Previous Year Papers

UPSC Prelims PYQ

All UPSC Prelims previous year question papers in one place — 22 solved papers across 11 years, attemptable as free timed mock tests with detailed answer explanations.

22
Total Papers
11
Years Covered
FREE
To Attempt

About UPSC Prelims PYQs

The UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination (CSE) is the highly competitive first stage of the exam used to recruit officers for the IAS, IPS, IFS, and other central services AajExam hosts a continuously expanding archive of UPSC Prelims previous year question papers, fully reconstructed into timed mock tests with verified answer keys and detailed step-by-step solutions. This page lists every UPSC Prelims PYQ shift available on the platform — currently 22 papers spanning 2025 down to 2015 — and lets you attempt each one as a real, timer-based test. Why UPSC Prelims previous year papers matter: government competitive exam toppers consistently rate PYQ practice as the single most leveraged preparation strategy. UPSC Prelims repeats question patterns, formula applications, theme-based questions and difficulty distribution year after year, so a candidate who has solved 8-12 PYQ shifts has effectively practised the exam multiple times before the real day. PYQs reveal high-yield chapters — the topics that recur in nearly every shift — so you can prioritise revision around what actually appears, instead of studying the entire syllabus uniformly. How AajExam's PYQ archive helps you prepare for UPSC Prelims: every paper on this page is delivered as a real-exam-style timer-based mock test rather than a static PDF. You sit through the actual UPSC Prelims duration, the section ordering and the negative-marking scheme, and submit when time runs out — exactly like the real exam. After submission you instantly get a detailed analytics report showing section-wise accuracy, time spent per question, attempt rate, and an overall percentile. Every wrong question and every skipped question is reviewable with a complete explanation, including step-by-step working, formula references and concept notes you can save to your revision queue. Suggested PYQ strategy for UPSC Prelims aspirants: first, attempt the most recent year's paper without any prep — this gives you a baseline. Identify your two weakest sections from the analytics. Spend the next 7-10 days revising those two sections from your notes, then attempt 3-4 more PYQ shifts back-to-back over 2 days to lock in speed. From there, alternate one PYQ per day with topic-wise quiz practice from AajExam until you have solved every available shift. The week before the exam, re-attempt 4-5 of your weakest papers — your second attempts should be 15-20% faster with measurably better accuracy. Every paper on this page is free to attempt, mobile-friendly, and supports both English and Hindi explanations where applicable. New UPSC Prelims shifts are added to AajExam within days of the official answer key release.

2025UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2025
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2025 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2025
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2025 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2024UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2024
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2024 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2024
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2024 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2023UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2023
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2023 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2023
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2023 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2022UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2022
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2022 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2022
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2022 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2021UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2021
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2021 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2021
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2021 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2020UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2020
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2020 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2020
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2020 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2019UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2019
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2019 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2019
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2019 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2018UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2018
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2018 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2018
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2018 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2017UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2017
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2017 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2017
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2017 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2016UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2016
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2016 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2016
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2016 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

2015UPSC Prelims — 2 Papers

PYQ 2015
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2015 - CSAT (Paper II)

80 Q120 min200
PYQ 2015
PRO

UPSC Prelims 2015 - General Studies (Paper I)

100 Q120 min200

Frequently Asked Questions

How many UPSC Prelims previous year papers are available on AajExam?

AajExam currently hosts 22 UPSC Prelims papers fully reconstructed as timed mock tests. New shifts are added regularly as official answer keys are released by the conducting body.

Are these PYQs free to attempt?

Yes. The most recent UPSC Prelims paper is always free for every user. The full archive of older shifts is available with a free AajExam account; certain older PYQs may be part of the PRO plan.

Are these papers the actual UPSC Prelims questions or sample-based?

Every paper here is reconstructed from the official UPSC Prelims question paper for the specified date and shift. Answer keys are verified against the official key released by the conducting body, with subject-expert overrides for any disputed questions.

Can I download these PYQs as a PDF?

AajExam delivers PYQs as interactive timed mock tests instead of static PDFs because the analytics, instant scoring and explanation flow are more effective for actual preparation. You can however export your performance report after each attempt.

In what order should I solve UPSC Prelims PYQs?

Start with the most recent year's paper to get a feel for the current pattern, then work backwards year by year. Within a single year, attempt one paper per day rather than batching to allow time for analysis and revision between attempts.

Do these mock tests support Hindi?

Yes. Most UPSC Prelims PYQs on AajExam ship with bilingual question support and Hindi answer explanations where the original paper was bilingual.

Other Exam PYQs