Civil Services Examination
| Acronym | CSE UPSC CSE |
|---|---|
| Type | Paper-based test |
| Administrator | Union Public Service Commission |
| Skills tested | General knowledge, writing, comprehension, analytical skills, etc. |
| Purpose | Measuring the eligibility of candidates for recommending as civil servants |
| Year started | 1855 |
| Duration | 240 minutes (preliminary) 1620 minutes (main) 20 – 40 minutes (personality test) |
| Score range | 0 – 2025 |
| Offered | Once a year |
| Restrictions on attempts | 6 (General & EWS) 9 (OBC/PwBD) Unlimited (SC/ST) |
| Regions | India |
| Languages |
|
| Annual number of test takers | 11,35,697 (registrations for preliminary, 2022) 5,73,735 (appeared for preliminary, 2022) |
| Prerequisites | Graduate |
| Fee | ₹100 All the candidates (Except Female/SC/ST/Persons with Benchmark Disability Candidates who are exempted from payment of fee) are required to pay fee of Rs. 100/- |
| Used by | Government of India |
| Qualification rate | 0.078% (2023) |
| Website | upsc upsconline |
The Civil Services Examination (abbr. CSE or UPSC CSE) is a standardised test in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for recruitment to higher civil services in the Government of India, such as the All India Services, Diplomats and Central Civil Services (Group A and a few Group B posts). It is considered to be one of the toughest examination in the world.
It is conducted in three phases: a preliminary examination (abbr. Prelims) consisting of two objective-type papers (Paper I consisting of General Studies and Paper II consisting of Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Comprehension, referred to as the Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT). The candidates qualify the Prelims will appear in the main examination (abbr. Mains) consisting of nine papers of conventional descriptive type, in which two papers are qualifying and rest of the seven papers are accountable to qualify the Mains. Finally, after qualifying the Mains, a personality test (abbr. Interview) is conducted in the UPSC headquarters in New Delhi. A successful candidate sits for 32 hours of examination during the complete process spanning around one year.