Union Public Service Commission Conducts Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination-2026 at 2,072 Venues Across 83 Cities Nationwide

📌 Summary:

• The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducted the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2026 — including the Indian Forest Service (Preliminary) Examination — on 24 May 2026 at 2,072 venues across 83 examination centres (cities)

• Of 8,19,732 candidates who applied, nearly 5.49 lakh (about 67%) appeared, as per provisional data; in 2025, around 5.8 lakh (about 61%) of nearly 9.5 lakh applicants had appeared

• For the first time, UPSC introduced real-time face authentication of candidates at all 2,072 venues to prevent impersonation; the system, indigenously developed through NeGD of MeitY, recorded 100% success — possibly the largest such exercise conducted by UPSC

• The examination was held in two mandatory sessions: General Studies Paper-I (09:30-11:30 AM) and the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) Paper-II (02:30-04:30 PM)

• The Delhi centre recorded the highest applications (70,885 candidates across 144 venues), followed by Hyderabad and Patna; Kargil recorded the fewest (98 candidates)

• Three new examination centres were added at Bhubaneswar, Kanpur and Meerut to decongest centres; a dropdown option captured candidates' preferred nearby cities as a survey to identify future centre locations

• For the first time, UPSC will release a provisional answer key soon after the exam and invite representations until 6:00 PM on 31 May 2026; the final answer key will be released only after the declaration of the final result

• 11,224 candidates belonged to the Persons with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) and Persons with Disability (PwD) categories and were given compensatory time; mobile signal jammers were deployed at all venues

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 — the role and functioning of the UPSC (a constitutional body); use of technology and e-governance tools to strengthen examination integrity, transparency and accessibility in public recruitment.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• UPSC is a constitutional body established under Articles 315-323 of the Constitution
• Real-time face authentication was developed indigenously through the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of MeitY; NIC also supported the examination
• CSAT (Paper-II) is a qualifying paper in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination
• New examination centres added in 2026: Bhubaneswar, Kanpur and Meerut

🔑 Key Term: Real-time face authentication — a biometric verification system that matches a candidate's live facial image against records in real time to prevent impersonation and ensure examination integrity.