UPSC Civil Services Examination – 2021(CSE – 2021)

Latest:

Also Read : GK for competitive Exams

Important Points of CS-2021

(i)  Final result of Civil Services Examination, 2021 has been declared on 30 May, 2022.

(ii) To check the result & other important points, go on link: Final Result of civil services Examination -2021

(iii) A total number of 685 candidates have been recommended for appointment.

(vi) Marks will be available on the website within 15 days from the date of declaration of Result.

Introduction

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a national-level competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for recruitment of public servants in officer cadre.  The exam is used for recruiting officers to various departments in the country, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) among others. Civil Services Exam 2021 will be held in three phases –a preliminary examination which is a written test and consists of two objective-type papers, the main examination consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type and lastly, a personality test or interview. The application portal is active from 04 March ,2021.

• For  Latest Updates Civil services-2020 Log on : Updates: UPSC Exams

Suggested: Learn in detail about the Engineering Services Exam – 2020 (ESE – 2020).

List of Contents

1. List of Services/Departments.
2. Important Dates.
3. Mode of Answering.
4. Medium of Question Paper.
5. Date of Examination.
6. Eligibility Criteria.
7. Exam Pattern.
8. Syllabus.
9. How to Apply?
   1. Application Fee.
   2. Photograph and Signature Specifications.
   3. Steps of Applying.
10. Admit Card.
11. Results.
12. Important Links.

Civil Services Exam 2021: List of Services

The following are the list of services which one gets on qualifying the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021:

Central Services (Group A)

1. Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
2. Indian Police Service (IPS).
3. Indian Foreign Service (IFS).
4. Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS).
5. Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS).
6. Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS).
7. Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS).
8. Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES).
9. Indian Information Service, Junior Grade (IIS)..
10. Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS).
11. Indian Postal Service (IPoS).
12. Indian Revenue Service (IRS-Income Tax).
13. Indian Revenue Service (IRS-Custom & Indirect Taxes).
14. Indian Trade Service Grade III (ITS).
15. Indian Railway Protection Force Service (RPF)

16. ---

    Group B Services

1.  Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (AFHCS) ( Section Officer Grade).
2.  Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil            Service (DANICS),
3. Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Service (DANIPS)
4.  Pondicherry Civil Service.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Important Dates

Vacancies

The number of vacancies to be filled through the examination is expected to be approximately
712, which includes:

 Notes:   (i) 22 vacancies reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disability Category.

              (ii)       Reservation will be made for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes. Scheduled Tribes, other Backward Classes, the Economically Weaker Sections and Persons with Benchmark Disability in respect of vacancies as may be fixed by the Government. 

            (iii)      The final number of vacancies may undergo change after getting firm number of vacancies from Cadre Controlling Authorities.

Medium of Question Paper

Civil Services Exam 2021 (Prelims) has to be taken by the candidates in either ENGLISH or HINDI.

In Civil Services Exam 2021 (Main), the compulsory language paper can be taken in any of the 23 listed languages in the Constitution of India. The rest of the papers have to be taken in either ENGLISH or HINDI.

Mode of Answering

Civil Services Exam 2021 (Prelims) will be Pen and Paper based test.

Thus, candidates have to mark their answers in an OMR sheet in Prelims and write subjective answers in Mains.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Exam Date

The civil services exam 2021 (Prelims) will be held on 27th June 2021 

The Main examination will be conducted on  October 2021

Civil Services 2021 Eligibility Criteria

• All candidates (male/female/transgender) are eligible for the examination.

Nationality

For Indian Administrative Services, Indian Foreign Services and Indian Police Services, the applicant must be an Indian National. However, for other services, an applicant must either be:

    (a) An Indian National, or

    (b) A citizen of Nepal or subject of Bhutan, or

    (c) A Tibetan refugee, who came to India before 1st January 1962 with the intention
of permanently settling in India, or

    (d) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, East
African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire,
Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.
Provided that a candidate belonging to categories (b), (c),  and (d) shall be a person in
whose favor a certificate of eligibility has been issued by the Government of India.

