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If civil services fascinate you, if you have what it takes to get into being a professional in the civil services, then you will have to prepare really hard but it’s assured that all the hard work is worth it. For quite some time, civil services jobs have been attracting a lot of people.

IAS, IFS, IPS are a part of the civil services. All the departments which run the state administration and fall under the government directly are a part of the civil services. Those parts of the central/state civil services have to look after the smooth functioning of various departments (non military) and to see that it works as per the constitution.

The civil services age back to 1919, and hence hold a large history to it. The kind of job profile and power that it brings with itself has attracted many aspiring youngsters. Many youngsters and students wish to pursue a career in civil services and there are many reputed coaching centers in India teaching various courses in civil services. There are mainly three types of examinations conducted for civil services:

• Preliminary exam – It consists of two multiple choice question papers, both objective. These papers total 450 marks. The divisions of the two papers are of the following pattern: first paper is for 150 marks consisting of questions from General Studies. The second set of paper is for 300 marks and the student can choose from the following options of subjects: Agriculture, Botany, Indian History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography and Geology.

• Main exam- The number of candidates called for the main exam is usually 11 – 12 times more than the actual number of seats available.  Those who obtain the minimum qualifying marks stated by the commission are then called for a round of interview, though it’s pretty obvious that the students appearing for the interview are twice more than the available number of seats. The marks that the student acquires along with the interview results determine the final ranking of those who are selected. Once students are selected for these services, they are allotted to the services based upon their scores and preference.

• Written exam – After this comes the written exam, which consists of a total of eight papers. Each paper has essay type questions, 300 marks each.

a)      First paper consists of one of the following Indian languages (as per the eighth schedule of Constitution) – Assamese, Bengali, Gujrati, Marathi, Hindi, Sindhi, Malyalam, Orriya, Kannad, Punjabi, Kashmiri,Telgu, Urdu and Tamil.

b)      Second paper is English, third paper is essay, and fourth and fifth papers are General Studies.

c)      Paper six, seven, eight and nine consist of the following subjects – Anthropology, Botany, Agriculture, Chemistry, Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law.

Besides these, there has to be Literature of any one of the following languages – Telugu, Chinese, Bengali, Kannada, Kashmiri, , Assamese,  Hindi, Oriya, Punjabi, Pali, , Gujarati, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam, Arabic, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Konkani, French, Russian and English, German, Persian, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, , Mechanical Engineering, Political Science Management, Mathematics,  and Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics Psychology, and Zoology and International Relations.

The question papers here are essay type consisting 300 marks each. Question paper 1 and 2 i.e. Hindi and English are just taken into account for qualifying purpose; it doesn’t count in the ranking process. The General Studies paper and the optional subjects i.e. 3 – 7 are only taken into account if the candidate has cleared the language paper - Hindi and English.

The last procedure is the interview round for 250 marks, and the plus point here is that there is no requirement of qualifying marks. In the interview round, a board interviews the candidate after which the board refers the career records of the candidate here.

However, the candidate hence selected is expected to have a strong knowledge of national and international issues, languages, trends, new discoveries etc. along with a firm hold on the academic knowledge and skills.