UPSC IAS Exam 2026: Notification Postponed, Vacancies, Eligibility, Dates, Syllabus, Pattern & FAQs

The UPSC IAS Notification 2026 has been postponed due to administrative reasons. The Commission released a notice on its official website - upsc.gov.in regarding this. The Commission will also revise the last date for UPSC applications.

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 Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a national competitive exam in India. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the CSE to recruit candidates for various civil services of the Government of India. The CSE is also known as the "IAS exam".
The CSE is the toughest competitive exam in India. Only a few thousand students can successfully clear the exam out of Lacs of aspirants.

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is conducted in three phases: Prelims, Mains, Interview.

The preliminary exam consists of two papers:

• General Studies I
• Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT)

The CSAT paper is qualifying in nature, while marks in GS I will decide whether a candidate is eligible to appear for the UPSC Mains exam.

The exam window extends over a year (from June month of a year to June month next year when the results are announced).
Candidates who clear the prelims can appear in the second stage, i.e. Mains. Candidates who clear Mains are called for the Interview rounds.

There is no specific degree that best suits the IAS exam. Five compulsory papers are common to all candidates. Besides this, the candidates need to appear in two papers on one optional subject. The list of the subjects is given in the IAS Syllabus section of the UPSC notification. The candidates can opt for any optional subject irrespective of their subject in their graduation. Moreover, the UPPSC has done away with the optional subject in the main exam may be UPSC will also follow suit and remove the optional subject from the IAS main exam.

The Union Public Service Commission is not expected to reduce the age limit to apply for the UPSC IAS exam 2026. The Commission requires the approval of the Ministry of Personnel in changing the eligibility for the exam. 

The Union Public Service Commission mention the age limit in the official notification. The upper age limit for the General Categoary candidates is 32 years. The Commission provides age relaxation to certain reserved categories.

The candidates should note that the minimum qualification to apply for the UPSC Civil Service (IAS ) exam is a Graduate degree in any discipline. There is no way to apply for the UPSC IAS exam after 12. 

The candidates can start preparing for the UPSC CSE(IAS) exam after class 12 to score better when they appear in the Civil Service Exam. The preparation will help them in clearing the IAS Exam.

No, the number of IAS vacancies is fixed to 180. Every year, the Commission recommend 180 candidates for the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). In case of any change, the Commission will notify.

The UPSC Civil Service Exam Notification mention that the Civil Service Prelims exam is qualifying only. The UPSC IAS prelims exam is a MCQ based exam conducted offline at the designated exam centre. The marks scored in the UPSC prelims exam is not considered for the final selected process.

The prelims exam was introduced to filtering of candidates and restricting the number of candidates for the main exam.

The Union Public Service Commission will notify the UPSC Civil Service vacancies in the official notification. The number of vacancies for IAS is 180 and for IPS it is 150. Rest of the vacancies are notified for the Central Civil Services.

The number of vacancies in the UPSC Civil Service Exam is declining with each passing year but the number of IAS officer recruited every year remain steady at 180. The number of such recruitment is based on the Baswan Committee recommendation which recommended recruiting 180 IAS officers every year to fill the gap between the required numbers and actual recruitment.

The Union Public Service Commission provides only 20 days to fill the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) application form online. The UPSC IAS 2026 notification has been postponed and will be released soon at upsc.gov.in.The last date to fill the online applications will also be revised from February 3, 2026.

The last date to apply for the UPSC IAS 2026 exam will be released soon at upsc.gov.in. The Commission postponed the IAS 2026 notification. The new application dates will be notified later. 

The candidates need the UPSC registration number for fill the Civil Service application form. They are required to fill in the personal details in the registration form. The candidates need to upload their academic certificates on upsconline.nic.in. 

The Union Public Service Commission introduced the One-Time Registration (OTR) process for all exams. The OTR is a common regisration for all the applications where the candidates fill out registration one time only and these personal details are re-used for the application. 

The OTR is common to all exam application. The candidates can take the registration number anytime irrespective of any active application.

