IAS Exam Pattern 2025- UPSC will release the exam pattern of IAS 2025 along with the official notification. IAS 2025 exam pattern includes the exam duration, number of question to be asked, total marks of the paper, negative marking and much more. IAS Exam Pattern 2025 helps aspirants in preparing a good strategy for the IAS exam preparation. Civil Services Prelims Exam 2025 will be held in offline mode in May 2025. Candidates who are preparing for the IAS Exam should be aware of the complete UPSC exam pattern 2025. The exam will be conducted in two phases i.e. Preliminary Exam and Main Exam. The preliminary exam will have 02 mandatory written objective type papers.
Also Read- IAS Syllabus 2025
UPSC Main exam has two different section written test and personal interview. In this article, we have provided IAS Exam Pattern 2025 details for the convenience of the candidates. As the exam will be conducted in two phases, therefore we will be describing the IAS 2025 Exam Pattern for both the exams.
IAS Exam Pattern 2025 for Prelims Exam
| S.No | Name of Paper | Marks Allotted |
| Paper 1 | General Studies Paper I | 200 Marks |
| Paper 2 | General Studies Paper II | 200 Marks |
| Total | 400 Marks |
- There will be two compulsory papers, containing objective type questions, in the prelim IAS 2025 exam.
- Negative marking will also be done in the exam. One-third (0.33) marks allotted to that particular question will be subtracted as negative marking.
- The question paper will be in Hindi and English language as well.
- Both the papers will be of 200 marks.
- The duration of each paper will be 02 hours.
- GS Paper II will be qualifying in nature and candidates have to attain minimum 33% marks to qualify the paper.
IAS Exam Pattern 2025 for Main Exam
The provided table has the list of all compulsory papers, and the marks allotted, which would be further used to calculate Merit-
IAS Main Exam Pattern 2025
| Papers | Title of the Paper | Marks Allotted |
| Paper B | English | 300 Marks |
| Paper 1 | Essay writing | 250 Marks |
| Paper 2 | General Studies–I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) | 250 Marks |
| Paper 3 | General Studies –II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations) | 250 Marks |
| Paper 4 | General Studies –III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio‐diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management) | 250 Marks |
| Paper 5 | General Studies –IV (Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude) | 250 Marks |
| Paper 6 | Optional Subject – Paper 1 | 250 Marks |
| Paper 7 | Optional Subject – Paper 2 | 250 Marks |
| Sub Total in the written Test | 1750 Marks | |
| Personal Interview | 275 Marks | |
| Grand Total ( for merit calculation) | 2025 Marks |
- There will be two types of exam: Qualifying paper and the paper to be counted for the merit information.
- The candidates will have to appear both the parts.
- Failing in the qualifying exam will lead to the cancellation of the candidature.
- As per the IAS exam pattern 2025, there will be 9 papers of conventional essay type in the Main exam. These will be of 250 marks each. There will be two optional subjects as well.
Marks obtained in all compulsory papers and in Interview will be counted for creating final ranking.
IAS Exam Pattern 2025- Personality Test
Personality Test is the last stage of Civil Services Examination. Candidates who will be declared qualified in preliminary examination followed by Main Examination will be called to attend the personality Test of 275 Marks. This personality test/ interview round include the psychometric Test, Assessment Test, and the Personal Interview. The marks attained in the Personality Test will be used by the commission to deduce the final merit list of selection.
Candidates will be asked questions on general interest to test the mental alertness, clear and logical exposition, critical powers of assimilation, balance of judgement, ability for social cohesion, variety and depth of interest, and leadership, intellectual and moral integrity.
List of the Optional Subjects for Main Exam-
Along with one literature paper, candidates have to choose any of the below mentioned optional subjects.
- Agriculture
- Anthropology
- Chemistry
- Geography
- History
- Political Science & International Relations
- Commerce & Accountancy
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Psychology
- Economics
- Management
- Botany
- Civil Engineering
- Geology
- Zoology
- Medical Science
- Physics
- Law
- Statistics
- Animal Husbandry& Veterinary Science
- Public Administration
- Sociology
- Philosophy
- Electrical Engineering
IAS 2025 Exam Pattern- Language Included in the 8th Schedule of the constitution
According to the IAS exam pattern 2025, the candidates need to qualify any of the mentioned language papers contained in the 8th Schedule. The paper will be qualifying in nature. Also, they will have to select literature of any of the mentioned languages:
| Languages | Script |
| Assamese | Assamese |
| Bengali | Bengali |
| Gujarati | Gujarati |
| Hindi | Devanagari |
| Kannada | Kannada |
| Kashmiri | Persian |
| Konkani | Devanagari |
| Malayalam | Malayalam |
| Manipuri | Bengali |
| Marathi | Devanagari |
| Nepali | Devanagari |
| Odia | Odia |
| Punjabi | Gurumukhi |
| Sanskrit | Devanagari |
| Sindhi | Devanagari or Arabic |
| Tamil | Tamil |
| Telugu | Telugu |
| Urdu | Persian |
| Bodo | Devanagari |
| Dogri | Devanagari |
| Maithilli | Devanagari |
| Santhali | Devanagari or Olchiki |
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