Hindi Medium in UPSC: How Many Candidates Use Hindi, Year by Year

UPSC does not publish a list of Hindi medium toppers, or any ranks by medium. What it does publish, in its Annual Reports, is how many candidates wrote each mains paper in Hindi and how many chose Hindi for the interview. For CSE 2023, 517 of the 14,206 candidates who wrote the mains Essay paper wrote it in Hindi; for CSE 2022, 288 of the 2,529 candidates who qualified for the interview chose to take it in Hindi.

Since no official document names toppers by medium, this page puts together what UPSC does publish, year by year, and sets out the rules on choosing Hindi as your medium.

What the numbers show

• Fewer candidates write the mains in Hindi than in CSE 2015. The number who wrote the Essay in Hindi fell from 2,439 in CSE 2015 to 470 in CSE 2021, and was 517 in CSE 2023.
• The interview shows a similar pattern. Candidates choosing Hindi for the personality test went from 321 in CSE 2015 to 177 in CSE 2020, and back up to 288 in CSE 2022.
• Hindi is still the main Indian-language medium. In every year in the interview table, most candidates who opted for an Indian language for the interview chose Hindi.

The tables count candidates, not results. They tell you how many used Hindi at each stage, but not how many of them were recommended or what ranks they got, because UPSC does not publish that by medium. Be wary of any success rate for Hindi medium that does not come from UPSC.

Choosing Hindi as your medium: the rules

The CSE 2026 notice sets out what you can and cannot do:

• Question papers. The prelims papers are set in Hindi and English. The mains papers, other than the literature papers, are set in Hindi and English only.
• Answers in the mains. You can answer every paper except the two qualifying language papers in English or in any language of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, Hindi included.
• Optional in English. If you write Papers I to V in an Indian language, you may still write your two optional papers in English.
• Technical terms. You may give the English version of technical terms in brackets. The notice warns that misusing this can lead to a deduction of marks, and in extreme cases the script will not be valued.
• Decide early. You state your mains medium in the application, and the notice says no change is allowed once the form is submitted.

For the interview, UPSC's Annual Reports say candidates may opt for English, Hindi or any one of the Indian languages. In CSE 2022, for example, 307 candidates chose an Indian language, and 288 of them chose Hindi.

Hindi medium and Hindi Literature are different choices

Writing your papers in Hindi is your medium. Hindi Literature is one of the optional subjects, a separate choice; the notice's syllabus says its two papers must be answered in Hindi. The syllabus is in the Hindi Literature optional guide. The tables on this page are about medium only.

If you plan to write in Hindi

Our advice, not a rule: practise answer writing in the medium you will use in the exam, under time, from the start. Keep a list of standard Hindi terms for subjects such as economy, science and governance, and use the English term in brackets only where it truly helps the examiner. Read the Hindi version of each question as closely as the English one when you practise with past papers. The full pattern of the exam is in the exam pattern guide, and the cut-offs every candidate must clear, whatever the medium, are in the mains and final cut-off guide.