UPSC Exam stands for Union Public Service Commission. It is a government agency, responsible for recruitment of the right candidates for the 24 civil services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS), etc.
For the recruitment of candidates for these prestigious government services, Civil Services Examination (CSE) is conducted by the UPSC. Annually, only around 1000 candidates are recruited for all the 24 services combined.
To apply for the UPSC civil service exam, the minimum educational qualification which is required in order to fill the application is graduation in any stream from a recognised university. There is nowhere stated of the minimum passing percentage required to appear in the examination.
The UPSC Civil Service examination is conducted in three phases which are as follows :-
• The first phase :- Paper 1 – Preliminary which consists of two objective-type papers (General Studies Paper I and General Studies Paper II also known as Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT) and is usually conducted around June.
• Those candidates who clear prelims then move to second phase :- A main examination consisting of nine papers of descriptive (essay) type, in which two papers are qualifying and only marks of seven are counted. The mains are conducted around September-October period.
• Third phase :- Those who qualify Mains will have to face an interview also known as personality test conducted during the March-May period.
The final result is generally declared around May end.
A successful candidate sits for 32 hours of examination during the complete process usually spanning around one year.
Yearly, the number of candidates who apply for the UPSC Civil Service Exam is approximately around 10 lakh, out of which about 5 lakh applicants appear for the examination (prelims).
UPSC Civil Services Exam is believed to be the toughest exam in the world, in consideration to the exam duration (extends to 1 year), depth of the syllabus and the prevailing competition.
