IES Exam

Posts and Vacancies

The UPSC IES exam 2023 has openings for 327 posts,  including:

• 11 vacancies for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) 
• 7 vacancies for Locomotor Disability 
• 2 vacancies for Hard of Hearing 
• 1 vacancy for Specific Learning Disability 
• 1 vacancy for Multiple Disability

The recruitment will be for the following categories:

• Category I-Civil Engineering. 
• Category II-Mechanical Engineering 
• Category III-Electrical Engineering 
• Category IV-Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering

The various posts/services under each category are:

Civil Engineering (Category 1)

• Central Engineering Service 
• Central Engineering Service (Roads), Group-A (Civil Engineering Posts). 
• Survey of India Group ‘A’ Service. 
• AEE(Civil) in Border Road Engineering Service

Mechanical Engineering (Category 2)

• AEE in GSI Engineering Service Gr ‘A’. 
• Indian Defence Service of Engineers.
•  Indian Naval Armament Service (Mechanical Engineering Posts)
•  Indian Naval Material Management Service (Mechanical Engineering Posts) 
• Central Water Engineering (Group ‘A’) Service.

Electrical Engineering (Category 3)

• Central Electrical & Mechanical Engineering Service (Electrical Engineering Posts). 
• Indian Defence Service of Engineers. 
• Indian Naval Material Management Service (Electrical Engineering Posts) 
• Central Power Engineering Service Gr ‘A’ (Electrical Engineering Posts). 
• Indian Naval Armament Service (Electrical Engineering Posts)

Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering (Category 4)

• Indian Telecommunication Service Gr ‘A’. 
• Indian Naval Armament Service (Electronics and Telecom Engineering Posts).
• Indian Naval Material Management Service (Electronics and Telecom Engineering Posts) 
• Defence Aeronautical Quality Assurance Service/SSO-II (Electronics & Tele). 
• Central Power Engineering Gr ‘A’ (Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering Posts)

Aspirants must check the UPSC IES notification 2023 for detailed information on posts and vacancies for Engineering Services Exam.

IES Exam Dates

The Engineering Services Exam is conducted in three stages: the Preliminary, Main, and Personality Test. The exam dates for each stage are as follows:

Preliminary Exam: The Preliminary Exam is usually held in January or February. The UPSC IES Exam was conducted on 19th February 2023.

Main Exam: The Main Exam is usually held in June or July. This year, the main exam 2023 is scheduled to be conducted on 25th June 2023.

Personality Test: The Personality Test is usually held in September or October. The dates will be declared once the Main exam is over.

The 2023 exam dates and details are as follows:

To know in detail about the IES exam dates, check the linked article.

IES Eligibility

To be eligible for the Engineering Services Exam, aspirants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Nationality: The aspirant must be a citizen of India, or a subject of Nepal, or a subject of Bhutan

 Or

a Tibetan refugee who came over to India before the 1st January, 1962 with the intention of permanently settling in India, 

or (e) a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka or East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia or from Vietnam with the intention of permanently setting in India.

Age Limit: The aspirant must be between the ages of 21 and 30 years as of 1st January 2023. Relaxation in the age limit is provided to candidates belonging to certain categories; precisely, the upper age limit of 30 years will be relaxable up to 35 years in the case of Government servants of certain categories.

Educational Qualifications: The aspirant must have an engineering degree from a recognized university. 

Physical Standards: The aspirant must meet the physical standards required for the post they are applying for.

The other relevant details of UPSC IES eligibility criteria can be found in the linked article.

IES (ESE) Exam Application Form – How to Apply?

Aspirants can follow the below steps to apply for the UPSC IES exam.

1. Visit the official website – www.upsconline.nic.in.
2. Candidates must have a photograph of 300kB and a signature scanned in jpg format before starting to fill out the online application form for the IES exam.
3. Candidates must have their matriculation certificate with them while filling out the form, and the names and spellings of the candidate’s name, Father’s name, Mother’s Name & Date of Birth to be filled in the Online Application Form of the candidate should match exactly with the particulars mentioned in the Matriculation Certificate.
4. Candidates should also have details of one Photo ID Card.
5. Fill in the details in the application form, including applicants’ details, examination centre, photograph, signature, etc.
6. Make the payment for registration
7. Submit the application form and download a copy for reference.

Applicants must check the official notification for the application forms and other form-filling and documentation queries.

Aspirants can also withdraw the application if they do not wish to appear for the IES exam. The details of the same can be found in the official notification. For the 2023 exam, the application withdrawal facility was available from 12.10.2022 to 18.10.2022.

