UPSC

The OTR stands for One Time Registration. The UPSC introduced this system to simplify the application process for several UPSC examinations, including CDS. Candidates will be able to register their basic details and documents once. This information can be reused by the candidates for future UPSC exam applications, which saves time and effort.

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.

Yes, the Union Public Service Commission has released the UPSC Civil Service Prelims exam 2024 on May 21, 2025. The Commission dropped 3 questions from the General Studies paper. The final marks are calculated from 97 questions only in the UPSC prelims exam 2024.

The Commission did not dropped any questions from the UPSC CSE prelims General Studies Paper 2. 

Yes, there is negative marking in the UPSC IES/ESE 2025 Prelims exam. For each wrong answer, one-third marks will be deducted in the Prelims exam. In the Mains exam, there is no negative marking. 

Topics of high weightage in UPSC IES 2025 Prelims Paper 1 are mentioned below:

• Current Affairs
• Engineering Aptitude
• Engineering Mathematics Numerical Analysis
• Ethics Value
• Design, Drawing Importance of Safety

The UPSC IES/ESE exam is conducted in three stages:
Stage-1: Engineering Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective Type Papers) for the selection of candidates for the Stage2.

• Paper I: General Studies & Engineering Aptitude (200 marks)

• Paper II: Discipline-specific (Civil/Mechanical/Electrical/Electronics – 300 marks)

Stage-2: Engineering Services (Mains) Examination (Conventional Type Papers) 

Two conventional papers based on the candidate's engineering discipline (300 marks each)

Stage-3: Personality Test (200 Marks)

Yes, UPSC will release the official UPSC ESE 2026 answer key in an online mode on the official website at upsc.gov.in. It will be released after completing the UPSC ESE/IES exam recruitment process.

Candidates can download the official UPSC ESE (IES) prelims answer key by the methods provided below:

• Visit the official website of UPSC – upsc.gov.in
• Click on the 'Examination' tab given at the top
• A drop list will appear, click on the Answer key link appearing on the list
• The ESE answer key PDF link will appear in the list
• Click on the link and get the ESE cutoff for all the categories and phases