UPSC held Civil Services Exam FAQ

How do I apply for the “Civil Services Exam”?

The Application Procedure for the Civil Services Examination is pretty simple. The “Application Form” and “Information Brochure” can be obtained from the “Head Post Offices or Post Offices” throughout the country.

The filled Application Form should be sent to:
Secretary,
Union Public Service Commission,
Dholpur House,
New Delhi - 110011.

Just to give you an idea, here is a sample application form. Note: This is just a sample form to give you an idea. You cannot use this form for application. You will have to take an actual form from the Post Office/Head Post Office in your town!

Here is the information brochure you will get along with the application form. You should download it and read it properly. It tells you about the filling of the form, the exam and some other details.

Can anyone apply, what is the eligibility criteria?

I. Academic Eligibility
The candidate must possess a degree from an Indian University or an educational institution deemed as a University or possess an equivalent qualification. Those in the final year of a degree course can also appear in the Preliminary Examination.

II. Other Eligibility Conditions

For the IAS and the IPS, the candidate must be a citizen of India.
For the other services, a candidate must be either:

a citizen of India, or
a subject of Nepal, or
a subject of Bhutan, or
a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before January 1, 1962, with the intention of permanently settling in India, or
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.

iii. The candidate must have attained 21 years of age on August 1st of the year of examination and must not have attained 30 years of age on that date. The upper age limit will be relaxed by 3 years for OBC candidates and 5 years for SC/ST candidates. The upper age limit is also relaxed in favor of certain categories of civil servants working under the Government of India and Defense Services Personnel.

These are the Govt. stated eligibility criteria. If you come under these, you can give the exam.

When is the examination usually conducted?

The notification for the examination (giving the rules and syllabus for all the subjects in the examination) is published in the month of December every year in the 'Employment News' / 'Rozgar Samachar' and 'Gazette of India', as well as, in some leading Newspapers.

You should try to get a copy of this notification. The “Preliminary Examination” is usually held in May / June and the “Main Examination” in October / November of the same calendar year.

If you are wondering what the “Main Examination” and the “Preliminary Examination” is, don’t worry! We will be explaining all this in the next page.

People give the exam many times!? How many times are you allowed to give the exam?

If you belong to the “Open Category” you can give the exam 4 times maximum!
If you belong to the “OBC” you can give the exam 7 times.
If you belong to the “SC/ST” you can give the exam as many times as you want. There is no restriction on the number of times!