Overview
- The Union Public Service Commission conducted the Civil Services Preliminary Examination on May 24 in two offline OMR shifts—General Studies Paper I in the morning and CSAT in the afternoon—with about 5.49 lakh candidates appearing at 2,072 venues.
- Centres enforced tight entry rules and security measures including CCTV, mobile jammers and the National e‑Governance Division’s real‑time face‑authentication system that UPSC said worked successfully across venues.
- UPSC added three new centres in Bhubaneswar, Kanpur and Meerut that took nearly 23,000 candidates and introduced a dropdown for centre preference to improve access for PwBD candidates.
- Candidates and coaching analysts widely described GS Paper I as lengthier, more unpredictable and tougher than recent years, prompting many to predict downward pressure on preliminary cutoffs.
- The Commission will publish a provisional answer key soon and accept representations until May 31 with final keys and results to follow in the normal 30–40 day cycle so candidates can challenge responses quickly.