Civil Services Examination

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is the annual open competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to recruit to the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Foreign Service, the Indian Police Service and 20 other Group A and Group B central services. For 2026 it runs under the Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, notified by the Department of Personnel and Training under F. No. 13018/02/2025-AIS-I dated 4 February 2026, and it is the single largest route of direct recruitment into the senior civil services.

The examination has two stages under Appendix I of those Rules. A preliminary examination of two objective papers screens the field and carries no weight in the final merit. A main examination of nine written papers, followed by a 275-mark personality test, produces a merit list out of 2,025 marks, and the Department of Personnel and Training allocates a service to each recommended candidate on rank and stated preference. In the CSE 2025 cycle, 9,37,876 people applied and 958 were recommended against 1,087 vacancies, according to the UPSC result highlights released through PIB on 6 March 2026.

The Rules are reissued every year, and the details move. The 2026 Rules added Rule 12(3), which lets an officer allocated the IPS or a Central Group A service take one further examination without resigning, and the 2026 notice added face authentication at every venue. A candidate selected through the examination enters Level 10 of the pay matrix at Rs. 56,100 in a Group A service, serves a two-year probation in the All India Services, and is covered by the National Pension System.

Governing instruments: the annual Rules and the notice

The Civil Services Examination has no Act of Parliament behind it. Each year DoPT publishes the Civil Services Examination Rules for that year in Part I, Section 1 of the Gazette of India Extraordinary, framed with the concurrence of the ministries that control the participating services and of the Comptroller and Auditor General for the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. The 2026 Rules appeared in Gazette No. 26 of 4 February 2026, signed by a Director in DoPT. They are a Part I notification and carry no G.S.R. number, unlike the statutory service rules made under Article 309.

The Commission then issues an examination notice derived from the Rules. For 2026 that was Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE, also dated 4 February 2026, which opened online applications until 6:00 PM on 24 February 2026. The Commission’s advance Programme of Examinations for 2026 had planned a notification date of 14 January 2026 and a closing date of 3 February 2026; the notice itself issued three weeks later than that plan.

The Rules fix eligibility, the scheme of examination, the reserve-list mechanics and service allocation. The notice fixes the vacancies, the fee, the centres and the application procedure. Where a candidate needs a binding answer on age, attempts or allocation, the Rules govern; Rule 1 tells candidates to read the Rules, their appendices and the notice together, because changes may have been made since the previous year’s Rules.

Services filled through the examination

The CSE Rules, 2026 list 23 participating services: the IAS, the IFS and the IPS at the top, 15 further Group A services, and five Group B services. The Group A services enter at Level 10 of the pay matrix; the Group B services enter lower.

Source: Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, items (i) to (xxiii).

The count changes with how the railway services are listed. The DoPT Annual Report 2024-25, at paragraphs 5.10 and 5.11, describes CSE 2023 as having 21 participating services, 16 Group A and five Group B, and records that 996 candidates were allocated against 1,143 vacancies after the sixth iteration of allocation. The 2026 list reaches 23 because it names the Accounts, Personnel and Traffic streams of the Indian Railway Management Service separately.

The Indian Forest Service is not one of the 23. Its candidates are screened through the same Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, but it has a separate main examination, which the Commission’s 2026 programme schedules from 22 November 2026, and its own rules.

Nationality, age and qualification

Eligibility rests on four rules: Rule 4 on nationality, Rule 5 on age, Rule 6 on education and Rule 3 on attempts. The first three are set out here and attempts in the next section.

Nationality. Rule 4(1) requires Indian citizenship for the IAS, the IFS and the IPS. For the other 20 services, Rule 4(2) also admits a subject of Nepal or Bhutan, a Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1 January 1962 intending to settle permanently, and a person of Indian origin who migrated from one of the countries the rule names, among them Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and several East African states, with the same intention. Each needs a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India before an offer of appointment.

