Civil Services Examination
Civil Services Exam In India | |
| Acronym | CSE |
|---|---|
| Type | Paper-based test |
| Administrator | Union Public Service Commission |
| Skills tested | General knowledge, writing, comprehension, logic etc |
| Purpose | Measuring the eligibility of candidates for recommending as civil servants |
| Year started | 1855 |
| Duration | 240 minutes (preliminary) 1620 minutes (main) 20 – 40 minutes (personality test) |
| Score range | 0 – 2025 |
| Offered | Once a year |
| Restrictions on attempts | 6 (General) 9 (OBC/EWS/PwBD) No limits (SC/ST) |
| Regions | India |
| Languages |
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| Annual number of test takers | 11,35,697 (registrations for preliminary, 2022) 5,73,735 (appeared for preliminary, 2022) |
| Prerequisites | Graduate |
| Fee | ₹100 (males) |
| Used by | Government of India |
| Qualification rate | 0.078% (2023) |
| Website | upsc |
The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a standardized test in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to higher civil services in the Government of India, such as the All India Services and Central Civil Services (Group A and a few Group B posts).
It is conducted in three phases: a preliminary examination consisting of two objective-type papers (Paper I consisting of General Studies and Paper II, referred to as the Civil Service Aptitude Test or CSAT), and a main examination consisting of nine papers of conventional (essay) type, in which two papers are qualifying and only marks of seven are counted; finally followed by a personality test (interview). A successful candidate sits for 32 hours of examination during the complete process spanning around one year.