UPSC Exam Pattern 2022 - Latest IAS Prelims & Mains Exam Pattern | Marking Scheme & Total Marks

UPSC IAS Exam Pattern

The selection process for UPSC 2022 has started, and the candidates who have applied for the UPSC Exam 2022 must be familiar with the UPSC Exam Pattern 2022. The first round of the IAS Exam i.e. Prelims Exam is scheduled for 5th June 2022, the candidates who crack the exam will be shortlisted for the Mains exam and those who qualify for the Mains exam will be called for the Personality test round. Below we have mentioned the UPSC Prelims exam pattern 2022, IAS Exam Pattern for Mains 2022, and the Pattern for Interview round. 

Download UPSC Exam Pattern PDF

An in-depth understanding of the UPSC Exam Pattern is vital in order to shape the preparation in the best possible manner. Candidates must take a strategic approach to prepare according to the exam pattern of UPSC. That is why candidates are advised to keep a printout out of the PDF of the UPSC CSE Exam Pattern with them while preparing. Below we have provided the direct link to download the exam pattern for UPSC.

• UPSC Exam Pattern PDF Download

UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern

As per the official notification released by UPSC on 2nd February 2022, the Prelims exam 2022 is all set to be conducted on 5th June 2022. The UPSC Exam Pattern for Prelims includes two papers namely General Studies-1 and General Studies-2 (also known as CSAT). Prelims exam for both papers will be conducted in one day. 

• GS-1 is the merit ranking in nature, while CSAT is qualifying in nature. 
• Candidates need to score at least 33% in the CSAT exam to qualify. Understand the UPSC CSAT Syllabus to ensure that you clear the paper in the first attempt. 

Candidates must remember that the UPSC Prelims exam is conducted to filter the candidates for the Mains exam, and marks secured in this exam won’t be counted in the final merit list. Along with the IAS Exam Pattern for Prelims, aspirants must also check UPSC Prelims Syllabus. 

• As per the UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern, candidates will be given 2 hours of time duration for each paper.
• GS-1 will have a total of 100 questions and GS-2 carries 80 questions. Total marks for each paper will be 200 as per UPSC Prelims marking scheme. 

Check out the complete pattern of UPSC Prelims below.

UPSC Prelims Marking Scheme

As per the UPSC Exam Pattern for Prelims, each question of General Studies-1 carries 2 marks, and for the CSAT paper, each question carries 2.5 marks. There will be a negative marking of 1//3 of the mark allotted to that particular question. This means for IAS Prelims Paper 2, there will be a negative marking of 0.66, and for CSAT the negative marking will be 0.83 as per the UPSC Marking Scheme.

UPSC Mains Exam Pattern

Candidates should start their preparation for Prelims and Mains simultaneously, and hence it is important to know the UPSC Mains Exam Pattern. UPSC Mains 2022 will be conducted from 16th September 2022 onwards. Those who crack the Prelims exam will be eligible to appear for the UPSC Mains exam. Download the UPSC Mains Syllabus to get started. 

As per the UPSC Exam Pattern for Mains, candidates will have to give two types of papers- Qualifying Papers, and Merit Papers. 

• There will be a total of 9 papers from which two papers will be qualifying in nature, four are for General Studies, and two papers for the optional subjects. 
• Candidates get the freedom to choose an optional subject for the Mains exam.
•  Additionally, all the papers will be descriptive in nature.

Check out the complete UPSC Paper Pattern for Mains below in the table.

Paper A is not compulsory for the candidates from the states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur, Nagaland, and for candidates with hearing impairment. However, these candidates need to prove that they have been exempted from 2nd or 3rd language courses by their university or board.

IAS Exam Pattern for Mains 

The UPSC Mains Exam Pattern covers 4 GS Papers and the details of each paper are mentioned below. 

The General Studies Papers cover the following topics.