Age. Rule 5(1) requires a candidate to have attained 21 and not to have attained 32 on 1 August 2026, which means a date of birth between 2 August 1994 and 1 August 2005. The upper limit is relaxed under Rule 5(2):

Note-I to Rule 5 makes the relaxations cumulative where an SC, ST or OBC candidate is also an ex-serviceman or a person with a benchmark disability, so an SC candidate with a benchmark disability is eligible if they have not attained 47 on 1 August 2026. Note-V shuts every other door: the age limits “can in no case be relaxed” outside Rule 5(2). The Economically Weaker Sections get no age relaxation. The definition of ex-serviceman is the one in the Ex-servicemen (Re-employment in Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979.

The date of birth that counts is the one in the matriculation or secondary school certificate, or an equivalent certificate, and Rule 5(3) requires it to be submitted only at the time of applying. Once entered in the Universal Registration Profile, no change is allowed at any later UPSC examination.

Qualification. Rule 6 requires a graduate degree from a university incorporated by a Central or State Act, an institution established by an Act of Parliament, a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or an equivalent qualification. A candidate awaiting results may sit the preliminary examination, but must produce proof of passing within the window Rule 13 sets. A medical graduate still completing internship is admitted provisionally and must show completion at the interview.

Number of attempts

Rule 3 of the CSE Rules, 2026 allows six attempts to a candidate who is otherwise eligible, with relaxations by category.

Four notes under Rule 3 decide what an attempt is. Note-II deems an attempt at the preliminary examination to be an attempt at the Civil Services Examination. Note-III counts it once the candidate “actually appears in any one paper” of the preliminary examination. Note-IV counts the appearance “Notwithstanding any subsequent disqualification/cancellation of candidature”. A candidate who applies, receives an admit card and stays away has not used an attempt.

The age limit and the attempt limit work independently, and the tighter one decides. An SC candidate has no attempt ceiling but stops at 37 years under Rules 5(1) and 5(2)(a). A General candidate who starts at 21 can use all six attempts by 26 and is then barred although under the age limit.

The present numbers date from CSE 2014. A Ministry of Personnel release of 2 January 2019, reporting a Lok Sabha written reply, records that before CSE 2014 a General candidate had four attempts and an upper age of 30, and that the Government added two attempts and two years of age with CSE 2014.

Restrictions on serving officers under Rule 12

Rule 12 controls who may re-enter the examination after already winning a service, and its third sub-rule is new in 2026.

IAS and IFS members are barred. Under Rule 12(1), a candidate appointed to the IAS or the IFS on an earlier examination who “continues to be a member of that Service will not be eligible to appear” in CSE 2026. The bar follows the candidate through the cycle: appointment after the preliminary examination bars the main examination, and appointment after the main examination begins but before the result bars consideration for any service on CSE 2026.

IPS officers cannot be given the IPS again. Rule 12(2) lets an officer selected or appointed to the IPS on an earlier examination sit the examination, but makes them ineligible “to opt for or allocated to” the IPS on its result.

Rule 12(3) is new in 2026. A candidate allocated the IPS or a Central Group A service on CSE 2026 may sit CSE 2027 only on the conditions in clauses (a) to (i):

1. The candidate must obtain an exemption from training for the allocated service; Rule 12(3)(a) describes it as a “one-time exemption only from joining the training in order to enable him/her to appear in CSE- 2027”.
2. The candidate joins the Foundation Course only, under clause (b). A candidate who neither joins training nor takes the exemption has the CSE 2026 allocation cancelled, under clause (c).
3. If recommended again on CSE 2027, the candidate chooses either allocation and joins the CSE 2027 training; the other allocation is cancelled, under clause (d). Joining neither cancels both, under clause (e).
4. Seniority follows the service actually joined and “shall not be depressed”, under clause (f).
5. The candidate may not sit CSE 2028 or later without resigning from the allocated service, under clause (g).
6. A candidate who wants to use further attempts after the exemption must not join the service allocated on CSE 2026 or CSE 2027, and that allocation is then cancelled automatically, under clause (h).

