UPSC IAS Topper 2020 Pradeep Singh shares his experience. Read below for details.
UPSC IAS topper Pradeep Singh all India rank 1 hails from Haryana’s village Tewri, near Sonipat. He belongs to the family of farmers. His father, Sukhbir Singh, is a farmer and former village sarpanch. Pradeep Singh secured this rank in his fourth attempt. In the previous attempt, he got 260th rank and currently undergoing the training as the Indian Revenue Service Officer in National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) in Faridabad, Haryana.
See Here: IAS Toppers 2020
He was not expecting the first rank and the UPSC IAS result surprised him. He was also selected in the SSC exam and was working as the Income Tax inspector. He took the help of coaching in his initial phase, but after the initial selection; he prepared for the UPSC Civil Services by himself with no coaching. He has done his schooling from Shambhu Dayal Modern School, Sonipat, Haryana. He studied Engineering from Dcrust University, Murthal and got an Engineering degree in Computer Science.
In the first two attempts, he could not clear the IAS prelims exam. He got the Indian Revenue Services in IAS exam 2018. His optional subject was Public Administration. He is of opinion that the IAS prelims, IAS main and interview are three different exams and require different approaches to qualify.
IAS topper Pradeep Singh suggests that for IAS prelims exams, the primary focus remained on Current Affairs and factual knowledge. The IAS main (written) requires the focus on answer writing and analysis of the events and issues.
See here: IAS Topper Pradeep Singh's Story in Hindi
In IAS interviews, current events and Detailed Application Form (DAF) are the focus of preparation. He suggests the candidates should devise a separate strategy for each phase of IAS exam to qualify each of them.
Pradeep Singh suggests that the candidates should start with the basic general studies topics and then go for the current affairs so they can understand and relate the current events of national and international importance with the general studies topics. He said, for IAS main exam, writing practice is a must. Nowadays, there are many websites and online platforms which help the candidates in IAS main answer writing practice.
See Here: IAS Topper rank 3 Pratibha Verma's Strategy
The candidates should dedicate their last three or four months for the IAS Prelims exam and design their study plan based on their weakness and strengths. He suggests that the candidates should focus on answer writing practice in the IAS main because the candidates get only three and a half months to prepare the IAS mains after the IAS prelims exam. But, the IAS syllabus is so vast that the candidates could only cover the topics and the answer writing practice takes the back seat. He suggests answer writing is the key to IAS main exam.
For IAS Interview, he suggests improving the personality is a continuous process and can only improve over time. The candidates should always remain in touch with the current affairs and their DAF. IAS topper suggested exploring the questions which can be framed from their DAF.
IAS topper Pradeep Singh made his family and state proud by achieving the highest rank in India’s toughest examination. His detail IAS preparation strategy will be published soon.
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Student Forum
Answered 4 days ago
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 Commission will start conducting the interviews in December 2025.
Answered a month ago
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.
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Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
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.
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Beginner-Level 5
Answered a month ago
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.
Answered a month ago
The candidates should analyse the UPSC CSE previous year question papers to know the trend of the most asked topics. The Commission releases the UPSC question paper on its official website - upsc.gov.in. The candidates can get the UPSC question paper of previous year here. The candidates can downloa
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Beginner-Level 5
Answered 2 months ago
The Union Public Service Commission will release the UPSC Civil Service (IAS) notification on January 14, 2026. With the release of official notification, the UPSC IAS Application form 2026 will also be activated for the candidates. The last date to apply online for the UPSC CSE (IAS) exam 2026 wil
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Beginner-Level 5
Answered 2 months ago
The Union Public Service Commission released the UPSC CSE notification 2025 on January 22, 2025. In the official notification, the Commission notified 979 vacancies for the UPSC CSE 2025 exam. But this is a tentative number and the final number of vacancies will be mentioned in the final Result of
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Beginner-Level 5
