The competitive Examination is conducted as per the following three steps:

Step I- Preliminary Examination
IAS prelims is written objective type examination and is conducted in the month of June every year with two following papers:

Paper I- General Studies paper with maximum mark 150 against 150 questions. The exam expands over two hours and questions are asked from six topics which are Indian History, Constitution of India, Geography, Economics, Science and Current Affairs.

Paper II- The second paper is an optional of student’s choice which may include Political Science, Psychology, Economics, Physics, and Economics etc. This exam has maximum marks 300 against 120 questions and is two hour long.

IAS prelims are very competitive and therefore only highest scorers qualify for the second stage that is the Main Examination. It is quite interesting to note that the qualifying percentage is 10% in preliminary examination.

Step II- Main Examination
IAS Mains is a written examination which is a subjective or essay type format. This is generally conducted in the month of November/December. IAS Mains expands over nine papers:

Paper I & II- Language papers with maximum marks 300 each. One paper is English which is mandatory and the other is any Indian language mentioned in the eighth schedule of Indian Constitution. Passing these papers with a certain minimum percentage is necessary.

Paper III- This is a subjective type paper with maximum marks 200. Student can opt to write in either English or any other Indian language mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.

Paper IV and V- General Studies with General Knowledge and Current Affairs and maximum marks of 300

Paper VI, VII, VIII and IX- Two optional subjects, with two papers thereby making it four papers with 300 each and total marks of 1200.

Those who pass IAS mains are further reduced with a ratio of 1:10 to direct students to the next level that is Personality Test.

Step III- Personality Test
This is the final elimination stage and as expected the competition is highest at this stage. Candidates are selected with a ratio of 1:2 and therefore with 10 vacancies, twenty candidates are called for interview. These candidates are tested on their personality, social traits, teamwork and leadership qualities and their aptitude and skills that are usually involved in work.