UPSC Prelims Syllabus & Topics 2025 – IAS Prelims Exam Pattern

UPSC Prelims Syllabus and Prelims Exam pattern for 2025 has been provided here. Check out Latest UPSC Civil Services Exam Pattern & Syllabus for Preliminary Exam 2025. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has already declared UPSC Notification 2021. UPSC Exam dates for 2022 have confirmed and interested candidates can check UPSC calendar 2022 for various Exams. To appear on UPSC Civil Services Prelims exam, candidates have to Apply online application for Civil Services (IAS) exam. To start preparation for UPSC Prelims exam, Check given below IAS Prelims Syllabus for 2022. 

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UPSC IAS Prelims Exam Pattern 2025

Scheme and subjects for the Preliminary Examination

Mode of Exam – The UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2021 will be conducted offline (OMR Based Exam) and all questions will be asked in Objective Type (Multiple Choice Questions) only in June 2021.

Number of Papers in IAS Prelims – The UPSC Civil Services Prelims 2022 will have (2) two papers. Paper 1 will be General Studies 1 (GS I) comprising many sections including Economics, Political Science, Geography and Science, and Paper 2 is known as General Studies 2 (GS 2/CSAT) which will test the aptitude of UPSC IAS aspirants for Civil Services examination. The UPSC Prelims GS 2 paper is also called as CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test).

Duration of the Prelims Exam – The UPSC Exam candidates will be allowed to attempt each of the papers: General Studies I and General Studies II (Civil Services Aptitude Test/ CSAT) in a time duration of (2) two hours each. Moreover, candidates will be given a three hours break in between each of the papers.

Number of Questions in the IAS Prelims Exam – Each of the papers will comprise 200 questions each.

Total Marks carried in Prelims Exam – The UPSC Prelims exam will carry total marks of 400, (i.e 2 x 200 marks = 400 Marks)

Negative Marking Scheme – The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) follows a negative marking scheme. Following the marking policy of the UPSC Civil Services Prelims exam 2020, one-third (0.33) of the marks to the question will be deducted from the total scored marks for the Wrong answer. However, no marks will be awarded/deducted for any question left un-attempted.

UPSC Prelims Syllabus 2025 (Civil Services/IAS Prelims)

Paper I – General Studies 1

UPSC Prelims Syllabus for Paper I – (200 marks)

Duration: Two hours (Counted for the merit rank in the Prelims)

• 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 – General Studies 2 (CSAT)

UPSC Prelims Syllabus for Paper II- (200 marks)

Duration: Two hours (Not counted for the merit rank in Prelims but a qualifying Paper; just needs 33% marks)

• 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)

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