The Civil Service Examination is conducted by the UPSC(Union Public Service Commission) annually. It is also known by another popular name called “IAS Exam“. The examination is known for its toughness. More than 5 lakh candidates appear in the examination every year but only a few hundred get selected for the job vacancies.
UPSC conducts the Civil Service Examination in three stages to select the best among the candidates. They are the preliminary, mains, and the personality test/interview. The questions of the prelims examination are objective in nature. The candidates are selected in a ratio of around 1:15 for the mains. The mains stage is subjective in nature and consists of 9 papers. Each paper will be conducted for a duration of 3 hours. The answers must be written on paper. Out of 10000(approx.) candidates who have appeared for the mains examination, 3500(approx.) candidates will be selected for the interview depending on the marks scored by the candidate in mains.
The mains examination is conducted for 1750 and the candidate has to score the minimum cut-off in the mains examination to be called for the interview. The cut-off of mains varies every year for different categories. The UPSC mains cut-off of the last three years is given below to get an idea of “minimum marks required in Mains to appear for UPSC Interview.”
Civil Services Examination, 2023 – Minimum qualifying marks in Mains
| Category | Main Cut-off |
| General | 736 |
| Economically Weaker Section (EWS) | 687 |
| Other Backward Class (OBC) | 698 |
| Scheduled Castes (SCs) | 680 |
| Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 682 |
Civil Services Examination, 2019 – Minimum qualifying marks in Mains
| Category | Main Cut-off |
| General | 751 |
| Economically Weaker Section (EWS) | 696 |
| Other Backward Class (OBC) | 718 |
| Scheduled Castes (SCs) | 706 |
| Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 699 |
Civil Services Examination, 2018 – Minimum qualifying marks in Mains
| Category | Main Cut-off |
| General | 774 |
| Economically Weaker Section (EWS) | – |
| Other Backward Class (OBC) | 732 |
| Scheduled Castes (SCs) | 719 |
| Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 719 |
The above tables give us the rough figure of minimum marks required in Mains to appear for the UPSC Interview. The trend shows that the mains cut off marks is decreasing year on year. The number of vacancies in 2022 has increased. So, it is expected that the cut-off might be further reduced. But it is always safe to score 800+ marks in the UPSC main examination to get selected for the interview. The Interview/Personality Test will carry 275 marks (with no minimum qualifying marks). Marks thus obtained by the candidates in the Civil Services (Main) Examination (Written part as well as Interview/Personality Test) would determine their final ranking.
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