UPSC 2026 Prelims LIVE: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) will be conducting the Civil Services Preliminary Examination (CSE Prelims) on Sunday, May 24, 2026 throughout the country. This year as many as 8,19,372 applicants have registered for UPSC CSE 2026 for around 933 vacancies.
The UPSC CSE preliminary test will be held in two shifts using an offline OMR-based format. The Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) Paper II will take place in the afternoon after General Studies Paper I in the morning. In addition to a current photo ID, candidates must bring a printed copy of their e-admit card to their respective exam centre.
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UPSC had already issued the CSE prelims hall ticket for the exam on their official website at upsc.gov.in. Candidates can visit the link to download their admit card using their registration ID or roll number, if not already done so. The admit card contains crucial information such as students details, exam centre address, reporting time, prohibited items and documents to carry on the day of the exam. Students are advised to go through these details carefully.
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This year UPSC has added three new centres at Kanpur, Meerut and Bhubaneshwar, thus relieving pressure from existing centres that handled candidates in larger numbers. The total number of examination centres for CES Prelims has now increased from 80 to 83. According to the Commisison, nearly 23,000 candidates have opted to take the exam from the newly added centres.
This year for the first time UPSC will announce the exam answer key soon after Prelims. Previously, the answer key used to take months to be published as it was released following the final results. According to the Commission, the new system is meant to boost the examination process’s transparency and permit applicants to evaluate their performance sooner.
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The preliminary exam is the initial step in the hiring process for services like the IAS, IPS, IFS, and other Group A and Group B central services. The result for this exam is usually declared within 30 to 40 days of the examination.