Clause (i) gives a transitional opportunity: a candidate allocated a service on CSE 2025 or earlier gets one chance at either CSE 2026 or CSE 2027 “without the need to resign from service”, and must resign to sit CSE 2028 or later. Clause (i) does not lift the Rule 12(1) bar on a serving IAS or IFS member. UPSC Examination Notice No. 05/2025-CSP dated 22 January 2025 contained only the first two restrictions, so the training-exemption scheme first appears in the 2026 cycle.

A serving government servant who is not caught by Rule 12 still has two duties under Rule 8. Rule 8(1) requires an undertaking that the Head of Office or Department has been told in writing of the application, and if the employer writes to the Commission withholding permission, the application is liable to be rejected and the candidature will be cancelled. Rule 8(2) requires the candidate to “tender technical resignation / resignation from their existing service before joining the new service”. A technical resignation, where the application went through proper channel, keeps past service and pay protection and a lien on the old post for up to two years, under Ministry of Finance OM No. 3379-E.III(B)/65 dated 17 June 1965 and the instructions that followed it.

Application, fee and identity checks

A candidate applies online through the Universal Registration Profile and Common Application Form, and Rule 13(1) requires the supporting documents for every claim, among them date of birth, category, qualification and service preference, to be uploaded with the form. Failure “will entail cancellation of candidature”. No change is allowed once the form is submitted, and Rule 11 bars withdrawal of an application.

Fee. Paragraph 4 of the 2026 notice charges Rs. 100 for the preliminary examination and a further Rs. 200 for the main examination, payable online. Women, SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempt from both.

Two later windows. Rule 13(2) gives a 10-day window after the preliminary result, in which every qualified candidate must log in and reconfirm details, and those not exempt must pay the main examination fee, or lose the right to continue; for CSE 2026 it ran from 19 to 28 June 2026, according to the UPSC press note of 15 June 2026. Rule 13(3) gives a 15-day window after the main written result, in which candidates called for the personality test upload proof of their qualification, failing which the “candidature shall stand cancelled”.

Category certificates. Rule 27(2) requires an OBC (Non-Creamy Layer) certificate based on income for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, and Rule 27(3) an EWS Income and Asset Certificate based on income for 2024-25. Both must be issued on or after 1 April 2025 and no later than the closing date of the application. Rule 29 makes the closing date the date for deciding OBC and creamy layer status, and Rule 26(1) refuses any later change from unreserved to reserved or between reserved categories, subject to Rule 26(2), under which the Commission may consider an unreserved-to-reserved change on merit where a community was notified as reserved not more than three months before the application.

Identity checks. Three measures arrived from August 2024. DoPT Notification S.O. 3645(E) dated 28 August 2024, issued under Section 4(4)(b)(ii) of the Aadhaar Act, allowed the UPSC to perform Aadhaar authentication “on voluntary basis” at registration on the One Time Registration portal and at the stages of an examination. The 2026 notice added live photo capture in the application form, and item 11 of its instructions made face authentication at the venue mandatory for all candidates. Aadhaar remains one of several accepted photo identity documents.

The preliminary examination

The Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination is a screening test of two objective papers, 400 marks in all, set in Hindi and English, under Section II(A) of Appendix I. Each paper is two hours long and carries 200 marks.

• General Studies Paper-I carries the merit for screening. The Commission fixes its cut-off “at their discretion” under Rule 15(1), category by category.
• General Studies Paper-II, widely called CSAT, is qualifying. The candidate needs 33% in it and its marks play no further part.

Note II under paragraph 2 of Section I sets the negative marking. Each question has four alternatives; a wrong answer loses “one-third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question”; a question with more than one answer marked is treated as wrong even if one of the answers is correct; and a blank carries no penalty.

The number admitted to the main examination is “about twelve to thirteen times the total approximate number of vacancies”, under paragraph 2 of Section I. The recent figures sit at the top of that band: the UPSC press note of 15 June 2026 records 14,161 candidates shortlisted for CSE 2025 against 1,087 vacancies, a ratio of 13.0, and 13,343 for CSE 2026 against 1,016 vacancies, a ratio of 13.1.

