UPSC Exam Pattern 2024, CSE Prelims and Mains Exam Pattern

UPSC Exam Pattern 2024: UPSC Civil Service Examination is conducted at the national level for shortlisting candidates for prestigious job profiles in all India Services and various Central Civil Services. Every year, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the UPSC CSE Exam and thousands of UPSC aspirants attempt the examination. The beginning of UPSC CSE Exam starts with Preliminary Examination followed by Mains Examination and Interview (Group discussion). If you are UPSC aspirant and planning to begin your preparation for the upcoming UPSC CSE 2024 Exam, then very first you must understand the UPSC Exam Pattern 2024. In this article, we have discussed the UPSC prelims and mains exam pattern with a detailed marking scheme and other important points.

UPSC Exam Pattern 2024

The selection of the candidates for the UPSC Civil Service Examination will be done through three stages- Prelims, Mains, and Interview. There are 2 papers in the UPSC CSE Prelims Exam which are of Objective type while there are 9 papers in the UPSC CSE Mains Exam of descriptive type. The elaborated details for UPSC Exam Pattern 2024 for both Prelims and Mains have been tabulated below.

UPSC CSE Exam Pattern 2024
Parameters UPSC Prelims UPSC Mains
Medium of Exam English & Hindi English & Hindi (Except for language)
Type of Questions MCQs (Objective) Descriptive
Number of Questions CSAT: 80 questions
GS: 100 questions
Usually, 20 questions per paper
Total Marks 400 1750
Mode of Exam Offline Offline
Exam Duration 2 papers 9 papers
Exam Duration 2 hours for each paper 3 hours for each paper
Negative Marking 1/3rd of 2 marks No negative marking

UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern 2024

The 1st stage of the UPSC CSE 2024 Exam is the Preliminary Examination. Let’s understand the UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern 2024 in detail.

  1. In UPSC Prelims Exam, there are 2 papers – GS Paper and CSAT Paper.
  2. There will be 100 questions in GS paper with 2 marks for each question and there will be a negative marking of 1/3rd or 0.66 marks.
  3. There will be 80 questions in the CSAT paper contains with 2.5 marks for each question with 1/3rd or 0.83 marks of negative marking.
  4. No marks will be deducted for questions that you choose to leave unanswered.
  5. The marks scored in UPSC CSE Prelims Exam, marks will not be counted in preparing the merit list.
UPSC Prelims Exam Pattern 2024
Papers Subjects No. of questions Total Marks Duration
Paper 1 General Studies (GS) 100 200 2 hours
Paper 2 CSAT 80 200 2 hours
Total 180 400 4 hours

UPSC Prelims Syllabus 2024- Click to Check

UPSC Mains Exam Pattern 2024

The second phase of the UPSC CSE Exam is the Mains Examination which consists of 9 papers with different subjects. The marks scored in the UPSC Mains Exam 2024 will be counted in preparing the merit list for final selection. The important points to remember for UPSC Mains Exam Pattern 2024 are as follows-

  1. Paper 1 (Language Paper) and Paper 2 (English language) are qualifying in nature with 300 marks each. The minimum qualifying marks in papers 1 and 2 is 25%.
  2. Attempting all papers is compulsory.
  3. The duration of each paper is 3 hours (180 minutes).
  4. The subject-wise papers consist of 250 marks.
  5. In case you don’t qualify in Paper 1 and Paper 2, the rest of the mark sheets shall not be considered for evaluation and you will be declared disqualified/failed.
UPSC Mains Exam Pattern 2024
Papers Subjects Marks Duration
Paper A Any Indian language (compulsory) – [Qualifying paper] 300 3 hours
Paper B English – [Qualifying paper] 300 3 hours
Paper I Essay (you can choose to write it in a medium of your choice) 250 3 hours
Paper II General Studies 1 (Indian and World History, Culture, Heritage, &Geography) 250 3 hours
Paper III General Studies 2 (Polity, Constitution, Governance, International Relations & Social Justice) 250 3 hours
Paper IV General Studies 3 (Economic Development, Technology, Disaster Management & Security, Biodiversity) 250 3 hours
Paper V General Studies 4 (Aptitude, Ethics, & Integrity) 250 3 hours
Paper VI Optional Subject: Paper 1 250 3 hours
Paper VII Optional Subject: Paper 2 250 3 hours

UPSC Mains Syllabus 2024- Click to Check

List of Optional Subjects- Click to Check


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