UPSC Age Limit and Number of Attempts, Category-wise

The UPSC civils age limit is a minimum of 21 and an upper limit of 32: for the Civil Services Examination you must be at least 21 and must not have reached 32 on 1 August of the exam year. The upper limit rises by up to five years for SC and ST candidates, three for OBC candidates and ten for persons with benchmark disability (PwBD). General and EWS candidates get six attempts, OBC candidates nine, and SC and ST candidates have no limit as long as they are within the age limit.

These are the rules in the CSE 2026 notice, the latest UPSC has published. The table shows them by category; the sections after it explain each relaxation in the notice's terms and what counts as an attempt.

How the age limit works

Age is counted on 1 August of the exam year, not on the day you apply or sit the exam. If your 32nd birthday falls on or before 1 August, you are over the General limit for that year's exam.

Each limit in the table is 32 plus your category's relaxation: under 35 for OBC (32 + 3) and under 37 for SC and ST (32 + 5). PwBD adds ten more, so a General PwBD candidate must be under 42 (32 + 10).

UPSC goes by the date of birth in your Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate, a certificate an Indian university recognises as equivalent, an extract from a university's Register of Matriculates, or your Higher Secondary or an equivalent certificate. It does not accept horoscopes, affidavits, municipal birth extracts or service records, and once you have submitted a date of birth it cannot be changed.

Age relaxations, as the notice states them

Who	Upper age limit raised by
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes	Up to 5 years
Other Backward Classes who are eligible for OBC reservation	Up to 3 years
Defence services personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with a foreign country or in a disturbed area, and released as a consequence	Up to 3 years
Ex-servicemen, including Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs, with at least five years of military service on 1 August of the exam year, released on completion of assignment, on account of a physical disability attributable to military service, or on invalidment	Up to 5 years
ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial five years of military service, whose assignment has been extended, and who hold a Ministry of Defence certificate that they can apply and will be released on three months' notice if selected	Up to 5 years
Persons with benchmark disability: blindness and low vision; deaf and hard of hearing; locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy; autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness; multiple disabilities, including deaf-blindness	Up to 10 years

Three notes from the notice change how these work in practice:

• Some relaxations add up. SC, ST and OBC candidates who are also ex-servicemen or PwBD get both relaxations together. An OBC candidate who is also PwBD, for example, must be under 45 (32 + 3 + 10).
• "Released on completion of assignment" includes ex-servicemen whose assignment is due to end within one year from 1 August of the exam year, other than by dismissal or discharge for misconduct or inefficiency.
• Nothing else relaxes the limit. The notice says the age limits can in no case be relaxed beyond these provisions. It lists no relaxation for EWS candidates, so their limit is the same as General's.

A PwBD candidate who uses the relaxation is still eligible for appointment only after meeting the physical and medical standards for the services allocated, as described in the eligibility guide.

Number of attempts

Every eligible candidate gets six attempts. The notice relaxes this for some categories:

• SC and ST: unlimited, within the age limit.
• OBC: nine.
• PwBD: nine for General, EWS and OBC candidates; unlimited for SC and ST candidates.

The notice adds that the attempts available to a candidate are restricted in terms of Rule 12 of the exam rules.

What counts as an attempt

• Appearing, not applying. You have made an attempt if you actually appear in any one paper of the preliminary exam. Applying and not turning up does not use an attempt.
• The prelims is the attempt. An attempt at the prelims is an attempt at the CSE, whether or not you qualify for the mains.
• Cancellation doesn't undo it. If your candidature is later cancelled or you are disqualified, the fact that you appeared still counts as an attempt.

Because one prelims paper is enough to use an attempt, decide before exam day whether you will sit it. Turning up for General Studies Paper I and skipping Paper II still costs you an attempt, and the notice disqualifies anyone who doesn't sit both papers.

Work out your own years

Enter your date of birth and category in the UPSC age and attempts calculator to see every exam you can sit by age and how many attempts you have left. For the other conditions, such as education and nationality, see eligibility criteria.