UPSC

The UPSC ESE/IES 2025 cutoff is determined based on the difficulty level of the exam (prelims and mains), the number of vacancies, previous years' trends, and the overall performance of the candidates. The cutoff marks may vary slightly across categories and branches.

The Union Public Service Commission select around candidates 12 times of the number of vacancies in the exam. There are 979 vacancies notified in the exam. This number is expected to increase. Consequently, the Commission will select around 10,000 to 12,000 candidates for the main exam.

The UPSC Main Exam 2025 was conducted in August 2025.

No, the interview of UPSC IES exam is not qualifying in nature. The number of candidates to be summoned for Personality Test will be about twice the number of vacancies to be filled. The Personality Test will carry 200 marks (with no minimum qualifying marks). Marks obtained by the candidates in the Preliminary Examination, Mains Examination and Personality Test would determine their final ranking. Candidates will be allotted to the several services keeping in view their ranks in the examination and the preference expressed by them for the various services/posts as per the official notification.

UPSC appoints a panel of experts to conduct the personality test for the IES or ESE examination. The panel includes senior officers and technical experts. The personality test or interview is a crucial stage of the UPSC IES selection process. It is conducted at the UPSC Bhawan in New Delhi.

The commission allocated 200 marks for the UPSC IES 2025 personality test or an interview. This is the third stage, or the final stage, of the UPSC IES exam. The first stage is the preliminary examination, and the second stage is the Mains examination.

The UPSC ESE (IES) 2025 Mains exam was conducted on August 10, 2025. Only those candidates who were declared by the Commission qualified in the Preliminary Examination in the year was eligible for admission to the Main Examination of that year provided they are otherwise eligible for admission to the Mains Examination. Further, the Marks obtained in Preliminary Examination by the candidates who were declared qualified for admission to the Mains Examination was counted for determining their final order of merit.  

The UPSC IES 2026 Mains exam will be conducted on June 21, 2026. It is a descriptive type exam. That assesses candidates' technical knowledge and problem-solving abilities in engineering disciplines. The Engineering Services Mains Examination  consists of two conventional-type papers in engineering disciplines, each with a duration of three hours and a maximum score of 600 (300 marks in each paper).

Candidates can check below in detail:

• Each paper in the Mains exam is of three hours duration.
• Each paper carries 300 marks.
• Total marks: 600