A thorough understanding of the UPSC syllabus is an extremely crucial milestone on the road to clear the UPSC Clear Services Examination. The Civil Services Exam (CSE) is a nationwide exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in India for recruitment of various designated posts viz IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IRS (Indian Revenue Service) and allied services. This exam is considered to be one of the toughest exams in India. Hence, to be able to get through the IAS exam successfully, candidates should know the latest IAS syllabus for UPSC in detail.
In this article, we have discussed the UPSC Syllabus 2022 for both UPSC Prelims and Mains Exam. In addition to that, we’ve also briefly touched upon the UPSC Exam Pattern. To ease your UPSC Civil Services preparation, download the micro list of topics included in the UPSC syllabus and refer to it while reading any new topic!
UPSC Phase I: Civil Services Preliminary Examination or UPSC Prelims is an objective type exam for the selection of candidates for the Main Examination.
UPSC Phase II: Civil Services Main Examination or UPSC Main Examination consist of a Written Exam and Interview for the selection of candidates for various services & posts as mentioned in the official notification
The entire process of the IAS Exam from Prelims and Mains to Personality Development Test or Interview takes around a year to complete. As per the trends of the previous year, UPSC follows the following UPSC exam calendar every year:
Release of Notification |
2nd Feb 2022 |
Prelims Exam |
5th June 2022 |
Mains Exam |
16th September 2022 |
Interview Process |
Yet to be announced |
Final Result |
April/May of the following year |
UPSC Prelims consists of two compulsory multiple-choice-question based papers of 200 marks each. Here's a brief about the UPSC Prelims paper pattern.
Number of Papers |
2 compulsory papers (GS Paper-I and GS Paper-II) |
Type of Paper |
GS Paper-I (Merit) GS Paper-II (Qualifying) |
Type of Questions |
Objective (MCQ) type |
Total Maximum Marks |
400 (200 each paper) |
Duration of Exam |
2 hrs. each (20 minutes per hour extra time for blind candidates & candidates with Locomotor Disability & Cerebral Palsy [minimum 40% impairment]) |
Negative Marking |
1/3rd of the marks assigned to a question |
Medium of Exam |
Bilingual (Hindi & English) |
The UPSC Civil Services Prelims has two papers namely General Studies-I and General Studies-II (CSAT). Check out the IAS syllabus for both the UPSC papers below:
The IAS Syllabus for UPSC Prelims Exam includes the following topics:
Also, Read | How to prepare IAS Syllabus for GS-I in UPSC Prelims
The GS-II in UPSC Prelims is also known as CSAT or Civil Services Aptitude Test. The following topics are included in the IAS syllabus for this paper:
Also, Read | How to prepare for CSAT for UPSC Prelims
UPSC Mains exam consists of nine papers that are held over 4-5 days. Out of these, only seven papers are merit-oriented. The rest two papers including the Compulsory Indian Language paper and Compulsory English paper are qualifying in nature. Here’s a brief about UPSC Mains Paper:
Qualifying Papers |
Marks |
|
Paper-A |
One of the Indian Language to be selected by the candidate from the Languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution (Compulsory Indian Language) |
300 |
Paper-B |
English |
300 |
Papers to be Counted for Merit |
||
Paper-I |
Essay |
250 |
Paper-II |
General Studies-I (Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society) |
250 |
Paper-III |
General Studies-II (Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations) |
250 |
Paper-IV |
Genera Studies-III (Technology, Economic Development, Bio-diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management) |
250 |
Paper-V |
General Studies-IV (Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) |
250 |
Paper-VI |
Optional Subject – Paper 1 |
250 |
Paper-VII |
Optional Subject – Paper 2 |
250 |
Sub Total (Written Test) |
1750 |
|
Personality Test |
275 |
|
Grand Total |
2025 |
Candidates may be required to write essays on multiple topics. They will be expected to arrange their ideas in an orderly fashion and write concisely. Credit will be given for effective and exact expression.
