NEW DELHI: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday released the provisional answer key for the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026.
It is for the first time that the provisional answer key has been released by the Commission after the completion of the preliminary exam.
Candidates can submit their representations, if any, until 6 pm on May 31 through the dedicated online portal, "Online Question Paper Representation Portal (QPRep)", available at upsconline.nic.in, the UPSC said in a statement.
Representations are required to be submitted by indicating the correct answer key according to the candidate's understanding along with a brief explanation and supporting documents from three authentic sources, it said.
"The release of the provisional answer key reflects UPSC's commitment to greater transparency, fairness and integrity in the examination process while providing candidates an opportunity for informed and constructive participation," the statement said.
The civil services examination is conducted annually by the Commission in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview -- to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.
This year's preliminary exam was held on May 24 in two mandatory sessions, commencing with General Studies (Paper-I) from 9.30 am to 11.30 am in the forenoon session, followed by the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) [Paper-II] from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm in the afternoon session, in strict compliance with the prescribed institutional guidelines and examination protocols, it said.
This year, nearly 5.49 lakh candidates appeared in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination for the vacancies of 933 posts in civil services and 80 posts in the Indian Forest Service (IFoS).
The UPSC said that all representations received from candidates will be placed before teams of subject experts for a comprehensive and meticulous review.
These experts, possessing domain knowledge and subject expertise, will carefully examine each representation, assess the supporting documents and record their considered views regarding the correctness of the answer key for the concerned questions, it said.
The final answer key, however, will be released only after the declaration of the final result, in accordance with the Commission's existing practice, the statement said.
The question papers for the examinations conducted by the UPSC are prepared by the subject matter experts drawn from across the country.
These experts design papers in accordance with the objectives and requirements of the examination process, ensuring a fair and level playing field for candidates from diverse academic, social and regional backgrounds, the Commission said.
For the recently conducted preliminary exam, the questions are based on authentic and credible sources, their references and answers, may be traced to standard textbooks, journals, government websites, government press releases and reputed newspapers etc, it said.