For becoming an IAS officer, you will have to qualify in the CSE (Combined Civil Services Examination) Preliminary examination and then appear for the CSE Main examination. Based on the marks you obtain in the Main examination, you will be called for interview. If you are selected in the interview, then you will have to appear for Medical test. On passing the medical test, you will be offered services.

The Preliminary examination consists of papers on General Studies and optional subjects. Questions are objective type. Optional subjects: Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Indian History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology.

The Main Exam consists of nine papers of conventional essay type questions. Paper I is on optional language. Optional languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Paper II is on English. Paper III is on Essay (you can write in English or Hindi). Paper IV and V is on General studies. Paper VI, VII, VIII, and IX are on 2 optional subjects. Optional subjects: Agriculture, Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Anthropology, Botany, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Commerce & Accountancy, Economics, Electrical Engineering, Geography, Geology, History, Law, Management, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science & International Relation, Psychology, Public Administration, Sociology, Statistics, Zoology.

You should always keep your aptitude and liking in mind while choosing a particular subject as optional. If you have studied a subject since school and you are comfortable in it, chances of doing well in it are greater rather than taking up an unrelated subject which you may never have studied at the school or college level. On the whole do not make the mistake of choosing an entirely new subject wherein you will have to start fresh. If the optional is prepared well for the preliminary and the same subject is also planned to be opted as one of the optionals, it is very useful and saves a lot of labour.

Availability and access to good and prescribed books is yet another consideration. Books for preliminary examination are available in plenty in common subjects but in case of specialised optionals like Mathematics, Engineering, Agriculture etc, you have to look carefully for good books which cover all parts of the syllabus.

However, you can select subjects like History, Psychology, Sociology, Public Administration etc as good books are easily found in these. Subjects like Mathematics and Physics could be very scoring if you have exceptionally good preparation.

As of now, we suggest you to concentrate on building up your general awareness about social, political and economic situations in the World. For this you should regularly read magazines like India Today, Outlook, Frontline, Times and Readers Digest. You should read newspapers regularly and listen to news on leading news channels on television like Star News, Aj Tak, BBC and CNBC.