Note : A candidate in whose case a certificate of eligibility is necessary, may be admitted to the
examination but the offer of appointment may be given only after the necessary eligibility
certificate has been issued to him/her by the Government of India. 

Minimum Qualification

 A Candidate must have a degree from a recognized university established either by an Act of the Central or State Legislature or UGC Act, 1956 or by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or possess an equivalent qualification..

OR

 In exceptional cases, the Commission may treat a candidate who does not have any of the
foregoing qualifications as a candidate, provided that the candidate has passed an examination
conducted by any other institution the standard of which in the opinion of the Commission
justifies the admission to the Civil Services Examination.

                                           OR

Candidates possessing professional and technical qualifications which are recognised by the Government as equivalent to professional and technical degree would also be eligible for admission to the Civil Services Examination.

Note : (i) Candidates who have passed the final professional M.B.B.S or any other equivalent
professional examination leading to a medical degree or certificate but have not completed their
internship by the time of submission of their applications for the Civil Services (Main) Examination will be provisionally admitted to the Civil Services Examination, provided they submit along with their application a copy of certificate from the concerned authority of the University/Institution that they had passed the requisite final professional examination. In such cases, the candidates will be required to produce at the time of their interview the original degree or a certificate from the concerned competent authority of the University/Institution that they had completed all requirements (including completion of internship) for the award of the Degree.

(ii) Candidates who have been appeared at a qualifying examination, the passing of which would render them educationally qualified for the Commission’s Examination, but have not been informed of the result as also the candidates who intend to appear at such a qualifying examination will also be eligible for admission to the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination. All candidates who are declared qualified by the Commission for taking the Civil Services (Main) Examination will be required to produce proof of passing the requisite qualifying examination along with their application (i.e. Detailed Application Form-I) for the Main Examination, failing which such candidates will not be admitted to the Main Examination. Such proof of passing the requisite qualifying examination should be dated earlier than the due date (closing date) of Detailed Application Form-I of the Main Examination. 

Age Limit

Applicant must have attained at least 21 years of age as on 1st August 2021. However, he/she must not exceed the upper limit of 32 years as on 1st August 2021 i.e. the candidate must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1989 and not later than 1st August, 2000. 

Age as per following details are relaxable :-

Note :- (i) Maximum five years relaxation is also available in the case of ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military Service as on 1st August, 2021 and whose assignment has been extended beyond five years and in whose case the Ministry of Defence issues a certificate that they can apply for civil employment and that they will be released on three months notice on selection from the date of receipt of offer of appointment.

          (ii) The date of birth, accepted by the Commission will accept the date of birth  that  is entered in the Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate or in a certificate recognised by an Indian University as equivalent to Matriculation or in an extract from a Register of Matriculates maintained by a University which extract must be certified by the proper authority of the University or in the
Higher Secondary examination certificate or an equivalent examination certificate. The certificate
in support of the date of birth is required to be submitted by a candidate only at the time of
applying for the Civil Services (Main) Examination.

       (iii) Candidates must also note that once a date of birth has been submitted by them in the application form and entered in the records of the Commission for the purpose of admission to an Examination, no change will be allowed subsequently or at any other Examination of the Commission on any grounds whatsoever. 

       (iv)    No other document relating to age like horoscopes, affidavits, birth extracts from Municipal Corporation, Service records and the like will be accepted.

       (v) For other provisions of relaxation of age particularly for ex service man, please refer the official broacher of UPSC.

Number of Attempts

Every candidate appearing at the examination who is otherwise eligible, shall be permitted six
(6) attempts at the CSE. further , following relaxation in number of attempts are available:- 

               Category                                 Number of Attempts

              1  SC/ ST                                    Un limited

              2   OBC                                      09

              3 PwBD                                      09 for GL/EWS/OBC
                                                               Unlimited for SC/ST

         Notes:  (i)  An attempt at a Preliminary Examination shall be deemed to be an attempt at the Civil
Services Examination.