The 2026 preliminary examination was held on 24 May 2026 and its result declared on 15 June 2026. The Commission publishes marks, cut-offs and answer keys for the preliminary stage only after the whole examination cycle is over, so a candidate learns the cut-off only after the final result, which for CSE 2025 came on 6 March 2026, more than nine months after the 25 May 2025 paper.

The main examination

The Civil Services (Main) Examination is a written examination of nine conventional essay-type papers, each three hours long, followed by the personality test, under paragraph 3 of Section I and Section II(B) of Appendix I.

Source: Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, Appendix I, Section II(B).

The two language papers are of matriculation standard. The Commission evaluates all nine papers together but takes cognisance of the seven counted papers only for a candidate who reaches 25% in each of Paper A and Paper B, under Note (ii). Paper A is not compulsory for candidates from Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, or for a candidate in the hearing-impairment sub-category who was exempted from second or third language courses by their board or university.

Optional subjects. Paragraph 2 lists 26 heads. Twenty-five are subjects: Agriculture; Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science; Anthropology; Botany; Chemistry; Civil Engineering; Commerce and Accountancy; Economics; Electrical Engineering; Geography; Geology; History; Law; Management; Mathematics; Mechanical Engineering; Medical Science; Philosophy; Physics; Political Science and International Relations; Psychology; Public Administration; Sociology; Statistics; and Zoology. The 26th is the literature of any one of 23 languages, the 22 Eighth Schedule languages and English, which makes 48 distinct choices.

Medium. A candidate may answer every paper except Papers A and B in any Eighth Schedule language or in English, and may write the optional papers in English while writing the Essay and General Studies papers in an Indian language. Question papers other than the literature papers are set in Hindi and English only. The general instructions also deduct marks for illegible handwriting and for any mark in the script that could disclose the candidate’s identity, and permit a non-programmable scientific calculator in the essay-type papers.

The personality test

The Interview or Personality Test carries 275 marks “with no minimum qualifying marks”, under paragraph 4.1 of Section I of Appendix I. About twice the number of vacancies are called. For CSE 2025, 2,736 candidates qualified for the personality test against 1,087 vacancies, 2.5 per vacancy, according to the UPSC result highlights released through PIB on 6 March 2026.

Section II(C) describes the test as an assessment of “personal suitability of the candidate for a career in public service” by a board that has the candidate’s record before it. It names the qualities to be judged, among them mental alertness, clear and logical exposition, balance of judgement, variety and depth of interest, ability for social cohesion and leadership, and intellectual and moral integrity, and says it is not a test of specialised or general knowledge already tested in the written papers.

Rule 15(2) sets the language of the interview. A candidate who wrote the main examination in an Indian language may be interviewed in that language, in English or in Hindi; one who wrote in English may choose English, Hindi or the language of their Paper A. A candidate exempt from Paper A chooses English or Hindi.

Final merit, tie-breaking and the reserve list

The final rank is the total of the seven counted written papers and the personality test, out of 2,025, under paragraph 4.2 of Section I and Rule 20(1). Preliminary marks and the qualifying language papers do not enter it.

Ties. Paragraph 4.3 breaks a tie in four steps: first the higher total of the Essay, General Studies I to IV and the personality test together; then the higher total of the Essay and General Studies papers alone; then the candidate senior in age; and finally the Commission’s discretion. The optional papers play no part in breaking a tie.

Reserved candidates on general merit. Under the proviso to Rule 20(1), an SC, ST, OBC, EWS or PwBD candidate who availed no concession or relaxation at any stage of the examination and is found fit on the general qualifying standard is recommended against an unreserved vacancy, not a reserved one. The Note to Rule 20(1) adds that a scribe, compensatory time and the disability itself are not counted as relaxations. Rule 20(2) then lets the Government adjust such a candidate against a reserved vacancy at the allocation stage if that gives a service higher in their order of preference.

