UPSC Civil Services Examination, Exam Syllabus and Pattern PDF Download

UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 | UPSC Civil Services Examination | Latest UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 written exam syllabus and Exam Pattern details – Download PDF

UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 : Candidates who you are preparing for Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Recruitment. Here we update latest UPSC Civil Services Examination Syllabus and exam pattern. To help all the applicants, we collected the detailed UPSC Syllabus directly from the official website of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) @ upsc.gov.in. So, candidates who are searching for the UPSC Civil Services Examination they can collect full PDF on this page. Are you looking for the free download? Then go through this section

Candidates should be aware with the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 Pattern before UPSC Civil Services Examination for UPSC Civil Services recruitment notification. This will help them understand the topics that will be covered in the exam, the total number of exam topics, how to score, etc. Check the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 provided here for both

• Preliminary Exam
• Mains Exam
• Interview

UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 – Details

UPSC Civil Services Prelims, Mains Test Pattern

Without any delay go through this article to obtain accurate information about the UPSC Syllabus 2023. We have gathered the complete UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern 2023 & UPSC IAS Mains Exam Pattern 2023 from the official site and kept the latest information in a tabular fashion. So, by checking the table, you can easily get the complete information and can find the best plan to attain more marks in the examination.

UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern 2024

The General Studies (Paper-I) test is the first paper of the preliminary examination. The Paper II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination will be a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%. The questions will be of multiple-choice, objective type. And it is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Prelims) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination (Objective type) is conducted for the selection of candidates for the Main Examination.

The selection process for the UPSC Civil Services exam consists of three stages: the preliminary examination, the mains examination, and the personality test (interview).

UPSC Syllabus for CSE Prelims – General Studies (Paper I)

• Current Affairs (Events) of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• General Science
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change: that do not require subject specialization.

UPSC Prelims Syllabus – CSAT (Paper-II)

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision-making and problem-solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. – Class X level).

UPSC IAS Mains Exam Pattern 2024

The written examination (main) will consist of the following nine papers, but only 7 papers will be counted for the final merit ranking. For the rest two papers, the candidate should secure the minimum marks prescribed by UPSC each year. The Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written and Interview) for the selection of candidates for the various Services and posts

Penalty For Wrong Answers

• There are four alternatives for the answers to every question. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate, one-third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as a penalty.
• If a candidate gives more than one answer, it will be treated as a wrong answer even if one of the given answers happens to be correct and there will be the same penalty as above for that question.
• If a question is left blank i.e. no answer is given by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

UPSC IAS Questions asked in both language papers are – 

UPSC Mains Syllabus – General Studies I

Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society:

• Indian culture covers the salient features of Literature, Art Forms, and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
• Modern Indian history include the significant events, personalities, issues during the middle of the eighteenth century until the present
• Various stages and important contributors and contributions from different parts of the country in ‘The Freedom Struggle’
• Post-independence consolidation and reorganization within the country
• History of the world includes events, forms and effects on the society from the 18th century like world wars, the industrial revolution, colonization, redraw of national boundaries, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.
• Salient aspects of Diversity of India and Indian Society
• Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems, and remedies
• Social empowerment, communalism, regionalism & secularism
• Distribution of key natural resources across the world including South Asia and the
• Indian sub-continent; factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary, and tertiary sector industries in various parts of the world including India
• Effects of globalization on Indian society
• Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location- changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes
• Salient features of world’s physical geography.

IAS Mains Syllabus for General Studies II

Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations:

• Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure
• Functions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein
• Comparison of the Indian constitutional scheme with that of other countries
• Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions
• Parliament and State Legislatures – structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these
• Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies
• Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary Ministries and Departments of the Government; pressure groups and formal/informal associations and their role in the Polity
• Salient features of the Representation of People’s Act
• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
• Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections
• Development processes and the development industry the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, donors, charities, institutional and other stakeholders
• Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
• Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures
• Issues relating to poverty and hunger
• Role of civil services in a democracy
• Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests
• India and its neighborhood- relations
• Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate
• Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

UPSC Mains Syllabus for General Studies III

Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management:

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
• Government Budgeting.
• Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
• Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers
• Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.
• Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices; Public Distribution System objectives, functioning, limitations, revamping; issues of buffer stocks and food security; Technology missions, Economics of animal-rearing.
• Land reforms in India.
• Effects of liberalization on the economy, changes in industrial policy and their effects on industrial growth.
• Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.
• Investment models.
• Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life
• Achievements of Indians in science and technology; Indigenisation of technology and developing new technology.
• Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
• Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.
• Disaster and disaster management.
• Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security.
• Linkages between development and spread of extremism.
• Challenges to internal security through communication networks, role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges, basics of cyber security; money-laundering and its prevention
• Various Security forces and agencies and their mandate
• Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism

UPSC Mains Syllabus for General Studies IV

Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude:

• Ethics and Human Interface- Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics in private and public relationships
• Human Values- lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values
• Attitude- content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion
• Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service, integrity, impartiality and non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weaker-sections
• Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance
• Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and world
• Public/ Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration- Status and problems; ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance
• Probity in Governance- Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information; sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption
• Case Studies on above issues.

UPSC IAS Mains Optional Subjects List

Literature of any one of the following languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

UPSC IAS Interview

• The objective of the interview is to assess the suitability of the candidate for a career in civil services
• The Interview test will be 275 marks and the total marks for the written examination is 1750. This sums up to a Grand Total of 2025 Marks, based on which the final merit list will be prepared.

How to Download UPSC Civil Services Syllabus 2023?

Candidates can directly download the UPSC CSE Syllabus & Exam Pattern 2023 through the link provided below. It is must and should to know the UPSC IAS Exam Syllabus 2023 topics for each subject first. Then they have to move to the next process. It is very important for you to know the clear UPSC Civil Services Exam Pattern for the Prelims & Mains to get an overview of the exact test paper. Moreover, below are the listed topics that are needed to be covered before the examination in the provided UPSC Syllabus 2023 PDF format.

To Download UPSC Civil Services Prelims, Mains Syllabus 2024 & Exam Pattern PDF