AspirantGoal is an independent app. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Union Public Service Commission or any exam authority. This page uses the numbers in the Union Public Service Commission’s Civil Services Examination notice No. 05/2026-CSE, as checked on 23 October 2026. The exam body’s current documents are the authority, so read them before you plan around any figure.
The Civil Services Examination has three stages: a Preliminary examination of two objective papers, a Main examination of nine written papers, and an Interview [1]. The stages count very differently towards the final ranking, so this page takes them one at a time.
What the documents print
The notice prints marks for every paper and a syllabus for the Prelims and for the General Studies papers of the Main examination [1]. The Essay paper prints a description and no topic list, and each optional subject has its own syllabus in the notice, so those rows have no unit count.
Prelims: two papers, one screening and one qualifying
The Prelims is a screening test: its marks are not counted for the final order of merit [1]. General Studies Paper-II is a qualifying paper with a minimum of 33% [1], which is 66 of its 200 marks. The list for the Main examination is drawn on the 33% in Paper-II and the total qualifying marks of Paper-I that the Commission determines [1].
| Subject | Marks | Share of marks | Printed units | Share of units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Studies Paper-I (screening) | 200 | not counted | 7 | 53.8% |
| General Studies Paper-II (qualifying at 33%, commonly called CSAT) | 200 | not counted | 6 | 46.2% |
Main and Interview: the marks that decide the ranking
The Main written test is 1,750 marks and the Interview 275, so 2,025 marks decide the final ranking [1]. The shares below are shares of those 2,025. The two language papers are qualifying and add nothing to them [1].
| Subject | Marks | Share of marks | Printed units | Share of units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (Paper-I) | 250 | 12.3% | no topic list printed | n/a |
| General Studies-I (Paper-II) | 250 | 12.3% | 12 | 20.0% |
| General Studies-II (Paper-III) | 250 | 12.3% | 20 | 33.3% |
| General Studies-III (Paper-IV) | 250 | 12.3% | 20 | 33.3% |
| General Studies-IV (Paper-V) | 250 | 12.3% | 8 | 13.3% |
| Optional subject (Papers VI and VII, 250 marks each) | 500 | 24.7% | printed per optional subject | n/a |
| Interview / Personality Test | 275 | 13.6% | not applicable | n/a |
| Paper-A, Indian language (qualifying) | 300 | not counted | not counted here | n/a |
| Paper-B, English (qualifying) | 300 | not counted | not counted here | n/a |
| Counted for ranking | 2,025 | 100% | 60 | 100% |
Numbers in brackets are the sources listed at the foot of the page. Printed units are the headings the syllabus prints, counted the same way as in the free tracker. The UPSC CSE exam page gives each figure with the paragraph and page it comes from.
What this means for your hours
- The Prelims decides who reaches the Main examination, and its marks are not counted for the final order of merit [1]. That is why the Prelims table has no share of the ranking marks.
- The four General Studies papers carry equal marks and print different numbers of units. Each is 250 of the 2,025 ranking marks (12.3%), and the notice prints 12, 20, 20 and 8 units for them [1]. General Studies-IV has the fewest units for the same marks. That describes how the syllabus is divided. It does not say how long the paper takes.
- The Optional subject is two papers of 250 marks, 500 in all, which is 24.7% of the ranking marks [1]. You choose it from the list in the notice [1], and its syllabus is printed separately, so the unit counts above leave it out.
- The two language papers, Paper-A (an Indian language) and Paper-B (English), are 300 marks each and qualifying. The Essay, General Studies and Optional papers are taken into account only if you get 25% in the Indian language paper and 25% in English [1].
- The Interview carries 275 marks (13.6%) and has no minimum qualifying marks [1].
From marks and units to hours
The documents give you the marks and the units. How long a unit takes you is the third number, and only you can supply it. Time yourself on three units of each subject, work out the hours as units × minutes per unit ÷ 60 × rounds, and set each subject’s share of the hours beside its share of the marks. How many hours does a syllabus take? explains each step, How to split study hours across subjects shows how the three numbers fit together, and the hours calculator does the sums.