The two reserve lists. Rule 20(4)(a)(1) reduces the number of candidates recommended in the first instance by the number of reserved-category and PwBD candidates who qualified on general merit without relaxation, and Rule 20(4)(a)(2) allows a further reduction to secure vacancies for PwBD candidates expected from the reserve list. Rule 20(4)(b) requires a Consolidated Reserve List whose unreserved count equals those reductions, and Rule 20(4)(c) makes the count for each reserved category equal to the number reduced in that category. The same sub-rule adds an Extended List below the Consolidated Reserve List, in a number the Commission decides. Both stay confidential until recommendations under Rule 20(5) are complete.

The CSE 2025 result, declared under the 2025 Rules with the same Rule 20 numbering, shows the arithmetic. The Government reported 446 General vacancies; the Commission recommended 317 General candidates in the first instance and kept a Consolidated Reserve List of 258. Its General half, 129, is exactly the gap between the 446 vacancies and the 317 recommendations, and the 958 total recommended is 1,087 vacancies less those 129. The other half is the reserved-category counts under Rule 20(4)(c): 26 EWS, 86 OBC, 8 SC, 6 ST, 1 PwBD-1 and 2 PwBD-2, which also total 129. This is a salary-calculator.in reconciliation of the figures in the UPSC press note of 6 March 2026.

Requisitions. After service allocation the Government may requisition candidates from the Consolidated Reserve List, in order of merit, to fill vacancies left by reserved-category candidates moving to their own category, under Rule 20(5)(a)(1). Under Rule 20(5)(a)(2) it may in the same requisition ask for candidates from the Extended List for vacancies left unfilled “due to limited preferences expressed by the candidates, invalid reservation claims of the candidates and cancellation of candidature”. The rule then closes the list: “No further requisition” is forwarded for vacancies arising for any other reason, and the Note bars reallocation or upgradation of service against them. For CSE 2022, the UPSC 74th Annual Report records 931 candidates recommended on 23 May 2023 and 89 more from the reserve list on 1 November 2023, a total of 1,020.

Service allocation and cadre allocation

The Commission recommends candidates and the Government allocates services. Rule 21(1) requires “Due consideration” to the order of preference a candidate gave for the services in the application, and paragraph 4.2 of Appendix I states that candidates are allotted to services “keeping in view their ranks in the examination and the preferences expressed by them”. Allocation is done by DoPT on rank, preference, the vacancies in each category and, for PwBD candidates, the services identified as suitable for their disability in Appendix IV.

Rule 14(1) makes the preference list mandatory and limited to the participating services: a candidate who indicates no preference “will not be considered for Service Allocation”. Rule 14(3) freezes the list on submission, except for the update allowed in the Rule 13(3) window. A candidate who leaves out a service will not get it, whatever their rank. The press note of 15 June 2026 opened the window for CSE 2026 candidates to fill their cadre preference after the preliminary result.

Allocation runs in iterations. For CSE 2023, the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 records 996 candidates allocated against 1,143 vacancies after the sixth iteration.

Cadres in the IAS and IPS. Rule 21(2) applies the cadre allocation policy in force at the time of allotment. From CSE 2026 that is the Cadre Allocation Policy issued as DoPT OM No. 13013/01/2024-AIS-I dated 23 January 2026, which paragraph 9 issues in supersession of the zone-based policy of 5 September 2017 (OM No. 13013/2/2016-AIS-I). Paragraph 2 arranges the 25 state and joint cadres alphabetically in four groups, from Group-I (AGMUT, Andhra Pradesh, Assam-Meghalaya, Bihar and Chhattisgarh) to Group-IV (Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal). Insiders are placed first, strictly by rank and subject to their willingness to be allocated to their home state, and a candidate who does not express that willingness “shall not be considered for his/her Home cadre at all” under paragraph 3.1. Outsiders are then dealt one per cadre in cycles, each cycle starting with the next group, under paragraph 4.2.2, and paragraph 5 moves the first group to the bottom in each succeeding year. A PwBD candidate may name one cadre besides the home cadre under paragraph 4.1.2. Rule 14(2) requires an IAS or IPS aspirant to state a home cadre preference when the Commission asks. Under the 2017 policy, the IAS cadres of 181 CSE 2023 officers were allotted on 12 December 2024 under DoPT letter No. 13013/06/2023-AIS(I), according to paragraph 5.12 of the DoPT Annual Report 2024-25.

