3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 24, 2026 07:34 PM IST
About 5.49 lakh candidates appeared for the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026 across the country on Sunday, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said.
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The UPSC said the examination was held at 2,072 venues across 83 cities, with 67% of the 8.19 lakh candidates who had signed up for the exam appearing for it on Sunday. The number of candidates who had signed up for the exam as well as those who appeared was lower this year compared to last year’s 9.5 lakh applicants and 5.8 lakh exam-takers.
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“This year, the Commission introduced real-time face authentication of candidates at examination venues, for the first time, to prevent impersonation and strengthen the integrity of the examination process,” a UPSC statement said.
It added that the system developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s National e-Governance Division had a 100% success rate at all exam venues.
Dr. Ajay Kumar said: “I am extremely happy with the efforts of the entire team of UPSC along with NeGD and NIC [National Informatics Centre] who worked tirelessly towards the implementation this examination. Moreover, the implementation of the face authentication protocol was perhaps one of the most complex operational exercises, and its smooth execution is a matter of great satisfaction.”
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Delhi had the highest number of candidates, with 70,885 candidates at 144 venues, followed by Hyderabad with 44,209 candidates at 100 venues and Patna with 39,147 candidates across 79 venues. Kargil in Ladakh had the lowest number of candidates at 98 candidates at one venue.
“Deployment of trained invigilatory staff and security personnel was also ensured at all centres for the orderly conduct of the examination. Mobile signal jammers were also deployed at all examination venues to ensure the fair and secure conduct of the examination,” the UPSC statement said.
This year, the UPSC would be releasing the provisional answer key soon after the exam for the first time.
“The Commission will initially publish a provisional answer key and invite representations, if any, from candidates until 6:00 PM on the seventh day from the date of the examination, i.e till May 31st 2026…The final answer key, however, will be released only after the declaration of the final result of the Civil Services Examination-2026, in accordance with the Commission’s existing practice,” it said.