                     (ii) If a candidate actually appears in any one paper in the Preliminary Examination, it
will be deemed that the candidate has made an attempt at the Examination. 

                     (iii) Notwithstanding any subsequent disqualification/cancellation of candidature, the fact
of appearance of the candidate at the Examination will count as an attempt. 

Restrictions on applying for CSE 2021

( i)         A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Administrative Service or the Indian Foreign
Service based on the results of an earlier Examination and continues to be a member of that Service will not be eligible to appear at the Civil Services Examination-2021. In case such a candidate is appointed to the IAS or IFS after the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination-2021 is over and the candidate continues to be a member of that Service, the candidate shall not be eligible to appear in the Civil Services (Main) Examination-2021 notwithstanding having qualified in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination-2021. If such a candidate is appointed to the IAS or IFS after the commencement of the Civil Services (Main) Examination-2021 but before the result thereof is declared by the Commission and continues to be a member of that Service, the candidate shall not be considered for appointment to any Service/Post on the basis of the result of the CSE-2021.
(ii)         A candidate who is appointed to the Indian Police Service based on the results of an
earlier Examination and continues to be a member of that Service shall not be eligible to opt for
the Indian Police Service on the basis of the result of the CSE-2021

Civil Services Exam 2021 Exam Pattern

Civil Services Exam 2021will be held in three stages:

• Stage I: Preliminary Examination.
• Stage II: Main Examination.
• Stage III: Personality Test/Interview Round. 

Stage I: Prelims

The UPSC Civil Services exam 2021 (Prelims stage) shall comprise of 2 objective(MCQ) type papers:

 Notes :- (i) Each of these papers will be 2-hour long.

              (ii) There is 1/3^rd negative marking for each incorrect answer in the Prelims.

              (iii) The General Studies Paper – II (CSAT) is for qualifying purpose and candidates need to score minimum 33 percent in this paper to qualify for the next stage of the exam i.e. Civil Services Mains.

             (iv) Blind candidates get 20 minutes extra time for each paper in Prelims.

              (v) The candidates have to mandatorily appear for both the Prelims papers to be evaluated. The Prelims marks are not used for l merit of  final selection. 

             (vi) Both the papers will be set in English and Hindi.

Stage II: Mains

The UPSC Civil Services Exam 2018 (Main) consists of nine papers out of which two are qualifying in nature and rest are counted for ranking.

• All the Mains papers have a duration of 3 hours each. The marks obtained in Paper I to VII will be used in determining the final rank along with the interview.

•  Candidate must obtain 25% marks (75 marks) in Paper A and B for qualifying. 

• Papers I-VII can be taken in either ENGLISH or HINDI.

• The papers will be subjective in nature and will have conventional (essay) questions.

• The language for paper A can be chosen from the list of languages in the 8^th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Stage III: Personality Test/Interview Round

The candidates who clear the Civil Services Exam 2021 (Main) with the decided cut-off marks shall qualify for the next and final stage of the process which is the Personality Test.

This is an interview round with the UPSC Board Members. Total marks for this round is 275.

For this stage, the qualified candidates shall receive an e-summon for a face to face discussion with the UPSC board members. This round is conducted in UPSC Bhawan in New Delhi.

This round tests the overall personality of the candidate and he/she is asked questions on current affairs, hobbies, interests, situation analysis etc.

The total marks scored in Mains and Personality Test are used in calculating the final rank of a candidate.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Syllabus

Civil Services Exam 2021 Prelims

Syllabus for Paper I

• Current events of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement
• Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World
• Indian Polity and Governance – Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development – Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Bio-diversity, and Climate Change – that do not require subject specialization
• General Science.

Syllabus for Paper II

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills
• Logical Reasoning and Analytical Ability.
• Decision Making and Problem Solving.
• General Mental Ability.
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level),
• Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. — Class X level).

