UPSC Prelims Answer Key 2026

The official UPSC Prelims answer key is released after the final result of the Civil Services Examination, not immediately. Until then, students rely on unofficial answer keys published by major coaching institutes within hours of the exam.

Major institutes that publish UPSC Prelims answer keys include Vision IAS, Vajiram & Ravi, Next IAS, Forum IAS, Sleepy Classes, StudyIQ IAS, PWOnlyIAS, SuperKalam and UnderStand UPSC. We aggregate all of them on this page.

Each correct answer in GS Paper 1 awards +2 marks. Each wrong answer deducts 0.673 marks (one-third negative marking, after UPSC redistributed cancelled-question marks for 2026). Unattempted questions score zero. GS Paper 1 totals 200 marks. CSAT Paper 2 is qualifying — students need 66.67 marks (33%) to clear it; CSAT marks do not add to the final merit.

Yes — all answer keys aggregated here are free to view. The Score Calculator is also completely free. We only ask for a one-time mobile verification so students can revisit their results later.

No single institute is consistently most accurate — different institutes get different questions right. For maximum confidence, compare your score across multiple institute keys. Our calculator shows your projected score against all 9 institute keys side-by-side on a single result page. See the comparison section above.

On each institute's answer-key page, you'll find tabs for all four sets (A, B, C, D). Pick the set printed on your question booklet's cover, and you'll see the full set-specific answer key. The same question can have different answers across sets because the question order differs — this is intentional, to prevent cheating.

Institutes occasionally disagree on tricky questions. Our calculator shows you the per-institute score so you can see the range of plausible outcomes. Where institutes accept multiple options (e.g., A or B both correct), we mark it as multi-correct. Where an institute marks a question as WRONG (scrapped), attempters get full marks regardless of the option they chose.

The official UPSC Prelims 2025 answer key was released by UPSC alongside the final CSE 2025 result. Coaching institutes released their unofficial 2025 keys within 24–48 hours of the Prelims exam in May 2025.

Usually yes, but with occasional differences. UPSC's official key is the final authority, and coaching keys typically match it on 95–98 questions out of 100. Most discrepancies fall on factually contested or ambiguously worded questions. Coaching keys are revised after UPSC's official release.

Yes. UPSC publishes a draft answer key after the Prelims exam (only during specific challenge windows) and accepts written representations from candidates. If a question is genuinely flawed, UPSC may mark it as scrapped — and in that case every student who attempted it gets full marks.