UPSC ESE 2025 Exam - Exam Date (Feb 9), Registration, Pattern, Syllabus, Sample Papers, Cutoff, Previous Year Papers

The UPSC ESE 2025 prelims exam has been scheduled to be conducted on February 9, 2025. The Engineering Services (Main) Examination, 2025, will be conducted onJune 22, 2025. The Union Public Service Commission re-opened the application window for the exam since the Government's decision to include IRMS in ESE. The new UPSC ESE application form 2025 was made available from October 18 to November 22, 2024. The application form correction window for Prelims was opened on November 23 and closed on November 29, 2024. Paper 1 is the General Studies & Engineering Aptitude paper that will be conducted from 09:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. for 200 marks. Paper 2 will be conducted for a duration of 3 years for Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics & Telecom. Engg. from 2:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. for 300 marks. Objective-type questions will be asked in both papers.

The UPSC ESE 2025 exam is being conducted to fill up 232 posts in the organization including 12 vacancies for the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD), 7 vacancies for Locomotor Disability including Leprosy cured, Dwarfism, Acid Attack victims and Muscular Dystrophy and 5 vacancies for Hard of Hearing. Candidates aspiring to apply should have attained the age of 21 years and should not be older than 30 years as on 1st January 2025, i.e., he/she must have been born not earlier than 2nd January 1995 and not later than 1st January 2004. The UPSC ESE 2025 application fee is ₹200/- for all candidates that can be paid either by remitting the money in any Branch of the State Bank of India or by using Visa/Master/RuPay Credit/Debit Card/UPI Payment or by using Internet Banking of any Bank. Female/SC/ST/PwBD candidates are not required to pay any application fee.

The UPSC Engineering Services Exam (ESE), or IES (Indian Engineering Services), is a prestigious national-level exam for engineering graduates. Successful candidates become Class-1 Officers in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering under the Government of India. These officers play crucial roles in sectors like Indian Railways, Central Water Engineering, Telecommunications, Defence Service of Engineers, and Central Engineering Service. The UPSC ESE 2025 selection process includes three stages: Preliminary/Stage‐I Examination, Mains Examination, and Interview. Prelims shortlist candidates for the Mains, which tests specialization-related knowledge through descriptive papers. Finally, those clearing the Mains proceed to the Interview, the last stage of assessment. Find below the detailed information about the UPSC ESE 2025 on this page.

Check out all the important dates related to the UPSC ESE 2025 exam provided in the table below.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) organises the Engineering Sevices Examination (ESE) every year to induct engineers to work in different sectors under the Government of India. The examination is mainly for the technical and managerial functions. IES officers are selected by the Union Government on the recommendations made by UPSC. This all India Level exam is considered to be more tough than other Engineering Service examinations conducted by SSC, PSU's, state engineering services,etc.

UPSC ESE/IES 2025 Exam date and timing have been mentioned below:

UPSC ESE Prelims Exam Timings

UPSC ESE Mains Exam Timings

The aspirants who are interested to fill up the UPSC ESE 2025 application form can follow the steps mentioned below. The application form for the UPSC ESE 2025 exam is divided into two parts: Part I, i.e. the registration process and Part II which involves application details filling process. The steps to apply for the UPSC Engineering Services Exam are provided below.

Step 1: Go to the official website of the Union Public Services Commission at upsc.gov.in.

Step 2: Click on the active examination widget provided in the navigation tab.

Step 3: Select the UPSC ESE/ IES 2025 exam to proceed.

Step 4: Click on the "Part 1 Registration" to initiate the UPSC ESE 2025 Application Process.

Step 5: Fill all the required details such as Name, DOB, Email ID, Aadhar Card Number, etc. to complete part 1 registration.

Step 6: You will recieve the registration details on your email ID. These details will be used to complete the UPSC ESE 2025 Application process.

Step 7: Now click on "Part 2 Registration" to complete the application process.

Step 8: Log in using the registration number and password received on your mail ID.

Step 9: In the part 2 registration, candidates need to fill in their personal and educational details in the application form.

