Check UPSC Selection Process 2025 for Prelims, Mains and Interview

Union Public Service Commission conducts the civil service examination every year to recruit candidates for IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, and other various other services. The UPSC Exam is one of the most prestigious exams in India and follows a rigorous selection process, in this article, we will discuss the UPSC selection process 2025 in detail.

What is the UPSC Selection Process ?

The UPSC selection process for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) follows three-step process. Usually UPSC issues a notification in the first or second month of the year. Everything related to the post for the recruitment process is discussed in UPSC notification. First of all, every candidate has to go to the official website of UPSC and fill the OTR and then fill the UPSC Application Form. After that the commission conducts the prelims exam and those who successfully pass the prelims exam then head towards the next stage of the UPSC Selection Process which is the UPSC Mains Exam, the mains stage is followed by the interview stage.

UPSC Selection Process 2025 Overview

The UPSC Selection Process has been designed to select candidates for prestigious services, to evaluate candidates for their knowledge, analytical abilities, personality traits and to determine their suitability for public service roles. Here we are providing an overview for helping candidates to understand the selection process with ease.

UPSC CSE is conducted in three stages:

• Preliminary Examination (Prelims Exam)
• Main Examination (Mains Exam)
• Personality Test (Interview Round)
• The preliminary examination is an objective type screening test.
• UPSC CSE Mains examination is subjective in nature.
• The interview or personality test is the last stage of the UPSC CSE exam.

UPSC Selection Process Prelims 2025

The first stage of the UPSC selection process 2025 will be the UPSC prelims exam. It is conducted specifically as a screening test, so the questions asked in this exam are objective type. This exam is conducted with two papers, the first paper is of general studies and the second paper is of CSAT. The general studies paper assesses the general knowledge of the candidate, which includes many subjects including current affairs, history, geography and others. While the CSAT paper includes mathematics, reasoning, decision making etc.

You can appear for the main exam on the basis of your marks in Paper 1 in the prelims exam. But it is mandatory for you to score minimum 33% marks in the CSAT paper.

UPSC Selection Process Mains 2025

As discussed initially, the UPSC Prelims exam is followed by the UPSC Mains exam, which is a comprehensive written test and is designed to evaluate the candidate’s in-depth knowledge and also Critical thinking and intellectual knowledge in various subjects. This exam is conducted about 3 months after the result of the prelims exam. UPSC Mains exam consist of nine papers, which play a vital role in determining the rank of the candidate in the final selection. Below is a table detailing the mains exam papers.

UPSC Selection Process Interview 2025

At the interview or personality test stage the candidates are assessed for the personality traits which include their mental alertness, decision making skills and overall suitability for a career in public service. This final stage usually involves the candidate interacting with a panel so that the interview panel can get a sense of the candidate’s ability to interact with others and the panel marks the candidates for

UPSC Selection Process 2025 Documents Verification

On the interview day itself the candidates are require to get their documents verified. All the documents filled during the main examination DAF 1 and DAF 2 are verified at this stage. If candidate does not have any particular document for a valid reason, then the candidate is given a few days time by the commission so that he can arrange his documents.

UPSC Selection Process 2025 Medical Exam

The medical examination is conducted by the commission in designated government hospitals on the very next day or on the same day of the interview. In this examination, the candidate is examined for any disease or illness, like Blood Pressure, Urine Test for Diabetes, Color Blindness, Knock Knees Check up, flat foot check up etc. After the medical examination, a report is prepared by the doctors and is send to the UPSC. UPSC to analyses the candidates report, then UPSC release the Final Merit List.

It should be noted that at this stage only the commission examines the candidate for physical standards required by certain services and also the commission examines the candidates who are seeking for reservations under persons with disability category.

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