The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) selects, successful cadidates to Main Examination from Civil Service Aptitude Test CSAT. The total number of candidates to be selected to the Civil Serice Main Examination is about 10 - 14 times of the total number of vacancies mentioned in the notification.

• Two optional Subjects - 1200 marks
• General Studies paper - 600 marks
• Essay paper - 200 marks
• English paper - 300 marks (qualifying nature)
• Language paper - 300 marks (qualifying nature)

The English Paper and Language paper is of qualifying nature. i.e. The candidate has to secure minimum marks determined by the Union Public Service Commission and the marks obtained in these papers will not be counted for ranking.

• It is a descriptive (essay type) examination.
• The Candidate has to select 2 optional subjects from the list of optional subjects.
• However UPSC has imposed restriction on selecting some combination of optional subjects.
• The General Studies, Essay paper, English Paper are common to all candidates
• The candidate has to select one indian language for language paper