UPSC conducts Civil Services Examination (CSE) every year to recruit suitable candidates for IAS, IPS, IFS, and other allied services. Owing to the limited number of vacancies and a large number of aspirants, this exam is extremely competitive in nature. Furthermore, the syllabus of the exam is also very broad. Hence, it is important that you are well aware of the UPSC Exam dates and the exam calendar beforehand to schedule your study plan.
The Civil Services Prelims is scheduled to happen on October 4, 2020, and UPSC CSE mains will be conducted on January 8, 2021.
The UPSC CSE Prelims is a one-day examination consisting of two papers, General Studies I and CSAT. Each of the paper is of 2 hours and is conducted in a single day. The commission conducts this exam in offline mode. While the score in General Studies paper will determine whether or not you qualify the cutoff, CSAT is qualifying in nature. You only need to ensure you get 33% in the CSAT exam. To know more about the exam pattern and syllabus, check out this article.
The official notification for UPSC CSE 2020 was released on 12th February 2020. And the applicants get a window of one month to fill the application form. You can check the important UPSC Exam Dates for this year below:
| Event | Date |
| Release of Notification - UPSC CSE 2020 | 12th February 2020 |
| Deadline to Apply For UPSC CSE 2020 | 03rd March 2020 |
| UPSC CSE Prelims 2020 Exam | 31st May 2020 - POSTPONED |
| UPSC CSE Prelims 2020 Result | Will be announced later |
| UPSC CSE Mains 2020 Exam | 18th September 2020 (5 Days) |
The final schedule for UPSC CSE Mains is yet to be released by the Commission. UPSC Mains consists of nine theory papers and is spread across five days as per the trends. You can check the complete syllabus and exam pattern for the UPSC Mains exam here. The complete schedule for UPSC Exam dates concerning UPSC CSE Mains will be announced by the commission in due time.
Let us look at the trends concerning the timeline (UPSC Exam Dates) for previous years:
| Name of the Event | 2019 | 2018 |
| Release of Notification | 19th February 2019 | 07th February 2018 |
| UPSC CSE Prelims Exam | 02nd June 2019 | 03rd June 2018 |
| UPSC CSE Prelims Result | 12th July 2019 | 14th July 2018 |
| UPSC CSE Mains Exam | 20th September 2019 (5 Days) | 28th September 2018 (5 Days) |
| UPSC CSE Mains Result | 14th January 2020 | 20th December 2018 |
| UPSC CSE Interview Process | 27th February 2020 Onwards | 19th February 2019 Onwards |
| UPSC CSE Final Result | Yet to be declared | 5th April 2019 |
If you are looking forward to starting with the preparation, check this article to know more about the preparation strategy.
Check out the booklist for UPSC preparation recommended by the toppers here.
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Note: The dates for UPSC CSE Prelims may be revised under the current circumstances. Students are advised to check the official website of UPSC regularly for updates. Additionally, we will keep you posted with further developments on the schedule.