IES Admit Card

The UPSC will issue Admit cards for all eligible candidates three weeks before the commencement of the examination. The e-Admission Certificate or Admit card will be available on the UPSC website for download. Aspirants won’t get admit cards by post. Aspirants must download the e- Admission Certificate/ e-Admit Card by logging in using their credentials like RID & Date of Birth or Roll number.

IES Exam Pattern & Syllabus

The IES exam will be conducted in 3 phases:

Phase 1 – Preliminary Exam

Phase 2 – Main Exam

Phase 3 – Personality test

Aspirants must be careful while marking their answers as there will be Negative Markings for wrong answers in the objective-type question papers. There will be a deduction of ⅓ marks as a penalty for each wrong answer.

The personality test will be conducted to gauge a candidate’s leadership, initiative and intellectual curiosity, tact and other social qualities, mental and physical energy, powers of practical application and integrity of character.

UPSC IES  Syllabus

The Engineering Services Exam syllabus is vast and covers a wide range of topics. The syllabus for the UPSC IES examination can be found below:

Paper 1: General Studies and Engineering Aptitude

The first part of the syllabus covers topics such as General Studies, Engineering Aptitude, and Current Issues. The major topics for Paper 1 include – current issues of national and international importance relating to social, economic and industrial development; Engineering Aptitude covering Logical reasoning and Analytical ability; Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Analysis; General Principles of Design, Drawing, and Importance of Safety; Standards and Quality practices in production, construction, maintenance and services.

The important topics for each subject for Paper 2 Prelims & both the Papers of the Main exam are as follows:

Aspirants can check the detailed UPSC IES syllabus at the linked article.

UPSC IES Exam Centres

The different exam centres where the IES (Prelims) exam is conducted are:

1. Agartala
2. Ahmedabad
3. Aizawl
4. Aligarh
5. Allahabad
6. Bangalore
7. Bareilly
8. Bhopal 
9. Chandigarh
10. Chennai
11. Cuttack
12. Dehradun
13. Delhi
14. Dharwad
15. Dispur (Guwahati)
16. Gangtok
17. Hyderabad
18. Imphal
19. Itanagar
20. Jaipur
21. Jammu
22. Jorhat
23. Kochi
24. Kohima
25. Kolkata
26. Lucknow
27. Madurai
28. Mumbai
29. Nagpur
30. Panaji
31. Patna
32. Port Blair
33. Raipur
34. Ranchi 
35. Sambalpur
36. Shillong
37. Shimla
38. Srinagar
39. Thiruvananthapuram
40. Tripura
41. Udaipur
42. Vishakhapatnam

The different exam centres where the IES (Main) exam is conducted are:

1. Ahmedabad
2. Aizawl
3. Allahabad
4. Bangalore
5. Bhopal
6. Chandigarh
7. Chennai
8. Cuttack
9. Dehradun
10. Delhi
11. Dispur
12. Hydera bad
13. Jaipur
14. Jammu
15. Kolkata
16. Lucknow
17. Mumbai
18. Patna
19. Raipur
20. Ranchi
21. Shillong
22. Shimla
23. Thiruvananthapuram
24. Vishakhapatnam

IES Exam Previous Year Question Papers

Aspirants preparing for the UPSC IES examination must practise the previous years’ questions to get an overall idea about the exam difficulty level, type of questions, pattern, and high-weightage and low-weightage topics. 

Aspirants can find the previous years’ question papers for UPSC IES Prelims & Mains exam below.

UPSC IES 2022 Prelims Exam

UPSC IES 2022 Main Exam

IES Exam Cut Off

The cut-off marks play a significant role in determining the selection of candidates for the different posts and services under the UPSC IES examination. The previous year cut off helps in estimating the current year cut off and aspirants can prepare for the exam accordingly.

Given below are the cut-off marks for the Engineering Services Examination 2022 for aspirants’ reference.

Civil

Mechanical 

Electrical

Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering

The relevant cut off details for the last few years can be found on the UPSC IES cut off page. Candidates can click the linked article to check the same.

IES Answer Key

UPSC IES 2023 answer key will be released by the Commission on its official website. IES exam answer key helps in determining the number of correct and incorrect answers. This will help candidates assess and estimate their expected score. Also, candidates who could not qualify for the exam can focus more on the important topics based on the IES answer keys.They will also be able to figure out the topics which require more practice and the topics they can expect more marks on.

Aspirants can check the detailed UPSC IES answer key on the linked article.