UPSC Admit Card and Exam-day Rules

UPSC does not post admit cards. You download an e-Admit Card from upsconline.nic.in, print it and take it to the exam. Without it you will not be let in, and on exam day the gates close 30 minutes before the paper begins.

Everything on this page comes from UPSC's own documents, mainly the CSE 2026 notice, its Appendix IV (special instructions for the objective papers) and UPSC's press note for the 2026 prelims. Read the "Important Instructions" printed with your own e-Admit Card as well; the press note asks every candidate to.

Getting your e-Admit Card

• When. The notice says UPSC issues it on the last working day of the week before the exam. If you asked to change your scribe up to seven days before the exam, you get it three days before the exam.
• Where. Only on upsconline.nic.in. No admit card is sent by post or email. For the 2026 prelims, UPSC also said no paper admit card would be issued and asked candidates to keep the e-Admit Card until the final result.
• Check it at once. Look at your name, photograph and QR code, and report any mistake to UPSC immediately. The notice warns that names are sometimes shortened for technical reasons.
• If it does not come. Contact UPSC straight away, through the Facilitation Counter at its office or the helpdesk on 011-24041001. If you have not told UPSC at least three days before the exam, the notice makes non-receipt your own responsibility.
• Downloaded twice? Use only one copy.

An e-Admit Card does not mean UPSC has accepted your eligibility. The notice says your candidature stays provisional, and your original documents are checked only after you qualify for the interview.

What to carry

UPSC's press note for the 2026 prelims allowed candidates to take only the e-Admit Card, a pen, a pencil, identity proof, copies of their photographs where needed, and anything else named in the e-Admit Card's instructions. In practice:

• The printout of your e-Admit Card, for every session.
• The photo ID card whose number is on the e-Admit Card. The notice lists the IDs you can register: Aadhaar, voter card, PAN card, passport, driving licence or another photo ID issued by a State or the Central Government.
• A black ball point pen. The OMR answer sheet and the attendance list must be filled in with it.
• A clip board or hard board with nothing written on it, which Appendix IV permits. The answer sheet and a sheet for rough work are handed out in the hall.
• If the photograph on your e-Admit Card is unclear: a photo identity card and two passport-size photographs, one for each session, and you give an undertaking.
• If you changed your name after matriculation: your e-Admit Card with a Government-issued photo ID and/or the original Gazette notification of the new name, for each session.

A normal, simple wrist watch is allowed. Smart watches and watches with any accessory that could be used for communication are not.

What you cannot bring

• Any communication device, even switched off: mobile phones, pagers, smart watches, Bluetooth devices, cameras, pen drives and other storage media, or any electronic or programmable device. The notice says breaking this rule can mean a ban from future exams.
• Study material and instruments: books, notes, loose sheets, mathematical and drawing instruments, log tables, map stencils, slide rules, and test booklets or rough sheets from earlier sessions.
• Calculators in the prelims. None of any kind in the objective papers. In the mains, which are essay-type, scientific non-programmable calculators are allowed; programmable ones count as unfair means, and you may not lend or swap calculators in the hall.
• Bags and valuables. There is no safe-keeping at the venue and UPSC is not responsible for losses.

Reaching the venue

The notice asks you to reach the venue at least 30 minutes before each session and allows no late entry. For the 2026 prelims, UPSC's press note gave the exact times: entry closed at 9:00 am for the morning session and 2:00 pm for the afternoon session, and it advised arriving an hour and a half before the session. Every candidate goes through face authentication, identity verification and frisking, which is why the early arrival matters.

You may sit the exam only at the venue on your e-Admit Card; the exam centres guide explains how centres are allotted. In the 2026 mains, papers ran from 9:00 am to 12 noon and from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

Inside the hall: the OMR sheet

Appendix IV of the notice explains how to fill in the prelims answer sheet:

• Write your centre and subject (in English or Hindi), test booklet series, subject code and roll number at the top with a black ball pen, and blacken the matching circles.
• Check your test booklet as soon as the exam starts. If pages or questions are missing, torn or unprinted, ask for a complete booklet of the same series.
• Do not write your name anywhere on the answer sheet, test booklet or rough sheet, and do not fold the answer sheet or write on its back.
• Blacken one circle per question, fully. Two answers count as a wrong answer, and each wrong answer costs one-third of that question's marks. See negative marking.
• Fill in your part of the attendance list with the black ball pen and sign it.

Conduct and penalties

Rule 19 of the exam rules, printed in the notice, lists what UPSC treats as misconduct. It includes impersonation, using or carrying unfair means or a mobile phone, misbehaving in the hall and breaking the instructions issued with the e-Admit Card. The penalties range from disqualification to a ban from UPSC exams, permanently or for a period, and a ban from Central Government jobs, besides criminal prosecution. A candidate gets a chance to make a written representation first.

The 2026 press note added that carrying a phone or incriminating material, including notes on the e-Admit Card, can lead to cancellation of candidature, a police complaint and a bar from the remaining sessions.

Scribes and compensatory time

• Who gets a scribe. Candidates with blindness, locomotor disability with both arms affected, or cerebral palsy, if they want one. Other candidates with benchmark disabilities need a medical certificate, in the notice's Appendix V format, that they have a physical limitation in writing and need a scribe. Candidates with less than 40% disability who have difficulty in writing need a certificate in the Appendix VII format.
• Whose scribe. You can bring your own or ask UPSC for one, and you give the details in the application. A scribe must have passed matriculation but must not be more qualified than the exam's minimum qualification.
• Extra time. Twenty minutes for every hour of the paper, for the same candidates on the same conditions.
• Changing your scribe. Allowed up to seven days before the exam, through upsconline.nic.in.

Breaking UPSC's instructions on scribes can get the candidature cancelled.

After the paper

UPSC takes objections to questions and to the prelims answer key only through its online Question Paper Representation Portal (QPRep), for five days. For the 2026 mains, the portal was open from 31 August to 4 September 2026. Nothing sent by email, post or hand is accepted.

Neither the CSE 2026 notice nor UPSC's press note for the 2026 prelims prescribes a dress code. Apart from the rule on watches, they govern what you carry, not what you wear.