Every stage, paper, question count and mark allocation for UPSC CSE, followed by what the penalty ratio implies for whether to attempt a question you are unsure of.
| Stage | Counts towards |
|---|---|
| Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination | Qualifying / screening only. Marks scored in Prelims are NOT counted in the final order of merit. About twelve to thirteen times the number of vacancies are shortlisted for Mains. |
| Civil Services (Main) Examination — Written | Merit — marks in Paper-I to Paper-VII (1750 marks) count towards final ranking. Paper-A and Paper-B are qualifying only. About twice the number of vacancies are called for the Personality Test. |
| Interview / Personality Test | Merit — 275 marks, with no minimum qualifying marks. Added to the 1750 written marks to give the final ranking. |
Only the merit stages decide the final ranking. A qualifying stage must be cleared but its marks are discarded.
| Paper | Stage | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I — General Studies | Preliminary | 100 | 200 | 2 h |
| Paper II — General Studies (CSAT / Aptitude) | Preliminary | 80 | 200 | 2 h |
| Paper-A — Indian Language (one from the Eighth Schedule) | Main (Written) | — | 300 | 3 h |
| Paper-B — English | Main (Written) | — | 300 | 3 h |
| Paper-I — Essay | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-II — General Studies I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-III — General Studies II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations) | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-IV — General Studies III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management) | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-V — General Studies IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-VI — Optional Subject, Paper 1 | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Paper-VII — Optional Subject, Paper 2 | Main (Written) | — | 250 | 3 h |
| Interview / Personality Test | Interview | — | 275 | — |
Negative marking applies ONLY to the two objective Preliminary papers; the Main Examination is entirely descriptive and has no negative marking. In Prelims, each question has four alternatives; for every wrong answer, one-third (0.33) of the marks assigned to that question is deducted as a penalty. Marking more than one answer is treated as wrong and attracts the same penalty even if one of the marked answers is correct. A question left blank attracts no penalty. Because all questions in a paper carry equal marks, this works out to: GS Paper I — +2 for a correct answer, −0.667 for a wrong answer (200 marks / 100 questions); CSAT Paper II — +2.5 for a correct answer, −0.833 for a wrong answer (200 marks / 80 questions). The per-question values are arithmetic derivations from the official 'all items carry equal marks' statement, not verbatim notification text; the one-third rule itself is verbatim.
Break-even accuracy
25% — You need to be right on more than 25% of the questions you guess for guessing to add marks — and since a blind pick from four options is exactly 25%, random guessing in Prelims is expected-value-neutral and only starts paying once you can eliminate at least one option.
The full set, with progress tracking and five agent perspectives per question, is in the JupiteX app — browse the exam catalogue or browse the Learn library.