UPSC Civil Services Preliminary exam 2020: Syllabus and Exam Pattern

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday commenced the online application process for the Civil Services (Preliminary) examination on its official website. The interested candidates can submit online applications for UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) examination till March 3, 2020.

UPSC has scheduled to conduct Civil Services examination on May 31, 2020. Candidates can check the UPSC Civil Services preliminary examination syllabus below. It is to be noted the periodic revision of syllabus has been done in several subjects.

Part A — Preliminary Examination

Paper I - (200 marks) Duration: Two hours

• Current events of national and international importance.
• History of India and Indian National Movement.
• Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.
• Indian Polity and Governance-Constitution, Political System, Panchayati Raj, Public Policy, Rights Issues, etc.
• Economic and Social Development-Sustainable Development, Poverty, Inclusion, Demographics, Social Sector Initiatives, etc.
• General issues on Environmental ecology, Bio-diversity and Climate Change - that do not require subject specialization.
• General Science.

Paper II-(200 marks) Duration : Two hours

• Comprehension
• Interpersonal skills including communication skills
• Logical reasoning and analytical ability
• Decision making and problem solving
• General mental ability
• Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc.) (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency etc. — Class X level)

1: Paper-II of the UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination is a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
2: The questions of the UPSC Preliminary examination include multiple choice, objective type.
3: It is mandatory for the candidate to appear in both the Papers of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination for the purpose of evaluation. Therefore a candidate will be disqualified in case he/she does not appear in both the papers of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination.

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary Examination

The examination includes two compulsory Papers of 200 marks each.

• Both the question papers will be of the objective type (multiple choice questions) and each will be duration of two hours.
• The General Studies Paper-II of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination is a qualifying paper with minimum qualifying marks fixed at 33%.
• The question papers will be set both in Hindi and English.