UPSC publishes/releases the notification for holding the Civil Services Examination every year in the month of May for the Preliminary Test to be held in the month of August, of the same year. Applications are invited by UPSC till June end of that year.

The number of vacancies is reported by Union Public Service Commission in its advertisement/notification for the exam. The number of vacancies varies every year; the number of vacancies per year in the last 4 years has varied between 1000 and 1200.

Number of attempts :- Civil Service Examination – General-6, OBC-9, SC/ST- No restriction IFS Examination- General-4, OBC-7, SC/ST-No restriction There is no restriction on number of attempts in any other Examination conducted by the Commission.

No. However physically handicapped candidates belonging to SC, ST and OBC categories will be eligible for relaxation in number of attempts provided to such categories.

TNo. Only candidates belonging to communities which are included in the Central list of OBC& are eligible for such concessions.

The candidates, opting for Indian Language medium for the written part of the Civil Services (Main) Examination, may choose either the same Indian Language or English or Hindi as the medium for the interview.

TYes. You can, particularly if you are good at self-study. We are not against classroom coaching. There are good institutes and teachers who help aspirants save a lot of time and effort. But not all coaching institutes provide quality service, so if you wish to join one, do that after proper research. It should also be noted that with the advent of technology, guidance and study materials can be sought online.

The Commission has the discretion to fix qualifying marks in any or all the subjects of the examination. For 2015, the minimum mark is 25% for Indian language and English language. For GS1, GS2, GS3 and GS4 the minimum mark expected is 10%.

It comes out usually during the first week of December/January every year.The notification is published in Employment News and Rozgar Samachar.

There is an increasing trend that engineering graduates are shifting towards humanities. They preferably take one of the optionals as the science and the other from humanities. As far as popular trend is concerned large number of engineering students find it comfortable to opt either geography or public administration. Both these optionals are having small seep in time and can be comfortably picked up in a short span of time.

Yes, physically handicapped candidates belonging to the general category shall be eligible for 7 attempts

No, there the degree must be approved with the UGC or the any other govt. organization that is mentioned in the notification.