Akansh Dhull spent four years finding out. Four attempts. Three documented results. A steady, measurable climb that ended with AIR 3 in UPSC CSE 2025, declared in March 2026.

An electrical engineering graduate from VIT Vellore. A former IT professional who quit his job after less than a year.

She was a qualified Chartered Accountant with a stable career ahead of her. She had failed Prelims not once, but twice.

That is the arc of Shakti Dubey’s UPSC journey, and it is one that every aspirant sitting with a bruised previous result needs to read carefully.

Writing for the UPSC Mains is often described as an “art” because it requires you to compress vast knowledge into a strictly timed,

Uttar Pradesh is home to over 240 million people. It has more districts than most countries have states. And yet, thousands of critical administrative posts sit vacant every year.

In 2023, the UPSC Prelims cutoff for the General category crashed to 75.41 out of 200. That was the lowest in the history of the Civil Services Examination.

In the UPSC Mains, an argument without data is just an opinion. To convince an examiner, you must move from generalized statements to substantiated claims.

Only about 2 to 3 percent of aspirants who appear for UPSC Prelims actually clear it. Not because the exam is impossibly hard, but because most people prepare without a real plan