The Union Public Service Commission's main (written) examination comprises nine papers. Union Public Service Commission includes two qualifying papers and seven papers which will be calculated for ranking. However, according to the updated syllabus of the Indian Administrative Service exam: History of India, History of World, Art and Culture, Indian and World Geography, Indian Polity, Governance, Economics, Social Development, Environment, General Science, General mental ability, and Reasoning. Other than these subjects, there are around 25 degree subjects and 23 literature language subjects from which to select your optional subjects for the Indian Administrative Service main stage. For more details, You may visit the Shiksha IAS exam page. (https://www.shiksha.com/exams/ias-exam). I hope this will help you.

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.

 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

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 Union Public Service Commission conduct the Civil Service Exam every year to recruit the candidates for the All India Services and Central Civil Services. There are around 25 Central Civil Services whose exam is combinedly conducted as Civil Service Exam. 

The candidates should note that the Union Public Service Commission does not provide service-wise vacancies in the official notification. The service-wise vacancies are published by the Ministry of Personnel on its official website. Following the past trends, the number of candidates recruited for the Indian Administrative Service is 180 and 150 candidates are recruited for the Indian Police Service. 

The number of vacancies for other services varies every year.

The Cadre Controlling Authority for Indian Police Service is the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It comes directly under the supervision of Home Minister of India.

The Cadre Controlling Authority for Indian Foreign Service is the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It is recruited through the Civil Service Exam.

IAS selection process takes more than one year to complete. The official IAS notification 2026 has been postponed and will be released soon at upsc.gov.in. The Civil Service result 2026 (final) will be declared in May 2027. The Commission conduct the exam in offline mode and the candidates are required to appear and clear all the stages of IAS selection process. There are three stages in the IAS selection process. These are

1. IAS prelims
2. IAS main (written) 
3. IAS main (personality test)

There are three stages in the IAS selection process namely

1. IAS prelims
2. IAS main (written) 
3. IAS main (personality test)

Every year, 180 candidates are recruited for the IAS. The candidate from each category is assigned to the IAS according to the rank in their respective category. The General Category candidate under rank 100 can expect to get an IAS. For other categories, it is difficult to ascertain a rank for getting the IAS but for the OBC, if the candidate secures under 150 rank, he or she can get the IAS easily.

The Union Public Service Commission mentioned the UPSC CSE (IAS) selection process in the official notification. The Commission notified three stages for the Civil Service Exam:

1. Prelims Exam
2. Mains (writtern) exam
3. Mains Interview

The Union Public Service Commission will conduct the IAS prelims exam on May 24, 2026. The Commission will release the IAS prelims result 2026 in the first week of June.

The Union Public Service Commission releases the UPSC IAS result online on upsc.gov.in. The candidates can see below the steps to check their IAS result:

• Visit the official website of UPSC at upsc.gov.in.
• Go to the "What's New" section and click on the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) exam result link.
• Click on the "Civil Services Result" link that appears.
• Search for your roll number in the UPSC Result PDF.
• Download the UPSC IAS result PDF for future reference

The Union Public Service Commission releases the IAS result online only. One copy of the result is posted on the notice board at the UPSC building, Dholpur house, New Delhi. The candidates are required to check the IAS result through their login credentials. 

The candidates are required to login with their credentials such as registration number and password. In case the registration is forgotton, the candidates will be required to retrieve their password.

The Union Public Service Commission released the Civil Service (IAS) Main result 2025 on its portal - upsc.gov.in. The Commission selected 2,736 candidates for the interview stage. 

The Union Public Service Commission mention the following details on the Civil Service IAS admit card. Name Roll Number Photo Identity Card Father's Name Mother's Name Centre Venue of Examination Time Table of Exam.

The candidates should check all the personal details mentioned on the UPSC admit card. The candidates must compare it with their UPSC application form. In case of a difference in details, the candidate should immediately contact the Union Public Service Commission. The details of the contact are given below:

Union Public Service Commission Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi 110069.