An All India Service officer recruited through the examination takes as year of allotment the year following the year of the examination, under Rule 3(3)(i) of the IAS (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987, so a CSE 2025 recruit belongs to the 2026 batch. For the central services, seniority of direct recruits follows the order of merit in the selection, under paragraph 2.1 of DoPT OM No. 20011/1/2008-Estt.(D) dated 11 November 2010.

Medical examination and suitability for appointment

Every candidate called for the personality test undergoes a medical examination the Government prescribes, and Rule 18(2) deems it “an essential part of the Examination process”. Under Rule 18(3) a candidate who does not complete it in time is liable to cancellation of candidature, with “no extra opportunities”. A candidate declared Temporarily Unfit gets one re-examination within a specified period, after which a final decision should be given, under the proviso to Rule 18(4). Note-IV gives examples of temporary conditions: excessive Body Mass Index, pregnancy, varicose veins, diabetic conditions and hearing defects. The detailed standards are in Appendix III.

Rule 23(1) confers no right to allocation or appointment on a successful candidate until the Government is satisfied, after any enquiry it considers necessary, about character and antecedents, the certificates produced for eligibility and reservation, and the medical reports. The decision is final. Rule 23(2) makes a candidate allocated to an All India Service or a Group A service who skips the mandatory Foundation Course without exemption liable to cancellation of candidature.

Rule 24 bars from appointment a person who has married someone with a living spouse, or who has married again while having a living spouse, unless the Central Government exempts them because the personal law of both parties permits the marriage and there are other grounds.

Vacancies and results, 2022 to 2026

The vacancy figure is set by the Government, not the Commission, and it moves after the notice. Rule 2 says only that the tentative number will be specified in the notice, and the 2026 notice says the final number “may undergo change after getting firm number of vacancies from Cadre Controlling Authorities”.

The CSE 2025 vacancies split as 180 IAS, 55 IFS, 150 IPS, 507 Central Group A and 195 Group B. The 958 recommended split as 317 General, 104 EWS, 306 OBC, 158 SC and 73 ST, and as 659 men and 299 women. The CSE 2026 notice reserved 33 of its approximately 933 vacancies for persons with benchmark disabilities: seven for blindness and low vision, 11 for deaf and hard of hearing, eight for locomotor disability and seven for multiple disabilities. It published no service-wise break-up, so there is no notified IAS figure for CSE 2026.

In CSE 2025 about one applicant in 979 was recommended, and about one in 602 of those who sat the preliminary examination. Both ratios are salary-calculator.in calculations from the figures above.

The 2026 calendar

The programme carries its own qualification that the dates “are liable to alteration, if the circumstances so warrant”, and its planned notification date of 14 January 2026 was not the date the notice actually issued.

From result to appointment: training, pay and pension

A recommended candidate is appointed only after allocation, verification and the medical examination. All All India Service and Group A recruits then attend the common Foundation Course, which Rule 23(2) makes mandatory. For the IAS it is the first block of training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. The DoPT Annual Report 2024-25 records that the 99th Common Foundation Course there ran from 26 August to 29 November 2024 for 653 officer trainees, 11 of them from the Royal Bhutan Civil Service. Each service then runs its own professional training, and the IAS sequence is described on the IAS salary page.

