Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), as reported earlier, has released the notification for the 2019 Civil Services examination and Indian Forest Service examination today, February 19th, 2019 at its official website, upsc.gov.in. All interested candidates can visit the website to access the notification. The application process for the both the exams can be processed at upsconline.nic.in.

After seeing a dip in the number of vacancies for the past 5 years, the Civil Services exam (CSE) saw an increase of more than 100 seats compared to 2018. The total number of vacancies for CSE 2019 will be 896. The IFS 2019 has an approximate vacancy of 90 positions. The last day to apply for these positions is 6.00 pm of March 18, 2019.

UPSC 2019 CES and IFS Important Dates

2019 CES/IFS Important Dates

Activity Date
CES and IFS Application Start Date February 19th, 2019
CES and IFS Application End Date March 18th, 2019
CES and IFS Preliminary Exam Date June 2nd, 2019
CES Main Exam September 20th, 2019
IFS Main Exam December 1st, 2019

Civil Services is a prestigious examination and the 2019 drive is being conducted to fill Group A and Group B vacancies in 25 central government departments. The preliminary exam will be conducted at 72 cities throughout India and the Main exam at 24 cities. Most centres have a ceiling in the number of seats available and will be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis. So there is an incentive for candidates to apply sooner rather than later.

Candidates must be between the ages of 21 and 32 years with relaxation as per the norms for candidates from the reserved categories. To be eligible for CES, the candidate must be a graduate or should have at least appeared for the final year exam.

For IFS, candidate must be a graduate in any one of the following: Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics and Zoology or a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Forestry or in Engineering

How to apply for CES and IFS 2019:

  1. Log on to the official UPSC recruitment website.
  2. Click on the link that says “Online application for various examinations of UPSC”. You will be directed to a new page.
  3. Click on the link for the Part-I Registration against the relevant advertisement.
  4. Read the terms and conditions carefully and click on Yes. You will be directed to the registration form and can begin the UPSC application process.
  5. Once the part 1 is done, part 2 phase of the application process should be completed to fulfill the application process.

The direct link for the notification of the UPSC CSE and IFS 2019 can be accessed at the UPSC’s official website under ‘What’s New’ section. Alternatively, candidates can click on the direct links to access the notification for 2019 Civil Services and IFS.

The UPSC Civil Services is quite a coveted exam and lakhs of candidates participate in it for various positions in the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and the Indian Police Service, among others. The candidates must go through three stages of recruitment - preliminary exam, main exam and an interview before being selected.