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Economy & Budget is shipping today. The remaining five domains will follow over the next four weeks.

About the UPSC Civil Services Examination

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE) every year — the entry route to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and 21 other Group A and Group B central services. Around a million candidates apply each year; roughly 1,000 are selected.

The exam runs in three stages over nearly a year:

• Prelims (May): An objective MCQ filter — only the top ~13× of available vacancies advance.
• Mains (September): Nine descriptive papers totalling 1,750 marks across essay, GS I-IV, optional, and language papers.
• Interview / Personality Test (January – April): 275 marks. Final ranking = Mains + Interview.

Current affairs feed every stage. Prelims has a dedicated current-affairs section. Mains GS-II and GS-III pull heavily from the year’s policy, judicial and macroeconomic events. A serious aspirant tracks current affairs daily, then condenses them in the final 60 days — which is exactly what these PDFs are for.

UPSC Prelims 2026 — exam structure

Both papers must be attempted. The Paper II 33% threshold disqualifies candidates regardless of Paper I performance — neither paper can be skipped. The cut-off (Paper I) varies year to year and category to category.

Eligibility for UPSC CSE 2026

Always verify against the official UPSC notification at upsc.gov.in.

UPSC Prelims 2026 syllabus

The official Prelims syllabus has been stable since the 2011 redesign. Below is the structure for both papers.

Paper I — General Studies (200 marks)

1. 1. Current events of national and international importanceThe focus area these PDFs directly serve — economy, polity, IR, environment, judicial and policy headlines.
2. 2. History of India and Indian National MovementModern Indian history, the freedom struggle, post-independence consolidation, cultural and historical milestones.
3. 3. Indian and World GeographyPhysical, social and economic geography of India and the world.
4. 4. Indian Polity and GovernanceConstitution, political system, Panchayati Raj, public policy, rights issues, statutory and constitutional bodies.
5. 5. Economic and Social DevelopmentSustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives, macro and welfare policy.
6. 6. General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate ChangeNo subject specialisation expected — general awareness of climate, conservation and environmental governance.
7. 7. General ScienceBasic science across physics, chemistry, biology — common-knowledge level, with current frontier-tech awareness.

Paper II — CSAT (200 marks, qualifying)

1. 1. ComprehensionReading-comprehension passages, including bilingual where applicable.
2. 2. Interpersonal skills including communication skillsSituational items testing communication and interpersonal judgement.
3. 3. Logical reasoning and analytical abilityPatterns, syllogisms, ordering, conditionals, and analytical reasoning.
4. 4. Decision-making and problem-solvingSituational and ethical decision-making (no negative marking on this section).
5. 5. General mental abilityQuantitative reasoning, mental arithmetic, sequences, analogies.
6. 6. Basic numeracy and Data interpretationClass X level — numbers, ratios, percentages, orders of magnitude; charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency.

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