UPSC ESE 2026: IES Prelims Exam Date (OUT), Schedule, Admit Card, Vacancies, Syllabus & Pattern

The UPSC will release the IES admit card 2026 for the Prelims exam on the official website. The candidates should download the IES admit card to know their exam centre.

How to Download the UPSC ESE (IES) 2026 Exam?

The candidates can download their IES 2026 admit card in the way given below:

• Visit at upsc.gov.in
• Navigate to the “E-Admit cards” link for various UPSC exams
• Select IES 2026 exam admit card link
• Carefully read the instructions mentioned and take a printout of the same
• Now, submit the details as required and press enter
• IES 2026 admit card will be displayed on the screen
• Download IES 2026 admit card and take two printouts of it
• Check all the details mentioned and in case of discrepancy immediately inform the authorities at UPSC.

Direct link to download the UPSC ESE (IES) 2026 Prelims admit card - to be updated here

UPSC 2025 Prelims Exam Schedule

Candidates can check below the UPSC ESE Prelims 2025 exam schedule. The Prelims examis on February 8 in two shifts.

UPSC IES Vacancies 2026

The Union Public Service Commission notified approximately 474 vacancies for the Engineering Service Exam 2026. These vacancies are bound to increase because of the inclusion of the Indian Railway Management Service vacancies in the exam. The Commission mention the post-wise vacancies for the candidates. 

UPSC IES Exam Centre 2026

The UPSC ESE(IES) prelims and the main exam are conducted at the designated UPSC ESE (IES) 2026 exam centres. The list of UPSC IES exam centres is provided in the notification. It may be noted that the provision of the sealing of the seats will take place on the number of candidates allotted to each of the centres. The centres for which sealing will take place will exclude Delhi, Dispur, Kolkata and Nagpur.

UPSC will make allotment of ESE(IES) Exam Centres on first cum first serve basis. Applicants who are unable to occupy a seat in their choice of centre will be allotted a seat in the remaining vacant seats at other centres. Candidates should note that the request for a change of examination centre will not be entertained under any circumstances. Scroll down to know the exam centres for preliminary exam.

Centres of Engineering Services Examination

Candidates can check below the exam centres for the Preliminary and Mains exam as per the official notification.

IES 2026 syllabus is mentioned in the official IES/ESE 2026 notification. The Commission mentions the topics for all the streams and stages in detail. The Commission does not mention the weightage of topics of prelims or mains exam. The candidates should prepare all the topics given in the syllabus. The official UPSC ESE (IES) syllabus is mentioned for each of the engineering streams separately.

UPSC IES Exam Pattern 2026

The Union Public Service Commission mentioned the UPSC ESE(IES) 2026 exam pattern in the official syllabus. The Commission does not changed the IES 2026 exam pattern. UPSC IES (ESE) 2026 exam will be a three-stage exam. The three stages are 

• IES Prelims Exam
• IES Main Exam (Written)
• IES Main Exam (Interview)

The candidates can see here the detail about the UPSC ESE (IES) Exam Pattern.

The UPSC IES exam analysis will be available here after the exam. The candidates will get here the sectional analysis of the paper with their difficulty level and the expected cutoff.  The IES prelims exam is conducted offline as an objective type Multiple Choice Question. The candidates will also be able to see here the UPSC ESE (IES) prelims exam analysis video to get the real feel of the exam. Candidates can check below the IES 2025 prelims exam analysis and previous year analysis.

UPSC IES 2025 Prelims Exam Analysis Paper 1

Section-Wise IES Previous Year Exam Analysis

The candidates can check below the IES/ESE 2024 exam analysis for each section:

The Union Public Service Commission will release the IES/ESE 2026 answer key on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The UPSC ESE answer key will be released after the declaration of the final result.

The IES answer key is the only authentic source to know the answers to the questions asked in the IES Prelims exam. The IES prelims exam is a new stage added in the Engineering Services exam. The candidates should download the IES prelims answer key of the previous and with the previous year's question paper and their answer key, the candidates can understand the important topics and areas from where the questions were asked. In addition to, that the official answers can help them to prepare the topic in a better way.

Download IES 2026 Answer Key: to be updated

The Union Public Service Commission will release the Engineering Service Prelims & Mains Result 2026 on the official website after the conduction of an exams. The Commission will release the roll number and names of the candidates in the UPSC IES result pdf.

Candidates can check below the IES 2025 result PDFs.

UPSC ESE/IES Cut Off 2026

The Commission will release the category-wise cutoff for the UPSC IES 2026 exam on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The Union Public Service Commission released the IES cutoff 2026 after the declaration of final result. Candidates can check below for the year 2024. The candidates can see below the UPSC IES Cutoff 2024 for the Civil Engineering Stream:

The Union Public Service Commission released the UPSC ESE (IES) cutoff on its official website only.

