UPSC is releasing provisional answer key for Civil Services Prelims exam for the first time

Candidates coming out from the examination center after appearing for the UPSC-2026 Civil Services Preliminary Examination on 24th May 2026. | Photo credit: V. Raju

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has released the Preliminary Answer Key for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026 for the first time.

Candidates who have appeared for the examinations can submit their representations, if any, till 6:00 pm on May 31 through the dedicated online portal ‘Online Question Paper Representation Portal (QPRep)’ at upsconline.nic.in., UPSC said.

However, the final answer key will be published only after the declaration of the final result as per the Commission’s existing practice, the Commission said.

Out of 8.19 lakh candidates who applied, about 5.49 lakh candidates appeared for the exam held on May 24. The exam was held for 933 posts in the civil services and 80 posts in the Indian Forest Service. The exam was held at 2,072 venues in 83 cities and to prevent impersonation, the Commission introduced real-time face verification of candidates for the first time. The civil services exam is conducted in three stages – preliminary, main and personality test – for a period of 10-11 months.

The statement must be submitted by indicating the correct answer key in the candidate’s understanding along with a brief explanation and supporting documents from three authentic sources, the Commission said.

“All submissions received from candidates will be submitted to subject expert teams for a comprehensive and careful review. These experts, having domain knowledge and subject expertise, will carefully scrutinize each submission, assess the supporting documents and record their considered views on the correctness of the answer key to the relevant questions,” UPSC said.

Question papers for exams conducted by UPSC are prepared by subject matter experts from all over the country. These experts design documents in accordance with the objectives and requirements of the examination process and ensure fair and equal conditions for candidates from different academic, social and regional backgrounds. For the recently conducted civil services (preliminary) exam, the questions were based on authentic and reliable sources and their references and answers can be traced in standard textbooks, magazines, government websites and press releases, reputed newspapers, etc.

After initially opposing the move, the UPSC informed the Supreme Court on 20 September 2025 that it would release the interim answer key after a preliminary review “in view of the pious role assigned to the UPSC as a constitutional body”. The commission has previously said that publishing the key would delay the results. The submission was made before a bench of PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar, which was hearing a number of petitions challenging the “opaque” policy.

Published – 27 May 2026 22:39 IST