UPSC Prelims Result 2026 Highlights: CSE marks announced on June 15

The UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination cutoff is determined solely by candidates' scores in General Studies (GS) Paper I. The CSAT (Paper II) is qualifying in nature, and candidates must secure at least 33 per cent marks, or 66 out of 200, to clear it.

A high score in CSAT cannot compensate for a GS Paper I score below the cutoff. Similarly, qualifying the CSAT alone does not make a candidate eligible for the Main examination unless they also meet the required cutoff in GS Paper I. For reference, the General category cutoff in GS Paper I for the 2025 examination was 92.66 marks out of 200. The UPSC CSE 2026 Preliminary Examination results are expected to be announced by June 15.

On May 28, 2026, just four days after the Civil Services Preliminary Examination, the UPSC released a provisional answer key, marking a significant departure from its earlier practice. Until 2026, the Commission typically published the answer key only after the entire examination process was completed and the final results were declared, often nearly a year after the Preliminary exam.

The early release of the tentative answer key enabled candidates to estimate their scores and assess their chances of qualifying before the official results were announced. The provisional key also indicated that one question from the 100-question General Studies (GS) Paper I had been dropped.

According to feedback from educators and candidates, the General Studies (GS) Paper I in UPSC CSE Prelims 2026 was lengthier and more challenging than the 2025 examination. The paper included questions from Economy (19), Environment (11), Geography (13), History, Art and Culture (20), Polity and Governance (8), Science and Technology (18), and Miscellaneous topics (11).

For the CSAT paper, experts noted that while the question pattern differed from previous years, the overall difficulty level was moderate. A few unconventional questions caught candidates off guard, but the paper was largely manageable for aspirants who had prepared thoroughly.

Candidates must possess a bachelor's degree from a university established under a Central or State Act in India, an institution created by an Act of Parliament, or a university recognised as a deemed-to-be university under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. Candidates holding an equivalent qualification are also eligible to apply.

After the declaration of the Civil Services (Mains) Examination written results, the Commission will provide a 15-day window for candidates shortlisted for the Personality Test/Interview. During this period, candidates must log in and complete or update the required details, including their educational qualification status and proof of having passed the prescribed qualifying examination. Relevant supporting documents must also be uploaded.

Failure to provide the required information and documents within the stipulated timeframe will lead to cancellation of the candidature. In such cases, the Commission will not entertain any further correspondence, and no e-summon letter for the Personality Test/Interview will be issued.

To improve employment prospects, the Commission may share the details of candidates who reach the Interview/Personality Test stage but are not recommended with registered private companies, PSUs, and government organisations. Information such as educational qualifications, contact details, and percentile scores may be made available on a dedicated portal for recruitment purposes after the reserve or extended list process is completed.

Candidates will be asked to provide their consent while filling out the examination application form. Those who do not wish to participate can opt out of the scheme. However, once a candidate makes a choice, it cannot be changed later, and partial disclosure of information is not permitted.

No login credentials will be needed to access the results. A PDF containing the application number of qualified students will be published by UPSC.

The Union Public Service Commission has not announced a specific date for the Prelims exam result. The result is published on the official website at upsc.gov.in without any prior notice. As per past patterns, it is usually declared 14 tp 19 days after the exam date.

With 5.49 lakh individuals taking the UPSC CSE Prelims on May 24, 2026, and an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 projected to qualify for the Mains given 933 seats, the Prelims serve as a filter, removing between 97 and 98% of those who take the test. In addition to the anticipated outcome by June 15, UPSC will release the GS Paper 1 cutoff, category-wise qualifiers, and reserve bench statistics. After that, the about 14,000 who succeed will have around two months before the Mains start on August 21.

In all of India's states and union territories, 83 cities hosted the UPSC CSE Prelims 2026. UPSC's efforts to make the exam accessible to candidates from all over the world are reflected in the 2,072 centers distributed throughout these locations. In contrast, students who passed the preliminary exam must take the Mains exam, which is only held in specific locations, usually in major cities. Candidates who applied early had a better chance of receiving a desired exam city under UPSC's first-apply-first-allot city preference method.