Pay. The Group A services enter at Level 10 of the 7th CPC pay matrix, at a basic pay of Rs. 56,100, under Rule 8 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 for the central services and the corresponding All India Services pay rules for the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service. Appendix II to the CSE Rules, 2026 gives the IAS Junior Scale as Level 10, Rs. 56,100 to 1,77,500. Dearness allowance, house rent allowance and transport allowance are added on that basic pay. A recruit who held a post in government before selection may have pay protected under the proviso to the relevant pay rule; the IPS case is worked through on the IPS salary page.

Probation. An IAS direct recruit serves two years on probation under rule 3(1) of the IAS (Probation) Rules, 1954, and the IPS and IFoS have their own probation rules, set out on probation in the All India Services. The central Group A services follow their own service rules; the Indian Revenue Service Rules, 2015, for example, put every entrant on two years’ probation.

Pension. Every recruit who joins on or after 1 January 2004 is covered by the National Pension System, not the old pension scheme, and may opt for the Unified Pension Scheme available from 1 April 2025, through the instrument that covers their service.

Changes to the scheme since 2011

The structure in force in 2026 was built in three steps between 2011 and 2015, each recorded in a Ministry of Personnel release.

The release of 13 May 2015 framed the 33% rule as interim: the paper would remain qualifying “Till such time the Government takes decision on the recommendation” of an expert committee that would be constituted to examine eligibility, syllabus, scheme and pattern. The 33% standard remains in Note (ii) to Section II(A) of the 2026 Rules.

Earlier reviews came through the Commission itself. The DoPT Annual Report 2005-06, at paragraph 2.6, records that the UPSC constituted a committee under Prof. Yoginder K. Alagh on 19 July 2000 to review the examination, and that its recommendations, with the Commission’s comments, were then under examination by the Government.

Disqualification and debarment

Rule 19(1) lists 14 kinds of misconduct, clauses (a) to (n), among them impersonation, submitting fabricated or tampered documents, making false statements or suppressing material information, possessing a mobile phone or any communication device even when switched off, and misbehaving in the hall. A candidate found guilty is liable to criminal prosecution and shall be disqualified from the examination, and is liable to debarment by the Commission from its examinations and by the Central Government from employment, permanently or for a period, and to disciplinary action if already in government service. The proviso requires a written opportunity to represent before any penalty.

The rule was applied in 2024. The UPSC announced on 31 July 2024 that the provisional candidature of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar for CSE 2022 had been cancelled and that she had been “debarred permanently from all the future Examinations/Selections of the UPSC”. A show-cause notice had been issued on 18 July 2024 for availing attempts beyond the permissible limit by faking her identity. The Commission reported that it had checked the records of more than 15,000 finally recommended candidates of CSE 2009 to 2023 and found no other such case, and stated that it does only a preliminary scrutiny of certificates and generally takes a certificate issued by the competent authority as genuine. Aadhaar authentication followed on 28 August 2024, and face authentication with the 2026 notice.

Pratibha Setu

Candidates who reach the personality test but are not recommended are listed, with consent, on the UPSC Pratibha Setu portal, which the 2026 notice describes as the erstwhile Public Disclosure Scheme. It discloses the candidate’s percentile, “not absolute or percentage marks”, and the candidate may opt out in the application. According to a UPSC release of 22 July 2025, published through PIB and quoting the UPSC Chairman, the portal grew out of the Public Disclosure Scheme introduced in 2018, and private organisations had begun approaching the Commission for access to the pool.

Common misreadings

“CSE recruits IAS officers only.” The 2026 Rules list 23 services, and in CSE 2025 the IAS accounted for 180 of 1,087 vacancies, 16.6%. Central Group A services accounted for 507.

“The Indian Forest Service is part of CSE.” It shares the preliminary examination only. Its main examination, interview and rules are separate.

“Only a full attempt counts.” Under Note-III to Rule 3, sitting one preliminary paper is an attempt.

“An IPS officer cannot sit CSE again.” Rule 12(2) only bars re-allocation to the IPS. The bar on sitting at all applies to IAS and IFS members under Rule 12(1).

