UPSC CSAT paper, also called General Studies Paper 2 is conducted by UPSC as part of the civil services prelims exam. Understanding the UPSC CSAT pattern helps you understand the scheme of the exam i.e. which subjects are tested, what is the total number of questions, what is the marking scheme, how many marks you need to score to qualify the CSAT paper, what is the duration and more.
Here’s a breakdown of the latest pattern of the UPSC CSAT exam.
UPSC CSAT Pattern: Subjects and Syllabus
The official notification of the UPSC Civil Services exam specifies the syllabus of the CSAT paper as follows:
- Comprehension
- Interpersonal skills, including communication skills
- Logical reasoning and analytical ability
- Decision-making and problem-solving
- General mental ability
- Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc. (Class X level)
- Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. (Class X level)
For your easy understanding, the above syllabus can be divided into 5 subjects:
- Maths
- Reasoning
- English
- Decision Making and Problem Solving
- Communication Skills
No question has been asked from Decision Making and Communication Skills, since 2014.
So the 3 subjects that you need to prepare are Maths, Reasoning and English.
| UPSC CSAT Syllabus 2026 | |
| Subject | Syllabus as per UPSC notification |
| Maths | General mental ability, Basic numeracy (numbers and their relations, orders of magnitude, etc. (Class X level), Data interpretation (charts, graphs, tables, data sufficiency, etc. (Class X level) |
| Reasoning | Logical reasoning and analytical ability |
| English | Comprehension |
- Syllabus
- Important Topics
- Trend Analysis
- Strategy
Number of Questions in UPSC CSAT
There are a total of 80 objective questions, and each question is worth 2.5 marks.
Total Marks of UPSC CSAT Paper
The total marks for the CSAT General Studies Paper 2 are 200.
Qualifying Marks for UPSC CSAT
Candidates must score a minimum of 33% marks out of 200 to qualify this paper, which comes up to 66 marks.
Negative Marking in UPSC CSAT
One-third of the marks allotted to each question, i.e. 0.83 marks, are deducted for each incorrect answer.
No marks are deducted if a candidate leaves a question blank on the OMR sheet.
Mode of UPSC CSAT Paper
- The CSAT is conducted in pen & paper mode.
- It consists of objective-type multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
- Candidates are provided with a question paper booklet and an OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheet.
Language of UPSC CSAT Paper
CSAT is available in both English and Hindi languages.
Duration of UPSC CSAT Paper
Candidates have a total of 120 minutes (2 hours) to complete the CSAT paper.
Sectional Timing in UPSC CSAT Paper
There is no sectional timing in the CSAT paper.
- Syllabus
- Important Topics
- Trend Analysis
- Strategy
We have summarized the above information in the table below.
| UPSC CSAT Pattern 2026 | |
| Mode | Offline (Objective) |
| Nature | Qualifying |
| Paper Language | English and Hindi |
| Questions | 80 |
| Total Marks | 200 |
| Per Question Marks | 2.5 |
| Negative Marking | 1/3rd, i.e. 0.83 marks |
| Qualifying Marks | 33%, i.e. 66 marks |
| Duration | 2 Hours |
| Sectional Timing | No |
- Syllabus
- Important Topics
- Trend Analysis
- Strategy
Conclusion
We have explained the UPSC CSAT 2026 exam pattern in detail. We hope that by understanding the subjects, marking scheme, duration, etc., you can better strategize your preparation. If you still have some questions, do check out our FAQs section.