Regardless of the outcome, a candidate's attempt is counted each time they appear in one or more Preliminary exam papers under UPSC regulations. A candidate has used up one attempt if they take the GS Paper 1, CSAT, or both papers. A candidate does not use an attempt if they register but do not appear in any paper. Subject to the upper age limit, the maximum attempts are six for General, nine for OBC, and unlimited for SC and ST. These restrictions are cumulative for all years and do not reset in between cycles.

The UPSC CSE Prelims result will be announced by June 15 on the official website at upsc.gov.in. Candidates will be able to check their selection in the published PDF using their application number.

Students can follow these steps to check their result:

Step 1: Visit upsc.gov.in.

Step 2: Look for new link in ‘What’s New’ section.

Step 3: Click “Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026 Result”.

Step 4: The PDF will open in the browser.

Step 5: Press Ctrl+F, and enter your roll number.

Step 6: If found — you’ve qualified for Mains 2026.

Following the announcement of the UPSC CSE final result, service allocation is determined by the candidate's rank, category, open positions in each service, and the order in which they submitted their preferred services. IFS, IPS, and IAS are usually the most sought-after allocations. Depending on rank and vacancy availability, candidates who do not receive IAS or IPS may be sent to Group B services like DANICS or DANIPS or Group A Central Services like the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Audit and Accounts Service, and Indian P&T Accounts Service.

The UPSC CSE 2024 final result recommended 1,009 candidates distributed across categories:

General - 335

OBC - 318

EWS - 109

SC - 160

ST - 87

There has been a slight variation in the number of applicants who passed the Prelims and advanced to the Mains. 14,627 applicants advanced from the Prelims to the Mains in the 2024 cycle. This decreased somewhat to 14,161 in 2025. Since UPSC qualifies proportionately to the number of vacancies, it is anticipated that the number of applicants for Mains will also be considerably lower for the 2026 cycle, which has 933 openings compared to 1,087 in 2025. The preliminary results are anticipated to be released by June 15 along with the precise cutoff and number of qualifiers.

On April 22, 2025, the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 final results were announced. Shakti Dubey achieved All India Rank 1 with a total of 1,043 marks—200 in the Interview and 843 in the written exam. She graduated from the University of Allahabad with a degree in biochemistry, and on her sixth try, she passed the test with Political Science and International Relations as an optional. In the 2024 cycle, 1,009 candidates were suggested for 1,132 open positions.

659 males and 299 women were among the 958 candidates who were recommended in the UPSC CSE 2025 final result, which was announced on March 6, 2026. In addition, 42 people with benchmark disabilities, 10 people with orthopedic difficulties, 14 people with visual challenges, 9 people with hearing impairments, and 9 people with multiple disabilities are on the suggested list. 5,76,793 people showed up for the 2025 Prelims, 14,161 qualified for Mains, 2,736 passed Mains for the Interview stage, and 958 were eventually recommended.

The top five candidates from the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2025 had very different educational backgrounds. Anuj Agnihotri (AIR 1) is an MBBS graduate from AIIMS Jodhpur and his optional was Medical Science. Rajeshwari Suve M (AIR 2) chose sociology and has earned a BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University. Akansh Dhull (AIR 3) has a B.Com. in accounting and commerce from Delhi University. Raghav Jhunjhunwala (AIR 4) attended Delhi University to study economics. Sociology was the optional for Ishan Bhatnagar (AIR 5), who earned a BA LLB from National Law University Delhi.

Four days after the Civil Services Preliminary Exam, on May 28, 2026, UPSC first published a tentative answer key. Up until 2026, UPSC had a policy of only making the answer key available following the final Prelim results, which came out about a year after the test was held. Candidates could evaluate their performance prior to the official announcement of the results thanks to the early release of the provisional key. One of the 100 questions in GS Paper 1 had been removed from the preliminary key.

A second, more thorough form called DAF-2 is submitted following the announcement of the Mains results, whereas DAF-1 is submitted following the Prelims results. Prior to the Personality Test, the UPSC Interview Board uses DAF-2 to become acquainted with the candidate's background. It contains comprehensive details about the candidate's work history, extracurricular activities, travel, publications, interests, and specific service preferences. The DAF-2 is a document of significant strategic value for candidates at that stage because the Interview Board heavily references it when crafting questions.