Step 10: Next, the candidates need to upload a recent photograph and scanned copy of the signature

Step 11: Choose the examination center in the next step.

Step 12: Please check the details once again before submitting the form as no correction is allowed once the application is submitted.

Step 13: Proceed with the application fee payment process and pay your application fees online using any of the options provided.

Step 14: On successful fee payment, download your registration form and save it for future use.

Here is a list of the exam centres for UPSC ESE 2025 exam. It is important for the candidates to know that the centres are liable to be changed at the discretion of the Commission.

Centres of Engineering Services (Preliminary) Examination 2025

Centres for Engineering Services (Mains) Examination 2025

UPSC released the ESE Answer Key, which is the only authentic source to know the answers of the questions asked in the UPSC ESE exam. The answer key is available on the official website of UPSC at upsc.gov.in. The candidates can download the UPSC ESE 2025 answer key to know the correct answers to the questions asked in the UPSC ESE 2025 examination. The answer key help the candidates to asses the number of questions they have answered correctly and incorrectly and hence, calculate their marks accordingly with respect to the marking scheme.  

Steps to download UPSC ESE answer key 2025

Step 1: Visit the official website of UPSC at upsc.gov.in

Step 2: Select the examination section on the web page of UPSC.

Step 3: Click on the Answer key option available in the examination drop down list.

Step 4: Select UPSC ESE answer key option.

Step 5: The screen will then display the answer key for all sets in the form of PDF.

Step 6: Download the UPSC ESE answer key PDF.

Check out the below-mentioned steps to know how to download the UPSC ESE result for the session 2025-26. 

• Visit UPSC's official website, upsc.gov.in, for more information.
• Now, select ‘examination' > ‘Active Examination' from the drop-down menu.
• Then, from the drop-down option, choose “Engineering Services Mains Examination, 2025.”
• All of the crucial updates, including the result, will be displayed on the following screen.
• Check the ESE result by clicking on the Written Test result link.

UPSC has a schedule for releasing the cutoff for every exam it conducts. It usually declares the Cutoff after the declaration of the final results for the exam it conducts. Consequently, UPSC ESE 2025 cutoff will also be released after the completion of ESE exam process. However, UPSC mentions the specific qualifying marks to be scored in the ESE paper to clear the exam. Since a large number of candidates exceeds the minimum qualifying marks as stated by the UPSC, mere securing those qualifying marks does not guarantee your selection. Candidates with the highest scores are shortlisted for the next phase of the ESE Exam.

UPSC ESE cut off marks is the score of the last applicant selected in each category. In the section given below, we have provided the estimated UPSC ESE cutoff 2025.

Mentioned below is the expected cut off list of UPSC ESE 2025:

Note: The expected cut-off is based on this year's prediction and has been taken from various sources. 

Basically, a candidate has to undergo three stages of the UPSC ESE selection process to get selected. The three stages are:

1. Preliminary Examination
2. Mains Examination
3. Personality Test

Stage 1: UPSC ESE Prelims Examination

In order to get selected, you will need to clear both the Preliminary and the Mains Examination. The ESE Prelims is divided into two sections:

1. General Ability
2. Engineering Branch 

Stage 2: UPSC ESE Mains Examination

Those who have cleared the prelims, need to appear for the IES Mains exam as per the scheduled date. The Mains examination consists of two papers of 300 marks each. 

Stage 3: UPSC ESE Personality Test

If you have cleared both prelims and mains, you are now eligible to participate in the Personal Interview round. Those who clear this round will be qualified for the recruitment process.

The table given below consists of the direct links to download the previous year question papers of UPSC ESE 2024 exam. 

UPSC Engineering Services Prelims Examination, 2024

UPSC Engineering Services Main Examination, 2024

The table given below consists of the direct links to download the previous year question papers of UPSC ESE 2023 exam. 

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2022 Main Question Papers here! 

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2022 Prelims Question Papers here! 

Download UPSC Engineering Services (Main) Examination 2021 question papers here!

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2019 Main Question Papers here! 

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2019 Prelims Question Papers here! 

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2018 Main Question Papers here! 

Download UPSC Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2018 Prelims Question Papers here! 

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