Hi Karthik, You must be at least 21 years of age as on 1st August of the year of appearing for the exam. You are allowed 4 attempts if you are from the ‘General’ category, 7 for OBC and unlimited for SC/ ST. You should be medically fit, whether you want to get into the technical or non-technical streams. The exam pattern is the same as IAS. You need to sit for the All India Combined Competitive Examination for the Civil Services conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which comprises of two successive stages – preliminary (objective type qualifying exam) and main exam (written & interview). At stage one, there is an objective type examination called the Preliminary examination. This is a qualifying examination and only the candidates who clear this can appear for the next stage called the Main examination. In the Main examination each candidate has to select two optional subjects, apart from which all candidates have to take a General Studies, Essay and compulsory language exam. The Main examination is a very intensive subjective type examination for which marks are awarded. A shortlist is prepared on the basis of the Main examination and these candidates can compete in the third and final stage of exam called the Viva voce or the Interview. The marks of the Main examination and the Interview are combined to prepare a final merit list of selected candidates.

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