The UPSC Civil Services Mains 2026 test is set to start from August 21, 2026. The Mains is a descriptive test consisting of nine papers that is conducted in Delhi over several days. Candidates who qualify will have around two months to prepare for the Mains after the Prelims results, which are anticipated by June 15. The 2025 Mains was also held in August during the previous cycle. Essays, four General Studies papers, two Optional Subject papers, and two qualifying language papers are all included in the Mains exam.

When the results of the UPSC CSE Prelims 2026 are announced, they will be available on upsc.gov.in as a PDF document that includes the roll numbers of applicants who passed the Civil Services Mains test. At the preliminary results stage, UPSC does not reveal individual GS Paper 1 or CSAT scores. Along with the result PDF, category-specific cutoff marks are made available. Candidates cannot obtain their marks until about 15 days after the final results of the entire CSE cycle, which are usually announced a year later, if their roll number is not found on the qualifying list.

One question from the 100 question General Studies Paper 1 had been removed from the UPSC CSE 2026 Prelims tentative answer key, which was made available on May 28. All candidates who took the paper receive full marks when UPSC drops a question, regardless of whether they answered the question or left it blank. A question is usually dropped when it is determined to be unclear, improperly phrased, or when there are other options that may be justified. The maximum possible score for that paper is effectively raised to slightly above the nominal 200 due to the lack of the question.

Four days after the Civil Services Preliminary Exam, on May 28, 2026, UPSC first published a tentative answer key. Up until 2026, UPSC had a policy of only making the solution key available following the final Prelim results, which came out about a year after the exam was conducted. Candidates could evaluate their performance prior to the official announcement of the results thanks to the early distribution of the provisional key. One of the 100 questions in GS Paper 1 has been removed from the preliminary key.

There are about 933 openings in 21 civil services, and 8,19,372 individuals had enrolled for the test. Only over 5.49 lakh applicants, or 67% of the registered pool, showed up for the exam on May 24.

This year, UPSC has added three new centres at Kanpur, Meerut and Bhubaneshwar, thus relieving pressure from existing centres that handled candidates in larger numbers. The total number of examination centres for CES Prelims has now increased from 80 to 83. According to the Commission, nearly 23,000 candidates have opted to take the exam from the newly added centres.

UPSC Mains is a written examination that demands structured, analytical answers of 150-250 words. Unlike Prelims, speed and accuracy on MCQs matter less here. Answer writing practice, Essay writing, and GS content depth are the three pillars of Mains success.

Being in the UPSC Prelims 2026 result PDF means you are shortlisted for Mains. It does not mean you have secured admission to any service. It is the first filter — roughly 1 in 50 exam-takers cross this line.

After filling the DAF-I, qualified candidates appear for UPSC Mains in August. Those who qualify Mains are called for the Personality Test (Interview) in early 2027. The final merit list, combining Mains and Interview marks, determines which service each candidate gets.

UPSC Mains consists of 9 papers — 2 qualifying language papers, Essay (250 marks), 4 GS papers (250 marks each), and 2 optional papers (250 marks each). The total written marks are 1,750 — a substantial upgrade in complexity from the Prelims stage.

→ Stage 1: Prelims (objective, qualifying)

→ Stage 2: Mains (written, 9 papers, 1750 marks) — August 21, 2026

→ Stage 3: Personality Test/Interview (275 marks)

Qualified candidates need to choose their Mains optional subject in the DAF-I. The optional subject carries 500 marks across two papers in UPSC Mains.

Anuj Agnihotri secured AIR 1 in UPSC CSE 2025, and Shakti Dubey had topped in 2024. The 2026 cycle's topper will not be known until the final result next year

In UPSC CSE Prelims 2023, exactly 14,624 candidates qualified for the Mains exam. The exam was held on May 28, 2023 and the result was declared on June 12, 2023 — a 15-day turnaround. Today marks exactly 19 days since the 2026 exam.

Once your roll number appears in the result PDF, the immediate next step is to fill the Detailed Application Form (DAF-I) — a detailed declaration of educational background, service preferences, optional subject choice and other information. The DAF window typically opens 2-3 weeks after result declaration.

No UPSC Prelims Result 2026 declaration yet. upsc.gov.in is showing normal content with no new notification under 'What's New'. Candidates should keep refreshing the UPSC homepage every few minutes.

