Exclusive: Should UPSC Interview Marks Be Standardized?
Union Public Service Commission has announced the UPSC CSE 2024 result, with 1009 candidates recommended for various grade A and grade B central services, on April 22, 2024. Every year, around 8-9 lakh aspirants appear for the most coveted services of India with an aim to become IAS, IPS, and officers of various other ranks.
Some aspirants appear for the exam multiple times and reach various stages of the examination. While some aspirants miss making it into the final list by a few marks. Candidates start analyzing their progress once they get the marksheets and wonder where things could have been better. Out of these candidates, some are those who miss the final list not because their performance went wrong in the written exam rather because they get lesser marks in the interview or personality stage.
Numerous aspirants have reported that their interview marks have drastically gone down compared to their previous attempt. One such aspirant’s marksheet was shared on social media ‘X’ and questioned the marking process in the interview stage. The same aspirant who secured 195 marks last year got 30 marks less this year and missed the final list by 13 marks.
UPSC Interview process is a joke. Someone needs to do a personality test of the chairmen of the interview boards.
Last year (2023), Dasa Sir gave 195 marks.
This year (2024), the same board with Dasa Sir gave 165 marks in PT.
Missed the Final cutoff by 13 marks. pic.twitter.com/CrU7l4YRsf— Vikas Dhayal (@VikasDhayal18) May 2, 2025
Similarly, many aspirants have questioned the marking process of the UPSC CSE interview stage. Timeline talked to some of these candidates whose marks got reduced this year in comparison to their last attempt.
One such candidate shockingly received 120 marks in the 2024 attempt while getting 180 marks in the 2023 interview, a reported reduction of 60 marks. Another aspirant who secured 182 marks in the 2023 attempt received only 138 marks in the 2024 interview of the UPSC examination, with a total reduction of 54 marks. One more candidate’s marks got lessened by 30 marks (marksheets and names of these aspirants could not be shared on their requests).
Nearly a dozen such aspirants reported significantly lower marks in their 2024 interview test in comparison to the previous year.
Aspirants are questioning the stark contrast in the marks obtained in the interview process. Such aspirants suggest that there must be a standardization process or minimum marks system in the UPSC interview stage, as the board members are giving arbitrary marks to the candidates, even to those who have already secured good marks in their previous attempts.
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As per the UPSC, the candidate’s personality is assessed by a range of qualities, including clarity of thought and ability to express oneself, confidence and presence of mind, analytical and problem-solving skills, ethical and moral reasoning, awareness of current events, leadership, and teamwork qualities.
Candidates are awarded marks out of 275 based on their performance in the personality test. These marks are added to their written marks to determine the final merit list.
While, some aspirants suggests the reduction of Interview marks from 275 and fixing of minimum marks to reduce such a huge contrast in the marks obtained in various attempts. Even few candidates, suggest that the identity of the candidate should be kept anonymous with the Board so as to assess candidate in neutral manner irrespective of one’s category , caste ,religion,ethnicity etc.
Also, some aspirants suggests to ensure the answerabiltiy of the interview board for giving drastically lesser marks to the candidates appearing for the interview.