Read more | Best strategy for essay writing for UPSC Mains
Read more | How to prepare for General Studies-I
Read more | How to prepare for General Studies-II
Read more | How to prepare for General Studies-III
This paper will include questions to test the candidates' attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem-solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society. Questions may utilize the case study approach to determine these aspects.
The following broad areas will be covered. Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics in private and public relationships.
Read more | How to prepare for General Studies Paper-IV
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science |
Botany |
Chemistry |
||
Civil Engineering |
Economics |
|||
Law |
Management |
|||
Medical Science |
Physics |
Literature of the following languages are also a part of the UPSC optional subjects for UPSC Mains exam from which you can choose your best suited optional subject for UPSC:
Assamese |
Bengali |
Bodo |
Dogri |
Gujarati |
Hindi |
Kannada |
Kashmiri |
Konkani |
Maithali |
Malayalam |
Manipuri |
Marathi |
Nepali |
Odia |
Punjabi |
Sanskrit |
Santhali |
Sindhi |
Tamil |
Telugu |
Urdu |
English |
|
|
Read more | Preparation Strategy for UPSC Civil Services Interview
Now that you have an idea of how elaborate the IAS syllabus is, we thought it would be nice to give you some UPSC Syllabus preparation tips. These tips will help you prepare the IAS syllabus holistically.
Since the UPSC syllabus is extensive, it is important to read it extremely carefully multiple times to mind-map it. It is crucial to have an understanding of the UPSC syllabus to filter out irrelevant content from the relevant one. It will save you a lot of time in your UPSC preparation and UPSC syllabus completion.
The best way to achieve mind-mapping of the UPSC syllabus is to keep a copy of micro-topics with you. It will further break down the IAS syllabus into important micro topics that you need to prepare for the IAS exam. You can download IAS Syllabus micro topics from the right panel, print the document. And keep it on your study table. Refer to it whenever you need to know the relevance of any topic vis-a-vis the UPSC syllabus.
Now, coming to how to cover the UPSC syllabus, first and foremost, it is important to build a strong foundation. Read NCERTs of all the standard subjects. These are available for free on their official website. If you’re on a time-crunch, you can also check out our NCERT course. Read how to read NCERTs for UPSC preparation to have a detailed understanding of why NCERTs is important to cover the UPSC syllabus.
Strengthen your concepts with the standard books on each subject. You can get a detailed booklist for UPSC in the linked article. You can also check out our subject-wise strategy to cover the IAS syllabus in the linked article to cover each subject in great detail.
Revision is really the key to the IAS syllabus! It helps in conceptual clarity and concept retention. Make it a habit to revise whatever you read on a particular day in the night. Dedicate specific days in your weekly and monthly planner specifically to revision. The UPSC exam is not about how much you study but how much you’re able to retain from the UPSC syllabus.
The first step to UPSC Preparation starts with the sound knowledge of the UPSC Syllabus. So, download the UPSC Syllabus Micro list PDF and get your UPSC journey started! Should you have any further queries, you can trust the guidance of our experts with IAS syllabus coverage. Our courses cover the UPSC syllabus comprehensively. So, whether you’re a fresher or a seasoned aspirant, you’ll have an incredible learning experience. Get in touch with our counsellors to get further information on the courses or check out the UPSC course listing
In UPSC Prelims GS-I, questions are asked from History, Geography, Polity, Economy, Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology), Environmental Science and Current Affairs. The GS Paper II although is qualifying in nature has questions from Maths, English (Reading Comprehension) and Logical Reasoning.
You can download the UPSC syllabus along with the microlist of topics included in the UPSC syllabus at this link → UPSC Syllabus 2021
Having a robust preparation strategy is necessary for an effective preparation of this exam. Check out the complete UPSC preparation strategy → UPSC Preparation Strategy
A month-by-month preparation strategy to complete the UPSC syllabus has been discussed