Both GS Paper I and CSAT carry negative marking of one-third of marks for each wrong answer. This year's GS Paper I was described by experts as "analytically heavier" than recent years, potentially lowering attempted questions and compressing scores at the top end.

UPSC CSE Prelims 2026 had two papers — GS Paper I (General Studies, 200 marks, 100 questions, 2 hours) and CSAT Paper II (Civil Services Aptitude Test, 200 marks, 80 questions, 2 hours). GS Paper I determines the merit list; CSAT is qualifying in nature.

UPSC typically qualifies candidates for Mains at approximately 12 to 13 times the total number of vacancies. With 933 posts notified, approximately 11,200 to 12,100 candidates are expected to find their roll numbers in today's result PDF.

The UPSC CSE Prelims 2026 was conducted on May 24, 2026 across 2,072 centres in 83 cities across India. Out of 8.19 lakh registered applicants, approximately 5.49 lakh candidates actually appeared — an attendance rate of roughly 67%.

upsc.gov.in is the only official platform where UPSC CSE Prelims Result 2026 will be declared. The result will appear in PDF format under the 'What's New' section of the homepage. Candidates do not need to log in — no roll number or password is required to access the PDF.

The Union Public Service Commission is expected to declare the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2026 result any time now. The exam was conducted on May 24, 2026. Over 5.49 lakh candidates who appeared are refreshing upsc.gov.in. Stay with this blog for every update

With approximately 5.49 lakh candidates having appeared for the UPSC CSE Prelims on May 24, 2026, and an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 expected to qualify for the Mains given 933 vacancies, the Prelims functions as a filter that eliminates approximately 97 to 98% of those who sit for the exam. The GS Paper 1 cutoff, category-wise qualifiers, and reserve bench data will all be published by UPSC alongside the result expected by June 15. From that point, the approximately 14,000 who make it will have around two months before the Mains begins on August 21.

UPSC CSE 2026 fills vacancies across 21 Group A and Group B central government services. While IAS, IPS, and IFS attract the most attention, the examination also recruits for the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), Indian Revenue Service (Customs and GST), Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Indian Defence Accounts Service, Indian P&T Accounts and Finance Service, Indian Trade Service, Indian Corporate Law Service, Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service, and several others.

Candidates are allocated to services based on their rank, category, and preference order submitted in the DAF.

The full UPSC CSE 2025 cycle spanned approximately 10 months. The Prelims was held on May 25, 2025. The Mains took place in August 2025. The Personality Test was conducted between January and April 2026. The final result was declared on March 6, 2026. This timeline gives an indication of what the 2026 cycle may look like: Prelims on May 24, Mains from August 21, Interview expected in early 2027, and final result likely in March or April 2027. Each stage adds several months to the overall selection process.

The UPSC CSE Prelims GS Paper 1 covers six broad thematic areas: current affairs of national and international importance, history of India and the Indian national movement, Indian and world geography, Indian polity and governance, economic and social development, and environmental ecology and general science. Since the cutoff is determined by GS Paper 1 score alone, all thematic areas in the paper carry equal strategic weight for clearing the Prelims threshold. No individual subject within GS Paper 1 is weighted separately in UPSC's scoring.

Individual marks for the UPSC Civil Services Examination are released approximately 15 days after the final result declaration, not at the Prelims, Mains, or Interview result stage. This means candidates who clear only the Prelims or only the Mains do not receive their scores for those stages on the day those results come out.

The full mark breakdown across each paper of the Mains and the interview marks are released together, roughly a year after the Prelims was held, giving candidates limited mid-cycle visibility into their scores.

The compression from Mains to Interview in the UPSC CSE 2025 cycle is significant: of the 14,161 who qualified for the Mains in 2025, only 2,736 cleared the written examination to be called for the Personality Test, a selection rate of approximately 1 in 5 from among those who appeared for Mains. Of these 2,736, UPSC ultimately recommended 958 for appointment. The Personality Test for UPSC CSE 2025 was conducted at UPSC Bhavan in New Delhi between January and April 2026 by multiple interview boards assembled by the commission.

UPSC releases individual candidate marks approximately 15 days after the final result of the full CSE cycle is declared. This means candidates who do not qualify will not know their GS Paper 1 score when the Prelims result is published in June. They will receive their marks only after the final result is declared, typically in March or April of the following year. The delay of nearly a year before scores are visible to all appearing candidates, regardless of whether they cleared each stage, has been a long-standing feature of UPSC's result management process.

