UPSC IAS — exam eligibility, important dates and educational qualification

If you are planning to take the civil services exam for IAS, you must know the UPSC’s requirements and the minimum eligibility bar for the same. Here’s how you can start with basic information on how you can prepare for the civil services exam.

Eligibility:

To start with, you should be an Indian national and a graduate in any subject. For the general category, the age bracket to appear for the exam is 21 to 32 years. In between that, you can appear for the test six times.

However, there are relaxations for the reserved categories — SC/ST, OBC, etc. The upper agelimit for OBC candidates is 35 years with 9 attempts allowed in the given age bracket, while for SC/ST the upper limit is 37 years and there’s no limit on the number of attempts.,

Exam Dates:

The exam cycle has three phases — the Prelims, Mains and Interview round for all candidates. The prelims usually happen in June, Mains in September/October and the final interview rounds are held from January to April.

Overall, 49.5% of the seats are for the reserved categories. So if you belong to the general category, you need to rank in top 50 to rank in the final list.

The exam is taken by over 10 lakh aspirants every year and the application fee is just ₹100. For the female candidates, there’s no application fee.