candidate serve as the cut off of the exam. Out of six to seven thousand candidates, only around 15 to 17 hundred candidates are selected for the IAS interview.
See here: UPSC IAS Exam Pattern
Commonly asked questions
As the name suggest, the IAS main exam has 9 descriptive papers. The details of these papers are given below:
| Paper | Description | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A | One of the Indian language to be selected by the candidate from the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the constitution (Qualifying only) | 300 |
| B | English (Qualifying Only) | 300 |
| 1 | Essay | 250 |
| 2 | General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) | 250 |
| 3 | General Studies –II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations) | 250 |
| 4 | General Studies –III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management) | 250 |
| 5 | General Studies –IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) | 250 |
| 6 | Optional Subject - Paper 1 | 250 |
| 7 | Optional Subject - Paper 2 | 250 |
IAS interview
The IAS interview tests the suitability of the candidate for the post. As per the official UPSC notification, the IAS interview tests mental alertness, critical power of assimilation, the balance of judgement and other important traits of leadership.
After the interview, the UPSC result is declared and the selected candidates are recommended to the Ministry of Personnel, where the candidates are allocated to the respective services based on the vacancies and their state preferences.
Also Read
Commonly asked questions
In the IAS interview test, candidates will be judged on different skills stated 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 notification and prescribed 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.
IAS 2025 Recruitment FAQs
The candidates can see here important questions related to IAS recruitment.
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 2026 exam was February 27, 2026. The Commission released the IAS 2026 notification on February 04, 2026.
IAS Exam
Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Upcoming Sarkari Exam Dates
CSIR NET 2026 June Exam date 17 Jul '26 - 18 Jul '26 SBI PO 2026 Last date for printing your application 23 Jul '26 IBPS Clerk 2026 application form Jul '26 - Jul '26