UPSC releases the syllabus every year on its website. You can visit the UPSC website and download the syllabus from there. The Civil services exam is divided into three parts; two written exams are followed by a personal interview. In the preliminary exam, you have to answer objective types of questions, while in the main exam, the questions are of descriptive type.

The preliminary exam has two papers; Paper I and Paper II. Each paper has 200 marks and the duration is two hours.

Syllabus for UPSC Prelims Exam 

Paper I

  • Current affairs, national and international events.
  • India’s freedom struggle and the History
  • India and World Geography.
  • Indian Politics, Constitution of India, Political System, Public Policy, Panchayati Raj,
  • Indian Economy, Micro, and Macro Economics, Poverty Index, Demographic Disparage, Social Sector Reforms.
  • General issues on Environment, Ecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change.
  • General Science up to Class X.

Paper-II

  • Comprehension
  • Communication and interpersonal skills
  • Decision making and problem-solving;
  • Logical reasoning and analytical ability
  • General mental ability
  • Numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, (up to Class X level), Interpretation of data (charts, graphs, tables, etc. of Class X level

IAS Syllabus for Mains Exam

The main exam is taken to assess the candidate’s depth of understanding and intellect. So, it requires the aspirants to have in-depth knowledge of the subjects. Here is the syllabus for the Main Exam. It consists of 7 papers including two optional.

  • Paper – I: Essay
  • Paper-II: (Indian History, Culture, Heritage, Geography of the World and Society)
  • Paper – III: (Indian Politics, Constitution, Administration, Social Justice, and International relations)
  • Paper – IV: (Environment, Technology, Economics, Bio-diversity, Disaster Management)
  • Paper – V: (Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)
  • Paper – VI: Optional Subject I
  • Paper – VII: Optional Subject II

For optional subjects, the candidates have to choose two papers from languages and subjects available from graduation level.

Cracking the civil services exam is the dream of all aspirants. However, it depends a lot on how aware you are of the UPSC syllabus. Knowing the IAS Civil Services Syllabus in detail plays a crucial role in your success. It’s important to keep looking at the UPSC website in case of changes and the latest developments regarding the exam.

Here, we delineate the UPSC syllabus of all the stages of the  Civil Services IAS exam (Prelims, Mains and Interview). Keeping the IAS syllabus at your fingertips would make your preparation focused. We recommend you memorize the syllabus of all the GS papers and the optional ones you choose for the Mains exam. This exercise will come in handy even as you prepare for the Current Affairs and write the answers in Main Examination.