The candidates will be required to carry the same photo identity proof whose number was mentioned in the UPSC application form. The candidates will be required to produce the same at the time of examination because its number will be mentioned on the UPSC admit card.

The following identity proofs are mentioned as valid identity proofs Aadhar Card PAN Card Voter-ID Card Driving Licence Passport Identity Card issued by any Government Authority.

Since no digital instrument (of any type) is allowed at the UPSC exam centre hence the candidates cannot show the digital copy of their admit card.  Moreover it is advisable to take a coloured print out of the UPSC admit card. The exam centre officials will see the admit card and one photo identity proof before allowing entry into the exam centre.

Yes, the Shiksha.com will bring the IAS exam analysis done by the candidates who appeared in the exam. The candidates will share their first hand experience with us. The aspiring candidates can see the exam analysis and anticipate the difficult level of the question paper.

The candidates will also anticipate the IAS prelims cutoff after the first shift since the Aptitude paper is qualifying only.

There is no objective answer to this question. It depends on various factors which are beyond the control of the candidates. Every year is different and so the UPSC Prelims question paper. The Commission does not mention the weightage to any section and can ask any number of questions from any section. This is the reason, the candidates find it difficult to predict the questions and the difficulty level is also a subjective factor.

None the less, we can say Good attempts vary by subject. For instance, in the General Studies Paper I, good attempts might be:

• Geography: 10-13 questions
• History: 8-12 questions
• Polity: 9-11 questions
• Environment: 6-10 questions

Provided that the candidates is able to answer the above questions correctly.

The candidates should note that the Union Public Service Commission conduct the Civil Service Exam every year. The Commission releases the official notification every year which mention all the eligibility criteria for all the categories separately. The number of attempts is also one such criteria which is defined based on the category of the candidate.

The Commission mention the pemissible number of attempts in the following manner:

Category	Number of Attempts (Allowed)
General/Economically Weaker Section (EWS)	6
Other Backward Classes	9
SC/ST	Unlimited - till the age limit
Person with Disabilities	Unlimited - till the age limit

The Union Public Service Commission mention the number and names of the exam cities in the official notification. The UPSC IAS Notification 2026 has been postponed and will be released soon at upsc.gov.in. The IAS prelims exam is conducted offline simultaneously across the nation. The candidates are required to opt for three exam centres in the IAS application and the Commission allots the exam centre on first apply first allot basis. 

The Union Public Service Commission will conduct the UPSC Civil Service (prelims) exam on May 24, 2026. The exam will be conducted in two sessions and the General Studies Paper 2 will be qualifying only.

The candidates should note that the UPSC IAS Main exam is a descriptive exam, where they need to write the essay type conventional answers in the Question-Cum Answer Sheet. 7 minutes, using 5 key points, and elaborating each point from 3 dimensions is the full description of 7/5/3 rule.

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.

The candidates should note that there is no minimum marks that can be ascretained for the IAS. The final UPSC merit list is based on the marks secured in the main (written) and personlaity test condcuted at Dholpur House, UPSC. The Commission arrange the candidates in the order of their merit and select top candidates for the Indian Administrative Service if they have opted for it as their first choice. 

The minimum marks for IAS cannot be asertained as the cutoff for each year differs from year to year.

The Union Public Service Commission release the IAS prelims answer key after the declaration of final result. It implies that the Civil Service prelims answer key is released next year of the prelims exam. The candidates can download the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) answer key in the follwing manner:

Visit the official website of UPSC-upsc.gov.in

Click on the Examination tab, a dropdown list will appear 

Click on the Answer Key button

Click on the Download button of the exam for which answer key needs to be seen.

No, the Commission do not mention any Minimum Qualifying Marks for the General Studies Paper 1. But there is a criteria of Minimum 33 % for the General Studies Paper 2 (Aptitude) paper. 

The Union Public Service Commission dropped 3 (three) questions from the UPSC Civil Service Prelims (CSP) exam 2024. The marks of the candidates were assigned marks from 97 questions only. The candidates should check their answers from the official answer key and compare them with the cutoff mentioned in the official UPSC CSP cutoff 2024.

