civil service examination (cse): It is conducted by the union public service commission (upsc) every year. The first stage of the selection process is announced in the month of November and December every year. The selection is done in three stages
stage 1 preliminary examination
stage 2 main examination
stage 3 interview test
Candidate move into he next stage through a process of elimination. The prelims are held in may-June and results are announced in July-august. The main examination is held in October and November and those who qualify here are invited for the interview in march-April next.

Eligibility:
IAS and IPS should be citizens of India. For other service the applicant should be
a. subject of Bhutan/ Nepal or
b. a Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1.1.1962 
with the intention of permanently settling in India or
c. a person of Indian origin who was migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Srilanka, Kenya, Uganda, united republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.candidate belonging to (a) (b)&(c) categories should be a person in whose favor the certificate of eligibility has been issued by the central government of India.candidate belonging to (a),(b)&(c) are not eligible for the ifs
Educational qualification:
graduate in any discipline aged between 21-30 years. About the examination

Stage I: the prelims
is an objective type examination with question in a multiple choice format. the examination consist of two papers:
1)general studies(150 marks)
2)optioanl subjects should be selected from a list of 23 subjects(300 marks)

duration of each paper is two hours.
there is no negative marking and score in prelims does not affect the rankings in the final merit list.

Stage II: The main examination (mains):
this examination consist of 9 papers:
paper I- Indian language -300 marks-3 hours.
paper II- english- 300 marks- 3 hours.

Mark a obtained in this paper do not affect the rankings.
but those who fulfill the minimum standards in paper
I & II will be evaluated for the other papers.
paper III- essay -200 marks- 3hours;
paper IV & V -general studies- 300 marks each-3 hours;

paper VI & VII-optional subject I-300 marks each- 3 hours;
paper VIII & IX- optional subject II- 300 marks each -3 hours;
The option for the main examination are to be chosen from a given list of 25 subjects. They are: agriculture, management, animal husbandry, veterinary science, mathematics. anthropology, mechanical engineering, botany, medical science, chemistry, philosophy, civil engineering, physics, commerce and accountancy ,political science and international relation ,economics, psychology,  electrical engineering, public administration, geography, sociology, geology, statistics, history, zoology ,law, literature  of one of the following languages: Arabic, Assam's ,Bengali, Chinese, english ,french, german, gujrati, hindi, kannada, kashmiri, kokani, marathi, malayalam, manipuri, nepali, oriya, pali, Persian, Punjabi, Russian ,sanskit, sindhi ,tamil,telgu, urdu.

Stage III interview:
The interview carries 300 marks. The objective of the interview is to assess the personality .,leadership qualities, judgment, and moral integrity of the candidate and evaluate his overall fitness for public service. The interview is usually held in April-may. The agree gate scores in mains and interview decides the position of the candidate in the merit list. If he secures a high position, candidate is entitled to select the services of his choice, but if he ranks low, he will have to settle for the service offered to him. Of course the dissatisfied candidate can make the fresh attempt. a total of four attempts is allowed.
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