IAS Selection Procedure

Final selections of IAS will be done on the basis of applicants’ performance in the preliminary, main & personal interview. It is very important that applicants should know the entire selection procedure to perform well in the stages involved in it. To help the appearing applicant, we have described the IAS Selection Procedure below in this article.

IAS Selection Procedure

1. Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam
2. Civil Services (Main) Exam- (I) Written Examination, (II) Personal Interview
3. Final Selection

Details of IAS Selection Procedure

1. Civil Services (Preliminary) Exam- Civil Services (Preliminary) exam is the 1^st stage to shortlist the eligible applicants for the Main exam. The highlights of the IAS (Preliminary) exam are given below-

• This examination is conducted just as screenings test to shortlist the eligible applicants.
• In the preliminary exam, the applicants will have to take up 2 compulsory papers of total 200 marks each.
• The question paper will be available with MCQ type questions.
• The qualified applicants of the preliminary exam will be eligible to take part in the IAS (Main) exam.
• The marks obtained in the IAS (Preliminary) exam will not be considered in the final merit list.

Important Notes

• There will be a penalty for each wrong answer in MCQ type question paper.
• UPSC will prepare a list of applicants to be qualified for civil services (Main) exam on the basis of minimum qualifying marks of 33% in General Studies Paper II of preliminary exam & total qualifying marks in General Studies Paper I of prelims.
• The final merit for qualifying applicants for Main exam will be prepared by using aggregate marks scored in paper I (out of 200) & marks scored in Paper II (out of 200) deducted from maximum marks allocated to the questions on English Language Comprehension Skills (that means those questions in Paper II for which Hindi translation has not been given). 

2. Civil Services (Main) Exam- The IAS (Main) exam consists of written exam & personal interview. These 2 stages of the Main exam has been detailed below-

(I)Written Exam- There will be total of 9 papers of conventional essay type in the subjects given in notification out of which 2 papers will be of qualifying nature.

• The duration of each paper will be 3 hours.
• The applicants will have the option to answer all the question papers, except Paper I (English Comprehension & English Precis) in English & Hindi.
• The applicants who score minimum qualifying marks in the written part of the main exam as may be fixed by the UPSC at their discretion will be summoned by them for a personal interview test. The no. of applicants selected for the personal interview will be just twice the no. of vacancies to be filled. 

(II) Personal Interview

• The personal interview will have 275 marks (with no minimum qualifying marks).
• The applicants will be asked questions on general interest by the interviewers.
• The main object of the interview is to assess the personal suitability of the applicant for a career in public service by a Board of competent & unbiased observers.

 3. Final Selection- The marks scored in the Main examination (written & interview both) will be taken into consideration for final merit. On the basis of their final merit, the applicants will be allotted to numerous posts.