“The interview has a pass mark.” Paragraph 4.1 of Appendix I says the 275 marks carry no minimum qualifying marks; the qualifying hurdles are at the preliminary and written main stages.

“A high rank guarantees the IAS.” Rule 14(1) limits allocation to the services the candidate listed, Rule 21(1) gives due consideration to the order of preference, and the IAS has a fixed number of vacancies in each category, 180 in all for CSE 2025.

“The vacancy figure in the notice is final.” The CSE 2026 notice said about 933, and the press note of 15 June 2026 used 1,016.

Related Articles

• Union Public Service Commission
• Direct recruitment
• Central government jobs
• All India Services
• IAS salary
• Indian Administrative Service
• IPS salary
• Indian Police Service
• Indian Foreign Service
• Indian Forest Service
• Indian Revenue Service
• Indian Civil Accounts Service
• Organised Group A services
• Central Secretariat Service
• Staff Selection Commission
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration
• Probation in the All India Services
• Probation in central government
• Induction training
• Reservation in central government jobs
• Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act
• Ex-servicemen (Re-employment in Civil Services and Posts) Rules, 1979
• Technical resignation
• Lien
• Seniority
• Pay matrix
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• All India Services Pay Rules, 2016
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Old pension scheme
• Article 309
• Article 320
• Lateral entry
• Limited departmental competitive examination
• Central Staffing Scheme
• Cadre review

External references

• Gazette of India Extraordinary No. 26, Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, 4 February 2026: https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2026/269828.pdf
• UPSC, Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/Notif-CSP-2026-Engl-060226Rev.pdf
• UPSC, Final result of the Civil Services Examination, 2025: https://www.upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CSE_2025_FR_Eng_06032026.pdf
• Union Public Service Commission: https://upsc.gov.in/
• Department of Personnel and Training: https://dopt.gov.in/
• DoPT service allocation and cadre portal: https://cseplus.nic.in/
• Gazette of India, DoPT Notification S.O. 3645(E), 28 August 2024: https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2024/256699.pdf

References

1. Department of Personnel and Training, Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, F. No. 13018/02/2025-AIS-I dated 4 February 2026, Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part I, Section 1, No. 26: list of participating services; Rules 1 to 6, 8, 11 to 15, 18 to 24, 26, 27 and 29; Appendix I, Section I paragraphs 2 to 4.3 and Section II(A) to (C); Appendix II.
2. Union Public Service Commission, Examination Notice No. 05/2026-CSE dated 4 February 2026, paragraphs 2 to 4 and item 11 of the instructions; Examination Notice No. 05/2025-CSP dated 22 January 2025, section (V); Programme of Examinations and Recruitment Tests 2026.
3. Union Public Service Commission, Press Note on the result of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026, 15 June 2026; Press Note on the final result of the Civil Services Examination, 2025, 6 March 2026; Union Public Service Commission, CSE 2025 result highlights, PIB, 6 March 2026; UPSC 74th Annual Report 2023-24.
4. Department of Personnel and Training, Office Memorandum No. 13013/01/2024-AIS-I dated 23 January 2026, Cadre Allocation Policy for the All India Services, paragraphs 2 to 9; Office Memorandum No. 13013/2/2016-AIS-I dated 5 September 2017; Annual Report 2024-25, paragraphs 5.10 to 5.12; Annual Report 2005-06, paragraph 2.6; Indian Administrative Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987, Rule 3(3)(i).
5. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, PIB releases “Civil Services Examination”, 13 May 2015, and “Change of UPSC Exam Pattern”, 2 January 2019.
6. Department of Personnel and Training, Notification S.O. 3645(E) dated 28 August 2024, F. No. 39017/01/2024-PP(B/I); Union Public Service Commission, press release of 31 July 2024 on the CSE 2022 candidature of Puja Manorama Dilip Khedkar (PIB).
7. Union Public Service Commission, PIB release of 22 July 2025 on Pratibha Setu.