Exclusive: What UPSC Reveals About Prelims Answer Key In RTI Reply?

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) holds the national-level entrance examination for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) every year. The UPSC is applauded for conducting the exam and releasing results on time every year to induct group A officers for various ranks in central services. A total lack of aspirants’ interference and a closed-door policy for the entire examination process and result preparation is said to be the reason behind completing the exam cycle every year.

However, many candidates do not seem satisfied with the process and demand transparency in UPSC’s functioning.  Candidates are signing petitions asking timely release of official answer keys and expert review of questionable answers. Candidates are demanding the opportunity to challenge questions and receive deserving marks, and the release of cut-offs alongside the prelims results.

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Many candidates have filed RTIs with the UPSC demanding to reveal the answer keys on time. Timeline received one such RTI reply copy concerning the information sought for CSE 2025.

In response to the RTI, UPSC did not furnish any specific reason for not disclosing the cut-off just after the Prelims result and said, “the entire process of Civil Services Examination 2025. i.e. the declaration of final result is yet to be completed, hence any information can not be provided at this stage”.

Candidates are unhappy with the process and collecting a wider representation to challenge the non-transparent process of UPSC. According to the candidates the lack of transparency hampers their preparation strategy as they dont understand where to improve.

Timeline reached out to some UPSC candidates, who are demanding to reveal the answer key be revealed so candidates can challenge the doubtful questions. One candidate said, “Every year UPSC deletes several questions for which the representations are received. This is disadvantageous for lots of candidates as they lose marks despite marking the right answer”.

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“Candidates are demanding that challenged answers must be reviewed by the experts, and everyone should get the marks for questions they answered correctly”, she said. “After I checked my score, I was quite sure to write the Mains examination this year; however, the release of the Prelims result was a shock for me. I kept wondering where I lost marks. UPSC must make the process transparent so aspirants can understand where and how they lost marks”, the aspirant added further.

Notably, the UPSC Prelims result was released 11 June and the Mains examination is scheduled to start on August 22, 2025. This year over 14,000 candidates are appearing for the Main examination.