How to apply for UPSC Civil Services Exam — complete 2026 guide

In CSE 2024, 10,16,545 candidates registered and 5,83,213 appeared in the Prelim; 14,627 qualified for Main; 2,845 were called for the interview; and 1,016 were finally recommended. The application fee collection was around ₹6 crore — the recruitment cycle costs UPSC many multiples of that. The point: a ₹100 fee and a four-year process for an entire career. Get the application step right.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is constituted under Article 315 of the Constitution of India; its functions, including conducting examinations for All-India and Central Services, are listed in Article 320. UPSC is independent of the executive and reports to the President.

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is held annually under the Civil Services Examination Rules notified each year by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in consultation with UPSC. The rules are gazetted in the second week of February and the formal UPSC Notification appears the same week on upsc.gov.in and upsconline.nic.in.

Selection through CSE leads to one of these services:

• All-India Services: IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS [IndFS] (Indian Forest Service is a separate exam — IFoS — but cadre-allocated similarly).
• Group A Central Services: IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IRS (Income Tax + Customs & Indirect Taxes), IAAS, IRAS, IRPS, IRTS, ICAS, IDAS, IDES, IOFS, ITS, IPoS, IRSS, ICLS, etc.
• Group B Central Services: Section Officer's Grade (DANICS / DANIPS for Delhi, A&N, Lakshadweep), AFHQ, Pondicherry CS / Police.

Drops in February each year on upsc.gov.in as a single PDF (~80 pages).

Read at least these sections:

• Plan of Examination — three-stage structure.
• Eligibility — citizenship, age, qualification, attempts.
• Syllabus for Prelim and Main.
• Centres of Examination — both Prelim and Main centre lists are different.
• Application Form annexures — exact specs for photo, signature, document scans.
• Important Instructions — last 10 pages, often glossed over but contain the rejection-trigger details (e.g., signature in capitals = invalid).

• Citizenship: For IAS / IPS — Indian citizen only. For IFS / IRS / other Central Services — Indian citizen, or Bhutanese/Nepali subject, or Tibetan refugee who came before 1 January 1962, or Indian-origin person migrated from Pakistan/Burma/Sri Lanka/East African countries with intent to settle.
• Age: 21 to 32 years as on 1 August of the exam year. Relaxations:
  • SC/ST: 5 years
  • OBC (NCL): 3 years
  • PwBD (with disability): 10 years
  • Defence Services personnel disabled in operations: 3 years
  • Ex-servicemen: 5 years
  • J&K domicile (1980-89): 5 years (legacy)
• Educational qualification: Graduate (any discipline) from a recognised university. Final-year students CAN apply for Prelim but must produce proof of graduation before the Main application.
• Number of attempts:
  • General: 6
  • OBC: 9
  • SC/ST: unlimited (till age limit)
  • PwBD: 9 (General + OBC), unlimited for SC/ST PwBD

Appearing for the Prelim counts as one attempt. Withdrawing after Prelim does not save the attempt. A Prelim no-show does not count.

The portal is upsconline.nic.in (do not confuse with upsc.gov.in — that's the parent informational site).

• Click “One-Time Registration (OTR)” — a profile that survives across all UPSC exams (CSE, IFoS, CDS, NDA, CMS, IES/ESE, CAPF, etc.).
• Provide: PAN or Aadhaar, mobile, email, basic personal + educational details.
• Upload: photograph (10-300 KB, JPG, 350×350 px to 1000×1000 px since 2025), signature (10-300 KB, JPG, 350×350 px), photo identity proof (Aadhaar/PAN/Driving Licence/Voter ID/Passport — 20-300 KB, PDF).
• After OTR is created, all subsequent UPSC applications use this profile.

Triggered when the CSE notification opens (late Feb / early March):

• Pulled from OTR: name, DOB, address, parents' names.
• Add: choice of optional subject (one of 26 — Public Admin, Sociology, History, Geography, PSIR, Anthropology, Maths, Physics… see notification Annexure I).
• Choice of medium for Main answer scripts (English / Hindi / one of 22 scheduled languages).
• Choice of compulsory Indian language for Main qualifying paper (one of 22).
• Service preference order — declared provisionally here, finalised after Main result via DAF-II.

• Fee: ₹100 (General + OBC + EWS male candidates). NIL (SC/ST, PwBD, all female candidates of any category).
• Modes: net banking, debit/credit card, UPI, SBI bank challan (cash deposit at any SBI branch).
• Choose your Prelim centre in Part II — about 80 cities in India + 3 abroad. Many fill up fast (Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi). Apply early to lock your first preference.
• Tick the declaration. Submit. Print the final acknowledgement (single page, has your Registration ID and Roll Number once allotted).

