UPSC Optional Subjects: Full List of 48

You choose one optional subject for the UPSC Mains. It gives you two papers, Paper VI and Paper VII, of 250 marks each, and both count towards your rank. The CSE 2026 notice lists 25 subjects plus the literature of any one of 23 languages, which makes 48 choices in all.

Below is the full list as the notice gives it, the level the papers are set at, the rules for literature optionals and links to the syllabus of each subject.

The full list

Subjects with a syllabus guide are linked. The full syllabus of every subject is printed in the CSE 2026 notice itself, in Part B of Section III of Appendix I.

What level the papers are set at

The notice sets the optional syllabus broadly at honours degree level: higher than a bachelor's degree and lower than a master's. For engineering, medical science and law, the level corresponds to a bachelor's degree. So for most subjects, expect to go beyond what a general bachelor's course covers, even if you studied the subject at college.

The literature option

The last item on the notice's list is the literature of any one of 23 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English. Three rules from the notice apply:

• You may be required to answer some or all of the questions in the language itself.
• For languages of the Eighth Schedule, you write in the script the notice fixes for that language. The script for each one is in the language papers guide.
• Questions that don't have to be answered in the language are answered in the medium you chose for your Essay, GS and optional papers.

The notice's rule that mains question papers are set in Hindi and English only does not apply to literature papers.

Medium for the optional papers

You can write your optional papers in English or in any one language of the Eighth Schedule. If you write Papers I to V in an Indian language, the notice still lets you write the optional papers in English. In the Exam Specific Form you name your optional subject, your medium and, if you choose an Indian language as your medium, the medium for your optional. None of these can be changed once the form is submitted.

Calculators

Scientific calculators of the non-programmable type are allowed in the mains, which are essay-type papers. Programmable ones are not. That helps in subjects with calculations, such as mathematics, statistics and the engineering subjects.

Choosing your subject

The notice lets you pick any subject on the list. UPSC's Annual Reports show how many candidates take each subject and how many are finally recommended. In CSE 2022, for example, Political Science and International Relations was the most chosen, followed by Sociology and Anthropology. What those figures can and can't tell you, and how to choose, is in our guide to the best optional subject for UPSC.

Optional syllabus guides

Guides to the syllabus of individual subjects:

• Political Science and International Relations
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Geography
• History
• Public Administration
• Philosophy
• Economics
• Hindi Literature
• Law
• Commerce and Accountancy
• Mathematics
• Medical Science