UPSC to release provisional answer key after civil services prelims: Centre in Rajya Sabha

The Union Public Service Commission has formulated guidelines to release the provisional answer key on its website after conducting the civil services preliminary examination, the Centre said in the Rajya Sabha.The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the civil services examination annually in three stages – preliminary, main and interview – to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.In compliance with a Supreme Court judgement, the UPSC has formulated guidelines to release the provisional answer key on its official website after conducting the preliminary examination, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.The process, which will be implemented from the 2026 civil services (preliminary) examination onwards, will apply to all structured examinations conducted by the UPSC, Singh said.“Marks of the preliminary examination shall be released only after the declaration of final results,” the minister said.To ensure a level playing field across optional subjects, the UPSC applies inter-subject moderation to ensure that no candidate, regardless of the optional subject chosen, is placed at any disadvantage, he said.Detailed information on the processes involved in the moderation/evaluation of conventional/descriptive answer scripts can be accessed on the UPSC website, Singh said.The minister was responding to a question seeking details of the steps taken to standardise difficulty levels across optional subjects and in the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) paper.“CSAT is a qualifying paper whose purpose is to ensure a minimum standard of quality and analytical competence. The level of questions corresponds to the matriculation level,” he said.For challenging factual errors, the UPSC has a dedicated platform named ‘question paper representation portal’ (QPRep), which is accessible on its website, Singh said.The candidates can submit representations flagging discrepancies in the question paper and in the provisional answer keys, from 2026 onwards, through the portal, he said.The UPSC also deals with grievances submitted by candidates on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and through emails, the minister said.The CPGRAMS allows citizens to raise grievances against government departments online. PTI