Example: one plan worked through
Example. The minutes below are made up to show the sums, and the units are the ones in the table above. Nothing here says a unit takes this long, and none of it is advice on how long UPSC CSE needs. Assume 2 rounds, 30 study hours a week and a buffer of 15%.
| Subject | Hours for one pass (units × minutes ÷ 60) | Hours for 2 rounds | Share of hours | Share of marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Studies-I (Paper-II) | 12 × 600 ÷ 60 = 120 | 120 × 2 = 240 | 24.0% | 25.0% |
| General Studies-II (Paper-III) | 20 × 480 ÷ 60 = 160 | 160 × 2 = 320 | 32.0% | 25.0% |
| General Studies-III (Paper-IV) | 20 × 420 ÷ 60 = 140 | 140 × 2 = 280 | 28.0% | 25.0% |
| General Studies-IV (Paper-V) | 8 × 600 ÷ 60 = 80 | 80 × 2 = 160 | 16.0% | 25.0% |
| Total | 1,000 | 100% | 100% |
Hours you can use each week after the buffer: 30 × 85% = 25.5. Weeks the plan needs: 1,000 ÷ 25.5 = 39.2. The Essay and the Optional papers print no unit list, so they are not in this total. You set their hours yourself and add them.
Read the last two columns together. In this example General Studies-II (Paper-III) takes 32.0% of the hours and carries 25.0% of the marks, while General Studies-IV (Paper-V) takes 16.0% of the hours and carries 25.0%.
Questions about the UPSC CSE study plan
How many hours does UPSC CSE need?
No exam body publishes a figure, and this page does not give one. The hours depend on three numbers that only you can supply: the units you still have to cover, the minutes each one takes you and the rounds you plan. The example above uses made-up minutes: its 60 printed units over 2 rounds come to 1,000 hours. Time yourself on three units of each subject, put your own minutes into the free sheet below or the syllabus hours calculator, and the sums give your number.
Can I finish UPSC CSE preparation in three months?
Three months is about 13 weeks. Whether that is enough depends on your own figures, and no document can tell you in advance. The sum is hours needed ÷ (study hours a week × 85%), where 15% is the buffer kept for the weeks that go wrong. The example’s 1,000 made-up hours need this many weeks:
| Study hours a week | Usable after the 15% buffer | Weeks the example needs |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8.5 | 117.6 |
| 15 | 12.8 | 78.4 |
| 20 | 17 | 58.8 |
| 30 | 25.5 | 39.2 |
| 40 | 34 | 29.4 |
Put your own hours in place of the example’s to read your own row. The study hours calculator checks a plan against the time you have.
Is there a free UPSC CSE study plan as a PDF or Excel file?
Yes. The sheet below comes as an Excel file with the sums built in, a PDF worksheet to fill in by hand and a CSV file. It already holds the Prelims and Main papers, their marks, whether they count for ranking, and the units the notice prints, carries the AspirantGoal mark and needs no sign-up.
A free plan sheet with your numbers
The sheet has the Prelims and Main papers, their marks, whether they count for ranking, and the units the notice prints already in it. Type your minutes per unit, the rounds you plan, the study hours you have each week and the weeks until the exam, and it works out the hours, the shares and the weeks the plan needs. The Excel file does the sums with formulas, the PDF is a worksheet to fill in by hand, and the CSV holds the same table for any spreadsheet. All three carry the AspirantGoal mark. They are free and need no sign-up.
The units themselves are listed one by one in the free UPSC CSE syllabus tracker, where you can record minutes and finished passes.
How AspirantGoal handles this
- Each subject can have a target in hours. Roadmap compares your targets with the time you have left at your daily budget, and says how many hours short you are when they do not fit.
- The Study Timer and the Stopwatch save the minutes you really studied, with pauses and breaks left out. Those minutes give you the pace this page asks for.
- Week shows Available time, Assigned time and Buffer, so the buffer in the sums above is a number you can see.
- The UPSC CSE package gives you a syllabus to start from and to edit. It is an editable template, so compare it with the documents and change what differs.
See the Features page for the full list. The UPSC CSE exam page lists the structure and the syllabus units as the exam body prints them.
What this does not tell you
This page does not say how many hours UPSC CSE needs, which subject to start with or what a result will be. It does not predict a rank, a cut-off or a score. The unit counts are the number of headings the syllabus prints, which is not a measure of how hard or how large a unit is. The optional subject is chosen from a list and each optional has its own syllabus in the notice, so its units are not counted here. The Essay paper prints a description and no topic list. Eligibility, attempts and dates are in the notice. The exam body’s current documents are the authority, and AspirantGoal is an independent app with no link to any exam authority.