UPSC IES/ISS (Economic / Statistical Service) Exam Pattern 2026
The full UPSC IES/ISS (Economic / Statistical Service) exam pattern for 2026 — 4 stages, with the sections, question count, marks, duration and negative marking for each, as set by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Then take a free UPSC IES/ISS (Economic / Statistical Service) mock in the real pattern below.
Common Papers — General English and General Studies (both IES and ISS)
- Mode
- Offline, pen-and-paper, subjective/conventional answer scripts
- Sections
- Paper I — General English (essay, précis, comprehension, paraphrasing, error correction) · Paper II — General Studies (Polity, Modern India, current affairs, economic and social development, geography, science & tech)
- Questions
- Mix of essay, précis, short-answer and long-answer questions — exact count varies by paper. General English typically has 1 essay (1000 words) + 1 précis + 1 comprehension + grammar/usage tasks; GS has multiple analytical short and long answers.
- Marks
- 100 marks each — total 200 marks across both common papers
- Duration
- 3 hours per paper
- Negative marking
- Not applicable (subjective) — but evaluators expect clean, structured prose; verbose or off-topic answers are penalised through marking discretion.
Both papers are conducted on Day 1 of the written exam. These two papers alone do not determine selection but are mandatory qualifying-cum-merit components — poor performance here is rarely compensated by strong specialisation scores.
IES Specialisation — four papers (General Economics I, II, III and Indian Economics)
- Mode
- Offline, pen-and-paper, fully subjective/conventional
- Sections
- Paper III — General Economics-I (Microeconomics, welfare, game theory, asymmetric information) · Paper IV — General Economics-II (Macroeconomics, money & banking, public finance) · Paper V — General Economics-III (International economics, growth and development) · Paper VI — Indian Economics (Indian fiscal system, monetary policy, banking, agriculture, industry, services, external sector, social sector)
- Questions
- Each paper typically has 8 questions in 2 sections of 4 questions each — candidates attempt 5 questions (1 compulsory + 4 from choice), with each question carrying 30-50 marks split into sub-parts.
- Marks
- 200 marks per paper — total 800 marks across the four IES specialisation papers
- Duration
- 3 hours per paper
- Negative marking
- Not applicable (subjective) — marks are awarded for correctness, depth, diagrammatic explanation and economic reasoning. Numerical answers without supporting derivation lose marks even if the final figure is correct.
Conducted across Days 2 and 3 of the written exam. The combined IES written total = 200 (common) + 800 (specialisation) = 1000 marks. Diagram-heavy papers — practise neat, labelled diagrams (IS-LM, AS-AD, indifference maps, Edgeworth box, Solow growth diagram).
ISS Specialisation — four papers (Statistics I, II, III and IV)
- Mode
- Offline, pen-and-paper. Papers I and II are OBJECTIVE (MCQ); Papers III and IV are DESCRIPTIVE/conventional.
- Sections
- Paper III — Statistics-I (Probability + distribution theory) — OBJECTIVE · Paper IV — Statistics-II (Statistical Inference + Linear Models + Sampling) — OBJECTIVE · Paper V — Statistics-III (Sampling Techniques, Econometrics, Applied Statistics) — DESCRIPTIVE · Paper VI — Statistics-IV (Indian Official Statistics, Demography, Survey Sampling Theory, Operations Research basics) — DESCRIPTIVE
- Questions
- Statistics-I: 80 objective questions in 2 hours. Statistics-II: 80 objective questions in 2 hours. Statistics-III and IV: 5-8 conventional questions each in 3 hours, with internal choice.
- Marks
- 200 marks per paper — total 800 marks across the four ISS specialisation papers
- Duration
- 2 hours for objective Papers I and II; 3 hours each for descriptive Papers III and IV
- Negative marking
- Statistics-I and II (objective): 1/3 mark negative per wrong answer as per UPSC standard objective marking. Descriptive papers: no negative marking but loose derivations are penalised.
ISS is the only stream within IES/ISS where objective speed matters — Papers I and II together carry 400 marks of pure objective Statistics testing. Combined ISS written total = 200 (common) + 800 (specialisation) = 1000 marks.
Personality Test (Viva Voce)
- Mode
- In-person panel interview at UPSC Dholpur House, New Delhi
- Sections
- Panel chaired by a UPSC Member with subject-matter experts (economists for IES candidates, statisticians for ISS candidates) plus a generalist member. Discussion ranges across the candidate's academic background, optional subject depth, current economic/statistical affairs, motivation for the service, and ethical/judgement scenarios.
- Questions
- Discussion-based — no fixed question count
- Marks
- 200 marks
- Duration
- 30-40 minutes typically per candidate
- Negative marking
- Not applicable
Final merit = Written (1000) + Viva (200) = 1200. Only candidates who clear a UPSC-determined cut-off in the written exam are called for the Personality Test. Viva is held at Dholpur House in October-November.
You know the pattern — now practise in it.
Practice UPSC IES/ISS (Economic / Statistical Service) free →