UPSC CSE 2023

The UPSC has released the official notification regarding the Civil Service Examination 2023 on the official website. The Preliminary exam will be conducted on 28th May 2023. The aspirants must ensure that they prepare very well for the Preliminary and the Mains according to the schedule. This article contains all the information about the UPSC CSE 2023 examination, including the exam pattern, syllabus, interview format, and other important details.

Examination Conducting Body	Union Public Service Commission
Posts	Various
Number of Vacancies	To be Notified
Level of Exam	National Level
Mode of Application	Offline
Selection Process	Offline Written Examination followed by Interview
Language of the Examination	All the 22 languages of the 8th Schedule to the Indian Constitution.
UPSC CSE Preliminary 2023	28th May 2023-Sunday
UPSC CSE Mains 2023	15th September 2023 onwards (Exams for 5 days)
Official Website	https://www.upsc.gov.in/

UPSC CSE Important Dates 2023

All the important dates are yet to be released by the examination conducting body for the CSE 2023 but here is a list of available important dates for the candidates to prepare well:

Events	Date
Registration Starts on	1st February 2023
Registration Ends on	21st February 2023
UPSC CSE Preliminary Exam Date	28th May 2023
UPSC CSE Mains Exam Date	15th September 2023 Onwards

Eligibility Criteria

There are specific eligibility criteria that the candidates must meet to be eligible for UPSC CSE 2023. There are three important eligibility criteria that a candidate must meet i.e., age, qualification, and Nationality. There is no minimum percentage required to appear for the UPSC CSE 2023. 

Age Limit

The age limit of UPSC CSE 2023 must be calculated as of 1st August 2023: 

Category	Minimum Age	Maximum  Age
General/UR/Open	21 years	32 years
OBC	21 years	35 years
SC/ST	21 years	37 years

There is age relaxation for various categories in the UPSC CSE 2023. Refer to the table below for a better understanding:

Category	Age Relaxation
SC/ST	5 years
OBC	3 years
Defense Service Personnel	3 years
Ex-servicemen including Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs	5 years
The hearing problems, deaf, low vision, ex-servicemen, blindness, muscle deformity	10 years

Educational Qualification

The candidates must have any graduation level degree from any government-recognised university or UGC-accredited university. Graduation could be done in any discipline. Those who are in their final year of graduation are also eligible to apply for UPSC CSE. However, their graduation result should be declared before the final exam of UPSC CSE  2023:

Nationality

A candidate appearing for UPSC CSE 2023 should be

• Citizen of India, or
• Citizen of Nepal, or
• Citizen of Bhutan, or
• Any Tibetan refugee (should be settled here before Jan 1st, 1962), or
• Migrated from Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Zaire to permanently settle in India. 

UPSC CSE 2023 Application Process

The entire process of registration is online and here is how you should register yourself. Interested candidates can apply for the UPSC CSE 2023 by following the steps-

• The candidates have to visit the official website of UPSC or you can directly click on this https://www.upsc.gov.in/

• Click on the UPSC CSE 2023 Notification and download the same.
• Find the UPSC 2023 Application Form link and click on the Apply button.
• Enter the basic credentials carefully.
• Carefully read the details once before submitting the UPSC application form.
• Upload a scanned copy of your recent passport-size photograph and signature.
• Read carefully before accepting the Declaration.
• Once submitted, pay the registration fee.
• Once the registration fee is successfully paid, download the receipt and keep it safe for future reference.

Exam Pattern of UPSC CSE 2023

The examination pattern is set by the Union Public Service Commission, the exam-conducting body. The exam is conducted annually and the pattern of the exam has not changed since 2013. The exam is officially conducted in two stages, namely Preliminary and Mains. While in practice, there is a third stage as well, the interview. As per the rules of the UPSC CSE Exam pattern, the candidates have to qualify for the Preliminary to be eligible to appear for the Mains, and the candidates who clear the Mains, appear for the interview. 

Preliminary Exam Pattern

The UPSC CSE 2023 exam consists of two papers, both conducted on the same day. Both papers consist of objective-based questions with Multiple Choice Answers (MCQ). The Preliminary is the qualifying exam for the Mains exam. Even though the score doesn’t matter in the final calculation of the merit lists, scoring well is important because the cut-off keeps on fluctuating and depends on the average score every year.

Paper	Type	No. of Questions	Total Marks	Duration	Negative Marks
General Studies I	Objective	100	200	2 hours	Yes, 0.66
CSAT/General Studies II	Objective	80	200	2 hours	Yes, 0.83

The total UPSC CSE 2023 marks for Preliminary is 400, whereas CSAT/General Paper II is qualifying in nature with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.

Mains Exam Pattern

The UPSC CSE Mains 2023 consists of 9 exhaustive papers conducted over 5-7 days. Unlike Preliminary, the paper is a descriptive answer type question. Candidates securing a minimum of 33% in CSAT/General PAper II and qualifying for the cut-off in General Paper I are eligible for the Mains. 