In case their marks are more than their category cutoff. they should send representation against the prelims and final UPSC result 2024.

The Union Public Service Commission will release the IAS Prelims Answer Key 2026 in May 2027. The Commission releases the official answer key after the declaration of final result.

The IAS prelims cutoff means the minimum marks required to clear the prelims exam in the category of the candidate. The Union Public Service Commission conduct the IAS prelims exam to filter the candidates and limit the numbers for the main (written) exam. The Commission conduct the prelims in offline mode. 

The UPSC CSE (IAS) exam result 2024-25 was released on June 11. The Commission released the final UPSC CSE (IAS) 2024 cutoff for all the categories and stages of exam. The Commission released the UPSC Cutoff 2025 for all the stages of exam as given below:

Category	CS (Prelim)*	CS (Main)#	CS (Final)
General	87.98	729	947
EWS	85.92	696	917
OBC	87.28	702	910
SC	79.03	685	880
ST	74.23	684	884
PwBD-1	69.42	663	876
PwBD-2	65.30	696	913
PwBD-3	40.56	307	701
PwBD-5	40.56	361	461

The Union Public Service Commission conduct the Civil Service (IAS) main (written) exam offline in pen and paper mode. This exam is a descriptive type exam where the candidates are required to breach this cutoff score to get a call for the interview phase.

The IAS Prelims exam is conducted offline in the pen and paper mode. There is no sectional cutoff in the IAS prelims exam because the number of questions from a section is not fixed and they vary year to year.

Ministry of Personnel, which works under the supervision of the Prime Minister of India, is the Cadre controlling authority for the IAS. The IAS officers serve in the states and their salary is provided by the State governments. The state government can suspend the IAS officer on valid grounds but cannot dismiss them from service.

The Union Public Service Commission releases the IAS result after the completion of IAS interview stage. The Commission releases the IAS result PDF on its official website. The Commission releases the rank, name and the roll number of the candidates in the final result. 

The Commission maintain the UPSC IAS result pdf for two months after the declaration of result. The Commission can remove the UPSC IAS result pdf after some times when it thinks fit. The candidates can download the IAS result of previous year's from Shiksha.com.

The candidates should note that the IAS syllabus is not released separately on the official website. The Union Public Service Commission releases the IAS syllabus as a section in the IAS notification. The candidates can download the IAS syllabus pdf as given here for all their preparation references.

The candidates can check the subject-wise IAS main syllabus in the official pdf.

The Union Public Service Commission releases the IAS syllabus as a part of the Civil Service Exam notification PDF. The candidates are required to download the Notification PDF to get the IAS syllabus PDF. The candidates can download the IAS syllabus PDF available here. 

The candidates can download here the IAS Syllabus PDF

The Union Public Service Commission introduced the Ethics paper in 2013. The ethics paper is an essential component of the IAS Main Examination. The Ethics syllabus is important because the right strategy can fetch good marks in the paper. The Ethics papers is designed to check the Integrity and Moral principles in the candidates.

The UPSC IAS Prelims and Main exam syllabus is different. The candidates can say that the Prelims syllabus is a subset of the main because it is very vast and extesive.

The candidates can cover the IAS prelims syllabus if in six months if they are appearing for it for the first time. In case, the candidate has cleared the prelims earlier, he or she can prepare it in three months.

The Union Public Service Commission will notify the UPSC IAS Syllabus 2026 in its official notification. The Commission will release the Civil Service 2026 notification soon at upsc.gov.in.

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 candidates should read and understand all the information mentioned in the IAS notifcation to know whether they are eligible for the Civil Service Exam or not. The IAS notification is an important document because it will be the official document which will work as a ready recknoer for all information about the exam.

In case of any judicial interpretation, the IAS notification will be deemed as the final official document. 

No, the Indian Foriegn Service is a Central Civil Service. It is organised and controlled by the Ministry of External Affairs. It is recruited through the UPSC Civil Service Exam conducted annually.