The UPSC CSE 2025 Prelims had no provisional answer key released at the time, the answer key was still made available only with the final result, almost a year after the May 25, 2025 examination. The 2026 cycle marks the first time UPSC released a provisional answer key just four days after the exam, on May 28. This structural change gives candidates the ability to estimate scores, identify potential errors, and engage with the examination outcome much earlier than was possible in any previous UPSC CSE cycle.

UPSC CSE 2025 AIR 1 Anuj Agnihotri appeared for the Civil Services Examination three times. In his first successful attempt in the 2023 cycle, he secured AIR 342. He improved to AIR 1 in the 2025 cycle on his third attempt, securing a final total of 1,071 marks. He chose Medical Science as his Mains optional, an uncommon but legally permissible choice for MBBS graduates. His two-rank progression from 342 to 1 across attempts reflects the degree of variability possible within the examination system across consecutive years.

The UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2026 also serves as the screening stage for the Indian Forest Service Examination 2026. Candidates who qualify the May 24 Prelims can separately apply for the IFS Mains, which tests subjects relevant to forestry and ecology, distinct from the CSE Mains. This means a single Prelims result unlocks two separate Mains examination pathways. Candidates who qualify the Prelims must indicate their intent to appear for the IFS Mains separately through the IFS-specific DAF process opened after the result is declared.

Ishita Kishore topped the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2022, results of which were declared in May 2023. Prior to her, Shruti Sharma had topped UPSC CSE 2021. In the 2024 cycle, Shakti Dubey was at AIR 1. In the 2025 cycle, Anuj Agnihotri held the top rank but the female topper Rajeshwari Suve M came in at AIR 2. The pattern of female candidates consistently appearing in or near the top rank across multiple consecutive UPSC cycles is a feature of recent result data.

UPSC maintains a consolidated reserve list after every CSE cycle for use in case vacancies arise due to a recommended candidate declining appointment, being found medically or documentarily ineligible, or due to court orders. In the 2024 cycle, the reserve list comprised 230 candidates across categories. In the 2025 cycle, the figure has not yet been officially confirmed.

Reserve list candidates are not officially recommended and are only considered if specific conditions arise. Being on the reserve list does not carry the same status as being in the main recommended list.

In the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2023, the final result was declared on April 16, 2024, with Aditya Srivastava securing AIR 1. Animesh Pradhan was at AIR 2, followed by Donuru Ananya Reddy at AIR 3, PK Sidharth Rajkumar at AIR 4, Ruhani at AIR 5, Srishti Dabas at AIR 6, Anmol Rathore at AIR 7, Ashish Kumar at AIR 8, Nausheen at AIR 9, and Aishwaryam Prajapati at AIR 10. A total of 1,016 candidates were recommended that year. The 2023 result was declared approximately two years before the 2026 Prelims whose result is now awaited.

The cutoff for qualification from the Mains to the Personality Test stage in UPSC CSE 2025 was 739 marks for the General category. A separate condition also requires that a candidate must score a minimum of 10% in each of the seven merit-counting papers to be considered for the Interview stage, even if the aggregate is above the cutoff. This dual requirement, aggregate and per-paper minimum, is distinct from other examinations that use aggregate-only cutoffs and has practical implications for candidates with uneven performance across the Mains papers.

The General Studies Paper 1 cutoff scores for the UPSC CSE 2025 Prelims were: 92.66 marks for the General category, 88.66 for OBC, 80.17 for SC, 77.17 for ST, and 83.89 for EWS. These are the minimum GS Paper 1 scores required to qualify for the Mains in the 2025 cycle. For the 2026 cycle, the cutoffs will reflect the difficulty distribution of the May 24 paper and the score distribution across the approximately 5.49 lakh who appeared. Category-wise cutoffs for 2026 will be announced alongside the result by June 15, 2026.

Shakti Dubey's 1,043 marks placed her at AIR 1 in the UPSC CSE 2024 final result. Harshita Goyal and Dongre Archit Parag each finished with 1,038 marks, a gap of just five marks separating rank 1 from ranks 2 and 3. Shah Margi Chirag's 1,035 marks, Aakash Garg's 1,032, and Komal Punia's 1,032 illustrate how densely packed the top 10 were. Shakti Dubey's journey to AIR 1 on her sixth attempt has been widely noted, given that she had been unsuccessful in five previous attempts before the 2024 cycle.

The UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024 final result was declared on April 22, 2025, with Shakti Dubey securing All India Rank 1 with a total of 1,043 marks, 843 from written examination and 200 from the Personality Test. A Biochemistry graduate from the University of Allahabad, she cleared the examination with Political Science and International Relations as her optional subject on her sixth attempt. A total of 1,009 candidates were recommended against 1,132 vacancies in the 2024 cycle.

Of the 958 candidates recommended in the UPSC CSE 2025 final result declared on March 6, 2026, 659 are men and 299 are women. The recommended list also includes 42 Persons with Benchmark Disabilities, 10 orthopedically handicapped, 14 visually challenged, 9 hearing-impaired, and 9 with multiple disabilities. In the funnel from Prelims to final result, 5,76,793 appeared for the 2025 Prelims, 14,161 qualified for Mains, 2,736 cleared Mains for the Interview stage, and 958 were ultimately recommended.

The top five ranked candidates in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2025 came from distinctly different academic backgrounds. Anuj Agnihotri (AIR 1) is an MBBS graduate from AIIMS Jodhpur with Medical Science as optional. Rajeshwari Suve M (AIR 2) completed BE in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Anna University and chose Sociology. Akansh Dhull (AIR 3) is a B.Com graduate from Delhi University with Commerce and Accountancy. Raghav Jhunjhunwala (AIR 4) studied Economics at Delhi University. Ishan Bhatnagar (AIR 5) graduated in BA LLB from National Law University Delhi with Sociology as optional.

For the first time, UPSC released a provisional answer key for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination on May 28, 2026, just four days after the examination. Until 2026, UPSC had followed the practice of releasing the answer key only after the final results of Prelims, approximately a year after the exam was held. The earlier release of the provisional key allows candidates to assess their performance before the result is officially declared. In the provisional key, one out of 100 questions in GS Paper 1 has been dropped.

While DAF-1 is submitted after the Prelims result, a second and more comprehensive form, DAF-2, is submitted after the Mains result is declared. DAF-2 is used by the UPSC Interview Board to familiarise itself with the candidate's background before the Personality Test. It includes detailed information on educational history, employment, extracurricular achievements, travel, publications, hobbies, and the candidate's detailed service preferences. The Interview Board draws extensively from the DAF-2 while framing questions, making it a document of considerable strategic importance for candidates at that stage.

The UPSC Civil Services Mains 2026 examination is scheduled to begin from August 21, 2026. The Mains is a nine-paper descriptive examination conducted over several days in Delhi. With the Prelims result expected by June 15, candidates who qualify will have approximately two months to prepare for the Mains after the result. In the previous cycle, the 2025 Mains was also conducted in August. The Mains tests candidates across Essay, four General Studies papers, two Optional Subject papers, and two qualifying language papers.

The UPSC CSE Prelims 2026 result, when declared, will be published as a PDF document on upsc.gov.in listing the roll numbers of candidates who have qualified for the Civil Services Mains examination. UPSC does not disclose individual GS Paper 1 scores or CSAT scores at the Prelims result stage. Category-wise cutoff marks are released alongside the result PDF. Candidates who do not find their roll number in the qualifying list are not given access to their marks until approximately 15 days after the final result of the full CSE cycle, typically declared a year later.

The UPSC CSE 2026 Prelims provisional answer key released on May 28 has dropped one question from the 100-question General Studies Paper 1. When UPSC drops a question, full marks are awarded to all candidates who appeared for that paper, irrespective of whether they attempted the question or left it blank. The dropping of a question typically occurs when the question is found to be ambiguous, incorrectly framed, or when more than one option is defensibly correct. The question's absence effectively increases the maximum obtainable score slightly above the nominal 200 for that paper.

For the first time, UPSC released a provisional answer key for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination on May 28, 2026, just four days after the examination. Until 2026, UPSC had followed the practice of releasing the answer key only after the final results of Prelims, approximately a year after the exam was held. The earlier release of the provisional key allows candidates to assess their performance before the result is officially declared. In the provisional key, one out of 100 questions in GS Paper 1 has been dropped.