The UPSC released the IES 2026 online applications on September 26, 2025. The candidates were required to fill out the IES 2026 application form online only. They were required to login with the One-Time Registration(OTR) credentials. The candidates were suggested to check their eligibility as mentioned in the official notification to apply for the exam. The last date to apply for the UPSC ESE (IES) 2025 exam was October 16 (up to 6 PM).

UPSC IES Notification 2026

The IES 2026 notification was released on September 26, 2025. The UPSC Engineering Service Exam (ESE) 2026 notification was released online on the official website of UPSC at upsconline.nic.in.The Commission also released the IES 2026 application form with the official notification. The Commission mentioned the application dates, examination dates and other important rules and regulations which will govern the conduct of exam. The candidates can check here the UPSC IES notification 2026 pdf for downloading purposes.

Download Here - IES 2026 Notification PDF 

UPSC IES Eligibility Criteria 2026

It is mandatory for candidates to comply with the eligibility norms as prescribed by UPSC in order to appear for the Engineering Services Examination. The admissions at all three stages of the examination will be purely provisional and are subject to fulfilling the eligibility norms.

IES Exam 2026 Age Limit

The upper age limit of 30 years is relaxable up to 35 years with government servants serving in the following categories:

Department/Office under the control of the authorities mentioned in the below table:

Note: Relaxation will not be considered to probationary officers appointed against a permanent post. However, relaxation in case of probation will be considered if the officer appointed already retains a lien on a permanent post in a Department/Office under the control of authorities as listed above.

Age Relaxation in Case of Railways

Officers serving Indian Railways will also be treated at par with the Indian Railways officers for age relaxation. The upper age limit for various categories is given below:

Note: Candidates belonging to the reserved category and from any of the mentioned ex-servicemen categories will get cumulative age relaxation. 

IES Exam Process

Application Form 

• The candidates filled out the IES application form 2026 online after registration. The forms were available online on the official website of UPSC
• While filling up the form, candidates had to select the preferred venue for the test centre
• After filling out the form, the candidates submitted the prescribed application fees as per their category

Download Admit Card 

• The IES admit card 2026 will be issued on the official website for downloads. The candidates will need their application number and date of birth to download the admit card
• UPSC admit card is an important document having a variety of information. We suggest preserving the admit cards until the admission process is successfully conducted

Preliminary Exam 

• Students need to appear for IES 2026 preliminary entrance exam as per the schedule mentioned in the important date’s section
• Aspirants are advised to reach the exam centre at least an hour before the commencement of the exam

Prelims Result 

• IES 2026 prelims result will be declared within a month of the prelims exam.
• Candidates checked their IES preliminary results by simply submitting their application number and date of birth on the official website.
• After the IES Result for prelims, the candidates filled IES Main Detailed Application Form(DAF) for the IES Main Exam.

 Main Exam 

• Students who clear the IES preliminary examination will be allowed to appear for IES 2026 main exam.

Main Result

• The Commission will declare the ESE main result on the official website.
• Candidates who clear the main exam will then be called for the interview round. This will be the final stage of the exam selection process.

Interview

IES selection process comprises the Personal Interview round. Candidates who clear both IES pre and main examinations are only allowed to participate in the final interview round. Only those candidates who clear the personal interview round will be qualified for the recruitment process.

Result

After the interviews, the final result will be declared by UPSC and the candidates will be recommended for appointment purposes. This will be the final process after which candidates will join the government offices as Executive engineers, mid-level managers or bureaucrats.

Cut-off and Reserve List

IES cut-off will be released after the final result. In addition to the IES cut-off marks, IES reserve list will also be issued stating the number of candidates for each category and for each Engineering branch.

UPSC conducts the IES exam every year to recruit candidates for various specialised positions in the Union Government departments. The IES is a Central Civil Service and the candidates can be posted anywhere across the nation. The exam is conducted to recruit candidates for engineering positions for the various departments working under the Government of India. The Engineering Services Examination is conducted for four branches of engineering namely:

• Civil Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

In the past, they had conducted this exam under the Indian Engineering Services (IES) exam. The IES exam is considered one of the toughest examinations in the country. Nearly, two lakh candidates appear for the examination every year. The Engineering Services Exam or IES exam recruits Group A and Group B officers for technical positions for the Government of India. The IES exam is a three-stage recruitment process - IES Preliminary, IES Main and Personality Test. Based on the merit of candidates in the IES exam, they are recommended to the Union Government for the posts. The nature of work for an engineering officer selected through the IES exam depends on the engineering branch and the cadre s/he is recruited.

IES 2026 Exam Highlights

IES exam dates are important for the candidates to plan their preparation more efficiently.

IES Full Form

Union Public Service Commission conduct the Engineering Service Exam (ESE) which is popularly called as the IES exam. The IES is the name of the Indian Engineering Service. Full form of ESE is Engineering Service Examination. The official exam name is Engineering Service Exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.