How UPSC decides number of candidates for Interview and Cut-Off Marks ?

You know that Civil Services Exam conducted by Union Public Service Commision includes three stages- Preliminary, Mains and Interview. Candidates who qualify Preliminary exam are called for the Main exam. on the basis of marks obtained by them in main exam they are called for the final stage i.e Interview or Personality Test.

But How many candidates are generally called for the Interview ? How does UPSC decide the number of candidates and minimum required marks for Interview ?

How does UPSC decide the number of candidates for IAS Interview ?

Total number of candidates called for Interview are 3 x total number of vacancies.

That means candidates three times the number of total vacancies for that year are called for Interview. The ratio is generally 1:3 of the number of candidates to be selected to the Number of candidates. This number can vary.

let's suppose there are 1100 vacancies including all services. So around 3500 candidates may be called for the Interview.

Minimum marks or Cut off marks for Interview

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) decides Cut Off marks based on several factors like total number of vacancies, total number of candidates in each stage, level of difficulty, reservation norms based on various categories, marking allotment scheme and last year cut off trends. Cut off marks is the lowest mark that is obtained by a candidate to appear in the final round i.e Interview of the Civil Services Examination.

In the Civil Services Mains exam 2018 the cut off marks for general category was 774 out of 1750.

for the year 2017 it was 809, 787 for 2016, 676 for the year 2015 and 678 for 2014.

Cut off marks are not same for different categories of candidates.

for example - In the Civil Services Mains exam 2016 the cut off marks for general category candidate was 787, for OBC 745, for SC, 739 for ST 730, for physically handicapped 1 - 713, physically handicapped 2 - 740, physically handicapped 3- 545.

Interview is of 275 marks.The final merit list is prepared on the basis of marks obtained by candidates in the main exam and interview.