• General Studies 1- (Indian Heritage and Culture, History, and Geography of the World and Society)
• General Studies 2 -(Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice, and International relations)
• General Studies 3- Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management)
• General Studies 4- (Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)

UPSC Marking Scheme for Mains

As per the UPSC Exam Pattern for mains, Paper A and B are qualifying in nature, and except for them, all the papers are merit ranking. Candidates need to score at least 25% in each paper to be considered for the final merit list. According to IAS Exam Pattern for the Mains exam, Paper-A and Paper-B carry 300 marks each. And other seven papers carry a total of 250 marks each. 

UPSC Exam Pattern for Optional Subjects

As we have mentioned earlier, there will be two optional papers in the UPSC Mains exam. Each paper carries 250 marks as per the UPSC Marking Scheme. Candidates can choose any subject they want from the list of UPSC Optional Subjects. Here is the list of all the UPSC optional subjects. 

• Also, Check How to Choose Optional for UPSC

UPSC Exam Pattern for Interview

A personality test or IAS Interview is the final round of the UPSC exam before the final merit list is declared. Those who manage to clear UPSC Mains will get e-summon letters for this final round. As per UPSC Exam Pattern, this round consists of interviews with UPSC board members to judge the candidates for Civil Services careers and associated responsibilities. Here the board members will observe the candidate’s mental and social traits by asking some general interest questions. Here the members evaluate the Logical exposition, balance of judgment, alertness, depth, variety of interest, leadership, the ability of social cohesion, and moral integrity.

• UPSC Paper Pattern released by the commission states that the total marks for the interview round will be 275.
• After the declaration of the UPSC Result of the interview round, the final merit list will be prepared on the basis of marks obtained by the candidate in the UPSC Mains and Interview.

Changes in UPSC Exam Pattern 

In the past six years, UPSC Exam Pattern has seen some major and minor changes. Below we have mentioned the year and changes made in the UPSC Exam Pattern in that particular year.

• In 2011, the UPSC introduces the CSAT paper in the Civil Services Exam and it was the first change in the UPSC Exam Pattern. CSAT was introduced to check the analytical and decision-making ability of the candidates. Both the GS-1 and CSAT paper marks were considered for the merit list of the Prelims exam.
• In 2012, UPSC decided to make the IAS Syllabus generic and introduced a new exam pattern. In this pattern, Paper-I and Paper-II optional papers had two sessions, two general studies papers, and one essay paper was included as well. Candidates had to choose two subjects from the optional list.
• In 2013, the UPSC Syllabus or mains went through major changes. This year UPSC added another General Studies paper called ethics and made one optional subject with two papers.
• In 2014, the Civil Services Exam Pattern had a few changes. The essay paper of the Mains exam had two topics from each section but it was changed to 1. Additionally, the number of attempts and age limit for the General category candidates was increased as well. The number of attempts increased from 4 to 6, and the upper age limit increased from 30 to 32.
• In 2015, UPSC made the CSAT paper qualifying in nature and the marks scored in GS-1 were taken into consideration for the merit list. Candidates needed at least 33% to crack the CSAT paper. 

UPSC Exam Pattern for IPS

UPSC conducts Civil Services Examination (CSE) to recruit candidates for 24 civil services, including the Indian Police Service IPS. The UPSC exam pattern is the same for all posts of civil services exam. There will be three stages as we have mentioned above-Prelims, Mains, and Interview, The exam pattern for IPS will be the same as above. After the announcement of CSE results those who have applied for IPS will become IPS officers depending on their rank. 

UPSC Exam Pattern vs UPSC EPFO Exam Pattern

Above we have mentioned the UPSC Exam Pattern for Civil Services Exam (CSE) which is totally different from the UPSC EPFO exam pattern. UPSC is responsible for so many exams, and the exam pattern for each exam is not the same. The UPSC EPFO exam pattern involves two stages, the first stage includes carrying objective-type questions and the second round is the interview. Those who clear the first round will be eligible for the Interview round. The first round carries 300 marks and the interview round carries 100 marks.