Paper	Subject	Duration	Total Marks
Paper A	Compulsory English Language	3 hours	300
Paper B	English	3 hours	300
Paper I	Essay	3 hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I	3 hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II	3 hours	250
Paper VI	General Studies III	3 hours	250
Paper V	General Studies VI	3 hours	250
Paper VII	Optional Paper I	3 hours	250
Paper VII	Optional Paper II	3 hours	250

Language Papers A and B are of a merit-ranking nature. Papers A and B are of qualifying nature and candidates must score at least 25% in each for the marks from their Paper I – Paper VII to be given weightage.

Paper A is not compulsory for candidates from the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim as well as candidates with hearing impairment, provided they can prove that they have been exempted from such 2nd or 3rd language courses by their concerned board or university. The Indian Language paper covers any of the languages included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

Interview

The interview is the final stage of the UPSC CSE Exam before the final results are declared. Officially it is called the Interview/Personality Test and counted as a part of the Mains Examination for merit ranking purposes. But from the preparation point of view, it is called the third stage. As per the UPSC CSE exam 2023 pattern, this round consists of an interview by the UPSC board to assess the candidates’ suitability for a civil services career and associated responsibilities. The total marks of this stage are 275, thus bringing the total marks for UPSC Mains and Interview for the merit list consideration to 2025.

Syllabus for UPSC CSE 2023

Since there are two parts of exams in UPSC CSE, Preliminary and Mains, the syllabus for both parts are different. 

Preliminary Syllabus

There are two papers in the Preliminary. Paper I is General Studies and Paper II is Civil Services Aptitude Test, also known as CSAT. Each paper is of 200 marks. Both papers are 120 minutes in duration (2 hours) each. The questions are objective-type. Here is a list of topics one needs to know for General Studies 

General Paper Paper I:

• Current Events of National and International Importance
• History of India and the Indian National Movement
• Indian and World Geography–Physical, Social, and Economic Geography of India and the World
• Indian Polity and Governance–Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development–Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change
• General Science

CSAT/General Paper II:

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal Skills including Communication Skills
• Logical Reasoning and Analytical Abilities
• Decision-making and Problem-solving Skills
• General Mental Ability
• Basic Numeracy
• Data Interpretation

Mains Syllabus

The UPSC CSE comprises 9 theory papers and marks in 7 of these papers are taken into consideration for preparing the final merit lists. English and Indian Languages are qualifying in nature, and the candidate has to score 25% or above to be eligible for selection. Also, candidates qualifying for the Preliminary examination can sit for the Mains examination. Unlike Preliminary, the questions are subjective.

Paper	Subject	Duration	Total Marks
Paper A	Compulsory English Language	3 hours	300 (Qualifying)
Paper B	English	3 hours	300 (Qualifying)
Paper I	Essay	3 hours	250
Paper II	General Studies I-Indian Heritage & Culture, History & Geography of the World & Society	3 hours	250
Paper III	General Studies II-Governance, Constitution, Welfare Initiatives, Social Justice & International Relations	3 hours	250
Paper IV	General Studies III-Technology, Economic Development, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Security & Disaster Management	3 hours	250
Paper V	General Studies IV-Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude	3 hours	250
Paper VI	Optional Subject Paper-I	3 hours	250
Paper VII	Optional Subject Paper-II	3 hours	250

The candidates have to select the Optional Subject Papers I and II out of a total of 48 papers. Both papers will be 250 marks each. 

Also Read: How to Prepare for UPSC?

Recommended Books

To make it easier for the candidates to appear for the UPSC CSE Examination 2023, we have created a curated list of books that are some of the best in the market to help the candidates qualify for the examination. Buy these books and begin your preparation from the comfort of your home.

Subject	Name of the Books	Author/Publisher
History	Ancient India	RS Sharma
History	Modern India	Satish Chandra Mittal
History	History of Modern India	Bipan Chandra
Polity	The Constitution of India	PM Bakshi
Ethics	Ethics, Aptitude, and Integrity for Civil Services Main Examination	Subba Rao and P.N.Roy Chaudhary
Economy	Indian Economy	Mishra and Puri
Environment	Environmental Studies: From Crisis to Cure	Rajagopalan
Science and Technology	Science and Technology in India	TMH
English	High School English Grammar and Composition	Wren and Martin
General Studies	IAS Mains Exam General Studies	Ashish Bharti
Geography	NCERT VI-XIICertificate Physical Geography: G C LeongWorld AtlasMap of India	–

Every year lakhs of students appear for UPSC CSE with the dream of clearing the examination and serving the Nation. Clearing UPSC CSE is not child’s play, so work on your strategies, be consistent, keep in mind the pattern of the examination and prepare yourself wisely. 

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