UPSC Exam Pattern 2022

June 8, 2022

Essentially, knowing the UPSC Exam pattern 2022 is critical to acing the UPSC exams. Everything you learn and prepare for during your IAS preparations must be calibrated to the IAS exam pattern in the end. That is how crucial the UPSC exam pattern topic is.

The UPSC exam is divided into three levels in order to get to the real deal. The Prelims round, according to the test structure, is essentially an elimination round aimed to weed out the majority of unsuitable candidates.

Then comes the second phase, often known as the Mains round, which is the heart of the UPSC tests and the most critical step in the selection process.

Finally, the Personal interview round, which is designed to examine your personality and bureaucratic acumen, is the third level of the examination pattern.

Exam Pattern	Prelims	Mains
Exam Mode	Offline	Offline
Exam Duration	2 papers of 2 hours each	9 papers of 3 hours each
Type of Paper	Objective	Descriptive
Type of Questions	MCQs	Descriptive
Total Number of Questions	CSAT: 80 questions GS: 100 questions	Usually, 20 questions per paper
Total Marks	400	1750
Marking Scheme	+2 for correct answer, negative marking of 1/3 of 2 marks	No negative marking

Contents hide

1 IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Prelims

2 IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Mains

3 IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Interview Round

IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Prelims

The Prelims’ stage of IAS exam pattern 2022 consists of 2 papers, both conducted on the same day. The question type in both papers is objective with one right answer out of several multiple choices.

As I previously stated, the prelims paper is effectively a qualifying stage aimed to weed out unsuitable individuals from the examination process.

IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Mains

The UPSC Mains examination consists of nine papers that are administered over a period of 5-7 days. Only if you passed the prelims exam can you sit for the IAS Mains.

This entails obtaining more than the declared cutoff marks in Paper 1 and a Minimum of 33% in Paper 2 of the Prelims exam.

Having said that, unlike the UPSC Prelims exam, the UPSC Mains exam comprises of just

Descriptive/subjective type questions for a total of 1750 marks, which means you’ll have to painstakingly write your responses rather than selecting the correct ones from a plethora

of options.

IAS Exam Pattern for UPSC Interview Round

The interview round is the final stage of the UPSC exams. If you are able to make it into this round, know that you did so by clearing through the written segments of one of the toughest exams in the world, and give yourself a pat on the back.

In this round, a panel of unbiased and competent individuals will take your interview in order to test your personality.

The maximum marks allotted for the interview round for a candidate is 275, which brings the maximum marks of the final merit list to 2025 (1750 of the Mains exams + 275 of the interview round)