UPSC Main Examination
Main Examination Pattern
The Main Examination consists of 9 papers in total and all of them are of conventional essay type questions. The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
| Paper-I | One of the Indian Languages to be selected by the candidate from the 18 languages included in the VIIIth Schedule to the Constitution (Qualifying Paper) | 300 Marks |
| Paper-II | English (Qualifying Paper) | 300 Marks |
| Paper-III | Essay | 200 Marks |
| Papers IV & V . | General Studies (300 Marks for each paper) | 600 Marks |
| Papers VI, VII, VIII & IX | Any two subjects (each having 2 papers) to be selected from the prescribed optional subjects (300 marks for each paper) | 1200 Marks |
| Total Marks for Written Examination | 2000 Marks | |
| Interview Test | 300 Marks | |
| Grand Total | 2300 Marks |
=> Candidates who get minimum qualifying marks in the Main Examination as may be fixed by the Commission at their discretion, shall be summoned by them for an interview / for a Personality Test. .
=> The number of candidates to be summoned for interview will be about twice the number of vacancies to be filled.
Optional Subjects
List of optional subjects for Mains of Civil Services exam. There are 51 optional subjects to choose from.
| Arabic | Gujarati | Manipuri | Sanskrit |
| Assamese | Hindi | Nepali | Sindhi |
| Bengali | Kannada | Oriya | Tamil |
| Chinese | Kashmiri | Pali | Telugu |
| English | Konkani | Persian | Urdu |
| French | Marathi | Punjabi | |
| German | Malayalam | Russian |