Civil Services Exam 2021 (Main)

For the optional papers, these are the following subjects that can be chosen by the candidate:

• Agriculture
• Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
• Anthropology
• Botany
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Commerce and Accountancy
• Economics
• Electrical Engineering
• Geography
• Geology
• Indian History
• Law
• Management
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Science
• Philosophy
• Physics
• Political Science and International Relations
• Psychology
• Public Administration
• Sociology
• Statistics
• Zoology

For literature languages, any of the following can be taken:
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.

How to Apply for Civil Services Exam 2021?

Important Points:

1 UPSC Civil services exam 20121 application portal is ACTIVE now. 

2 The last date of applying for Civil Services exam 2021 is 24 March, 2021 ( up to 6:00 PM IST).

3 The application forms will be available in ONLINE formats. No offline applications will be accepted.

4 The candidate should have details of one Photo ID viz. Aadhar Card/ Voter Card / PAN Card /
Passport/ Driving License / Any other photo ID card issued by the State / Central Government.
The details of this photo ID will have to be provided by the candidate while filling up the online
application form. The candidates will have to upload a scanned copy of the Photo ID whose details have been provided in the online application by him/her. This photo ID will be used for all future references and the candidate is advised to carry this ID while appearing for the examination.

Application Fee

The application fee for UPSC Civil services exam 2018 was Rs. 100 for General and OBC category students. However, no application fee was applicable in the case of Female/SC/ST/PH students.

The application fee had to be paid by either of the following mediums:

1. Cash payment at SBI branches.
2. Net Banking of State bank group only.
3. Visa/Master/RuPay Credit/ Debit Card. .

Signature and Photograph Specifications

• Scanned photograph -JPG format – 20-300 Kb.
• Scanned signature-   JPG format – 20-300 Kb.

Steps of Applying

The complete application form is divided into 2 parts:

1. Part I Registration
   Go on link :  Registration

• The part I registration for UPSC civil services exam 2021 mainly comprises of candidate’s personal information such as Name, Father’s Name, Candidate’s educational details, Address for Correspondence, Previous attempts at UPSC CS exam etc.

• In order to begin the part I of UPSC civil service exam 2021registration, candidates have to follow the official link and click on the link below the column “Part I registration”. A set of instructions were displayed on the screen, upon reading which, the candidate had to click on the “Yes button” below the screen. This would have taken you to the registration form for UPSC civil services exam 2021

• The candidate then had to fill in the corresponding fields and click on “Continue” to proceed further. At the next step, the candidate was asked to claim age relaxation (if applicable). Further, the candidate had to click on the “Continue” button to proceed.

• At this stage, the candidate was asked to fill in his/her graduation details such percentage scored/CGPA, previous attempts at UPSC IAS exam and details regarding UPSC IAS main exam and Indian Forest Service Exam. After entering the requisite details, he had to click on the “Continue” button to move further.

• After going through all the above steps, the candidates were presented with a declaration box. After checking the check box, the candidates now had to press the “Submit” button to initiate the submission of Part I of the form.

2. Part II Registration

• The part II of the registration process mainly had 3 steps – Application fee payment (if any), Documents uploading and choosing the exam center for the same.

• Candidates paying through the “cash mode” had to enter the transaction ID, as provided by the bank, in Part II of the UPSC IAS exam application form to complete the registration process.

It was not required of the candidates to send anything to the UPSC office.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Admit Card

The e-admit cards for UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021(Prelims) has been issued online on 03 weeks before the scheduled date of exam i.e. tentatively from 06 Jun. 2021.

Visit Admit Card to download the card.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Results

The UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021(Prelims) results have been released on 14th June 2018.

Download the results for CSE 2021 Preliminary exam. 

For IFS results, visit https://upsconline.nic.in/IFSP-2021Engl-F.pdf.

The UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021(Main) results will be notified later on.

Civil Services Exam 2021 Important Links

Stay tuned for more updates on UPSC Civil Services Exam 2021. For further queries, post your questions in the comments.

Also, follow, like and share us on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media for more updates in near future.