- Going by the data, under the present government, the highest vacancies were released in 2014. Thereafter, there has been a considerable fall in the number of posts.
The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on February 14 started the Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2024 application process. This year, the commission notified a total of 1,056 vacancies for CSE and 150 for Indian Forest Service (IFoS). The commission advertised 1,105 posts in 2023, which was higher than 2024. The upsc.gov.in website has been hosting the application form and candidates would be able to apply till March 5, 2024. The UPSC CSE 2024 prelims exam is set to be held on May 26.
In 2022, the UPSC had announced 1,011 vacancies, while in 2021, it was 712 and 796 in 2020.
| Year | No. of posts |
| 2024 | 1056 |
| 2023 | 1105 |
| 2022 | 1011 |
| 2021 | 712 |
| 2020 | 796 |
| 2019 | 927 |
| 2018 | 812 |
| 2017 | 1058 |
| 2016 | 1209 |
| 2015 | 1164 |
| 2014 | 1364 |
The UPSC CSE exam is held in three stages – prelims, mains and the personality test. UPSC CSE preliminary exam would be consisting of objective-type questions and is set to be held on May 26. Candidates scoring above the cut-off marks would become eligible to register for the UPSC IAS Main examination. The UPSC CSE Main would be descriptive and be conducted from September 20 for five days. After the CSE Mains examination, an interview would be held for selecting candidates for various services and posts.
Every eligible candidate can take as many as six attempts to clear the UPSC exam. However, candidates belonging to the OBC and PwBD categories would get nine attempts. There also exists relaxation in the number of attempts for the candidates belonging to SC and ST categories.