• Released about 3 weeks before the Prelim (typically late May / first week of June).
• Login to upsconline.nic.in → “Admit Cards” → “CSE Prelim 20XX” → download.
• Carry: printout + original photo ID (matching the one in OTR) + 2 passport-size photos (same as uploaded).
• No admit card → no entry. No exceptions, even with valid registration.

Prelim is held on a single Sunday in late May / June:

• Paper I — General Studies: 100 MCQs, 200 marks, 2 hours, negative 1/3rd.
• Paper II — CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test): 80 MCQs, 200 marks, 2 hours, negative 1/3rd. Qualifying only (33% needed). Marks not counted for merit.
• Result: typically mid-July. Only Paper-I marks decide the cutoff. Roll numbers of qualified candidates appear on upsc.gov.in.

• DAF-I (Detailed Application Form-I): opens within 2 weeks of Prelim result. Detailed family, education, employment, hobbies, achievements. Upload all certificates. The Main exam admit card is generated only after DAF-I is submitted and verified.
• Main Exam (September–October): 9 papers over 5-6 days, 1,750 marks total:
  • Paper A — Indian Language (qualifying, 300 marks)
  • Paper B — English (qualifying, 300 marks)
  • Paper I — Essay (250)
  • Paper II — General Studies I (250) — Indian heritage, history, geography
  • Paper III — GS II (250) — polity, governance, IR
  • Paper IV — GS III (250) — economy, environment, security
  • Paper V — GS IV (250) — ethics, integrity, aptitude
  • Paper VI — Optional Paper I (250)
  • Paper VII — Optional Paper II (250)
• Main result: January–February of the next year.
• DAF-II: opens after Main result; final service preference + cadre preference.
• Personality Test (Interview): March–May at Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi. 275 marks, panel of 5.
• Final merit: Main (1,750) + Interview (275) = 2,025.

+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| Category                    | Application   | Age limit       | Max attempts  |
|                             | fee (Prelim)  | (1 Aug of yr)   |               |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| General (male)              | ₹100          | 21 – 32         | 6             |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| EWS (male)                  | ₹100          | 21 – 32         | 6             |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| OBC-NCL (male)              | ₹100          | 21 – 35         | 9             |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| SC / ST (male)              | NIL           | 21 – 37         | Unlimited     |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| PwBD (General/EWS)          | NIL           | 21 – 42         | 9             |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| PwBD (OBC)                  | NIL           | 21 – 42         | 9             |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| PwBD (SC / ST)              | NIL           | 21 – 42         | Unlimited     |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| All female candidates       | NIL           | category-wise   | category-wise |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+
| Ex-Servicemen (Defence)     | NIL           | + 5 years       | category-wise |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------+---------------+

Main exam fee: ₹200 (General/OBC), NIL (SC/ST/PwBD/Female), paid only after
Prelim is cleared and at the time of DAF-I submission.

RTI fee to PIO UPSC: ₹10 by IPO. BPL = free.

• Photograph rejected — wrong dimensions, less than 50% face visible, dark glasses, headgear (other than religious), or a selfie. Re-scan: plain background, neck-up, no smile.
• Signature rejected — in CAPITALS, in print/typed font, or scanned in colour with shadows. Sign in black ink on plain white paper, scan as JPG, convert to required size.
• Aadhaar / PAN mismatch — name spelling differs from your matric certificate. Either get Aadhaar/PAN corrected first, or fill the declaration of name discrepancy form available in OTR.
• Payment failed but money debited — wait 24-72 hours for auto-reversal. Do not retry payment immediately; check “Transaction Status” on the portal.
• Final-year students confused about graduation proof — you can apply, but at the Main DAF stage you must upload the provisional certificate or final result mark sheet. Many candidates miss this and lose the year.
• Attempts exhausted but tried again — your form will be rejected at scrutiny stage; keep a count. Withdrawing before the Prelim doesn't save the attempt; not appearing does.
• Centre full — many cities cap at 1.5 lakh seats. First-come-first-served. Applications submitted in the last 3 days often get pushed to the second/third preference centre.
• EWS / OBC / SC / ST certificate format wrong — UPSC accepts the central government format only, signed by Tehsildar/SDM, with the year of issue. State-only formats get rejected at DAF-I.
• Disability certificate — must be issued by a notified Medical Authority on the UDID portal (swavlambancard.gov.in); old-format certificates from district hospitals before 2018 are no longer accepted.

• 011-23385271 / 011-23381125 / 011-23098543 (10 am – 5 pm, Mon-Fri).
• In-person: UPSC Facilitation Counter, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi.
• Best for: payment failure, login lockout, missed admit card, last-day technical glitch.

• https://upsconline.nic.in → “Public Grievance Redressal” → fill ticket.
• Or write to: us-recruitment@upsc.gov.in with Registration ID + screenshot.
• Reply SLA: 10 working days (no statutory force).

• https://pgportal.gov.in → Ministry: “Union Public Service Commission”.
• Higher visibility. Joint Secretary–level officer monitors. Useful for genuine systemic issues (centre allocation, certificate dispute).

