Many UPSC candidates are confused over what optional subject to take for the IAS mains exam. It is a decision not to be taken lightly as there are two papers for the optional subject and it accounts for 500 marks in the UPSC mains (written) exam. A lot of factors go into what constitutes an ideal optional subject and it depends on the individual.
Candidates have to look at their own educational backgrounds, prior knowledge in the subject, interest in the subject and of course, certain general factors like overlap with the general studies papers, scoring ability, etc. All these factors combined should help in the decision-making process. This article brings you a list of the most popular optional subjects based on the number of candidates taking them from the year 2010 to 2017.
| Aspirants can cover the topics mentioned in the UPSC Syllabus by following the below-mentioned links: |
Latest Update after UPSC 2018 Results:
- The IAS Topper Kanishak Kataria chose Mathematics as his optional subject in CSE 2018.
- As per the data provided by PIB:
- “Educational qualification-wise the top 25 candidates belong to subjects like Engineering; Sciences; Economics; Law; Mathematics; History; Political Science; Public administration and Commerce graduating from premier Institutions of the country such as IITs, NIT, NLU, BITS Pilani, DU, Mumbai University, Anna University, Pune University, etc.”
- Optional subjects of the top 25 candidates in the examination ranged from Anthropology, Chemistry, Commerce & Accountancy, Geography, Law, Maths, History, Political Science & International Relations, Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, and English Literature.”
Popularity of UPSC Optional Subject – 2015-17
Candidates should note that the Department of Personnel Training releases the official date representing the numbers of candidates appeared in the civil services examination. The latest data available is for the year 2017.
Latest – Table showing the number of candidates who had taken the various optional subjects from 2015 to 2017:
| Optional Subject | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| Medical Science | 235 | 98 | 313 |
| Management | 167 | 13 | 86 |
| Anthropology | 579 | 345 | 880 |
| Sociology | 2490 | 1555 | 1421 |
| Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | 52 | 65 | 23 |
| Physics | 266 | 239 | 140 |
| Public Administration | 7077 | 3301 | 1165 |
| Geography | 4351 | 4049 | 2669 |
| Geology | 36 | 37 | 151 |
| Psychology | 1163 | 1061 | 193 |
| Law | 246 | 365 | 304 |
| Political Science & IR | 1107 | 1320 | 1246 |
| Commerce and Accountancy | 20015 | 188 | 224 |
| Mathematics | 325 | 277 | 441 |
| Economics | 269 | 326 | 233 |
| Chemistry | 104 | 124 | 126 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 74 | 96 | 170 |
| Zoology | 228 | 484 | 55 |
| Electrical Engineering | 126 | 74 | 193 |
| History | 2090 | 3870 | 1074 |
| Philosophy | 1116 | 2092 | 755 |
| Botany | 104 | 312 | 44 |
| Civil Engineering | 47 | 35 | 124 |
| Agriculture | 122 | 220 | 89 |
| Statistics | 16 | 14 | 3 |
Candidates can get the numbers for the literature optional subjects along with further details in our page – Success Rate of Optional Subjects in UPSC.
Popularity of UPSC Optional Subject – 2010-14
Table showing the number of candidates who had taken the various optional subjects from 2010 to 2014 (5 years):
| Optional Subject | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | Average of the 5 years (2010 – 2014) |
| Medical Science | 149 | 205 | 235 | 293 | 356 | 247.6 |
| Management | 35 | 266 | 167 | 167 | 176 | 162.2 |
| Anthropology | 407 | 463 | 579 | 449 | 619 | 503.4 |
| Sociology | 1807 | 2152 | 2490 | 1647 | 1819 | 1983 |
| Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science | 69 | 50 | 52 | 32 | 28 | 46.2 |
| Physics | 243 | 323 | 266 | 147 | 151 | 226 |
| Public Administration | 4724 | 6276 | 7077 | 2840 | 2852 | 4753.8 |
| Geography | 3800 | 4096 | 4351 | 3158 | 3515 | 3784 |
| Geology | 24 | 40 | 28 | 15 | 28 | 27 |
| Psychology | 1139 | 1365 | 1163 | 348 | 373 | 877.6 |
| Law | 351 | 226 | 246 | 144 | 235 | 240.4 |
| Political Science & IR | 1165 | 866 | 1107 | 651 | 907 | 939.2 |
| Commerce and Accountancy | 356 | 232 | 188 | 200 | 214 | 238 |
| Mathematics | 279 | 337 | 325 | 329 | 351 | 324.2 |
| Economics | 392 | 354 | 269 | 188 | 214 | 283.4 |
| Chemistry | 107 | 123 | 104 | 85 | 98 | 103.4 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 103 | 103 | 64 | 60 | 111 | 88.2 |
| Zoology | 421 | 269 | 228 | 92 | 79 | 217.8 |
| Electrical Engineering | 132 | 171 | 126 | 113 | 192 | 146.8 |
| History | 3432 | 1761 | 2090 | 1303 | 1560 | 2029.2 |
| Philosophy | 1866 | 900 | 1116 | 736 | 908 | 1105.2 |
| Botany | 264 | 135 | 104 | 50 | 58 | 122.2 |
| Civil Engineering | 59 | 59 | 47 | 54 | 91 | 62 |
| Agriculture | 205 | 132 | 122 | 77 | 65 | 120.2 |
| Statistics | 19 | 19 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 13.2 |
| Bodo Literature | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 |
| Dogri Literature | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.8 |
| Sindhi Literature (Devanagari) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1.2 |
| Sindhi Literature (Arabic) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.8 |
| English Literature | 30 | 73 | 64 | 30 | 33 | 46 |
| Telugu Literature | 118 | 85 | 100 | 93 | 122 | 103.6 |
| Manipuri Literature | 22 | 27 | 26 | 20 | 17 | 22.4 |
| Tamil Literature | 129 | 82 | 100 | 75 | 95 | 96.2 |
| Marathi Literature | 45 | 38 | 39 | 26 | 25 | 34.6 |
| Malayalam Literature | 89 | 99 | 125 | 69 | 65 | 89.4 |
| Maithili Literature | 48 | 69 | 75 | 84 | 95 | 74.2 |
| Kannada Literature | 97 | 93 | 123 | 75 | 132 | 104 |
| Urdu Literature | 47 | 22 | 27 | 28 | 31 | 31 |
| Pali Literature* | 351 | 356 | 378 | 0 | 0 | |
| Gujarati Literature | 68 | 65 | 62 | 64 | 87 | 69.2 |
| Sanskrit Literature | 109 | 51 | 88 | 71 | 90 | 81.8 |
| Hindi Literature | 955 | 406 | 505 | 284 | 407 | 511.4 |
| Punjabi Literature | 38 | 48 | 60 | 54 | 61 | 52.2 |
| Odia Literature | 17 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 12.4 |
| Persian Literature* | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bengali Literature | 3 | 5 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 5.8 |
| Santhali Literature | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Assamese Literature | 2 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| Arabic Literature* | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| French Literature* | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| German Literature* | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kashmiri Literature | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Russian Literature* | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Konkani Literature | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 |
* Was removed from the optional subject list from 2013.
The following inferences can be made from the table above:-
Based on the number of candidates who opted for the subject:
- Most popular optional subject: Public Administration
- Second most popular optional subject: Geography
- Third most popular optional subject: History
- Most popular literature optional subject: Hindi Literature
You can check out the optional subjects of UPSC toppers along with the tips to select the best optional subject from the links below:
Related Links:
| UPSC 2023 | UPSC Mains Syllabus for Optional Subjects |
| Optional Subjects Overlap With General Studies | Most Scoring Optional Subject in IAS Exam |
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