UPSC is a public authority under §2(h) of the RTI Act 2005. The Central Public Information Officer is at:

The CPIO, Union Public Service Commission, Dholpur House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi – 110069.

RTI helps here when:

• Mark sheet not yet released — UPSC publishes the merit list first; per-paper marks come about 45 days later, but RTI gets them faster. Established by Aditya Bandopadhyay v. CBSE (2011) 8 SCC 497, confirmed for UPSC by CIC orders. (Karthik's story above.)
• Question paper photocopy / your own answer script — available after the final result is declared, on RTI request, as per the Bandopadhyay ruling. Fee: ₹2 per page (CIC norm) on top of the base ₹10.
• Cutoff details for a specific year (Prelim, Main, Interview, final) — UPSC publishes them 1 year after the result; RTI can pull the same data sooner if you need it for analysis.
• Reason for application rejection — if your form was rejected at scrutiny stage and the portal only says “rejected”, RTI can extract the specific deficiency note.
• Result of representation — if you sent a representation that was ignored, RTI for “action taken on the representation dated DD-MM-YYYY” forces a response.
• Number of vacancies notified vs filled — useful for transparency tracking.

See: RTI in 12 simple steps and Challenging an exam result — revaluation, re-scrutiny, RTI.

RTI does NOT help here when:

• You want UPSC to overturn a result — RTI gets information only; it cannot order revaluation. UPSC's CSE answer scripts are not “revaluable” in the school-board sense — only re-checked for clerical/totaling errors via written representation within 30 days of mark sheet release.
• You want a list of selected candidates by category — UPSC has consistently held (and CIC has upheld) that the service allocation file of an individual candidate is personal information under §8(1)(j); only the public merit list is disclosed.
• You want the interview board's per-member marks — UPSC publishes only the consolidated interview marks; per-member breakdown is third-party / process-related and routinely denied. Karnataka HC (2018) upheld.
• You disagree with the syllabus / exam pattern — that's policy, not “information held”. Send representations to DoPT.
• You want question-paper “leak” investigation — that's an institutional matter; UPSC has historically denied disclosure citing §8(1)(g) (endangering safety) and §8(1)(h) (pending inquiry).

Q. I'm in the final year of B.Tech. Can I apply for the Prelim?
Yes. You can write the Prelim. But by the time you submit DAF-I (after clearing Prelim), you must upload your provisional/final degree certificate. If your university is delayed, the Main result mark sheet, transcript, or HoD letter will do — get it in writing on letterhead.

Q. I missed my optional subject in Part I. Can I change it?
You can correct it during the window for modification that UPSC opens for 7 days after the close of applications (since 2019). After that, no change. The Main answer scripts will be evaluated only against your declared optional.

Q. I cleared Prelim but missed DAF-I. Now what?
Your candidature is treated as withdrawn for that year. The attempt is consumed. Apply afresh next year.

Q. My fee was deducted but the form shows “fee not paid”.
Wait 72 hours. Auto-reconciliation usually fixes it. If not, write to us-recruitment@upsc.gov.in with the bank statement. Do not pay again — duplicate entries create more confusion.

Q. Where can I get my detailed mark sheet faster than UPSC's official release?
Send a written application by Speed Post to the CPIO, UPSC, Dholpur House, with ₹10 IPO. Reply usually arrives in 20-30 days — well before UPSC's official mark sheet release on its website. Template at RTI in 12 simple steps.

Q. My EWS certificate was issued 2 years ago. Is it still valid?
EWS certificates are valid for the financial year in which they're issued. UPSC typically requires a certificate issued for the same financial year as the application. Get a fresh one from your Tehsildar each year you apply.

Q. I have a 50% locomotor disability. Do I qualify under PwBD?
Under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, 40% disability is the threshold for benchmark disability. Get your UDID card (Unique Disability ID) from swavlambancard.gov.in — UPSC accepts only UDID-format certificates since 2018.

Q. UPSC said in the notification “preference for cadre allocation” — when do I exercise this?
At DAF-II, after the Main result. You list cadres in order of preference. Allocation is by merit + cadre vacancies + Insider/Outsider rule under the Cadre Allocation Policy 2017.

• Challenging an exam result — revaluation, re-scrutiny, RTI
• RTI in 12 simple steps — for first-time filers
• All Indian government helplines — one master directory
• RTI forms + state-wise fee chart
• How to apply for SSC CGL — complete 2026 guide
• How to apply for Bank PO / Clerk via IBPS / SBI — 2026
• How to apply for CUET-UG — complete 2026 guide

Last reviewed: 26 April 2026 by RTI Wiki editorial team. UPSC notification dates and fee structure are notified afresh each year — always verify on upsc.gov.in / upsconline.nic.in or write to admin@bighelpers.in if you spot a stale figure.