Every civil service aspirant dreams of clearing the UPSC Civil Services Exam which is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission to select young intellectuals for civil services of India such as Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Forest Service (IFoS – which has a separate prelims but shares the mains and interview) along with other Group A services like IRS, IRTS, IAAS, and Group B services such as DANICS, DANIPS, and AFHQCS. To get selected for these reputed posts you have to clear all stages of the UPSC Exam which are Prelims, Mains and Interview, amongst which CSAT is an important paper to qualify.

UPSC CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test) is a part of the Prelims stage which is known as General Studies Paper-II. It was introduced in 2011 by UPSC to analyze a candidate’s personality, mindset, logic, critical thinking and knowledge. 

• The UPSC CSAT Syllabus mainly comprises 3 Sections that are English (Reading Comprehension), Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning/Decision making.
• We have extracted data on the subject wise weightage of previous year upsc questions i.e. from 2014 to 2025 that will help you to take an informed decision.
• This analysis will help you to focus on those topics which are crucial for the examination. You can also segregate the topics of various sections in accordance with the difficulty level. Hence, a thorough knowledge of the weightage of each subject and subsequent preparation tips can help you sail through it smoothly.

Download UPSC CSAT Question Papers 2013-2025

UPSC CSAT Topic Wise Weightage

The latest UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination (CSE Prelims) was held on Sunday, May 25, 2025 in two shifts across India. The paper was moderately difficult. In the table given below, we have meticulously extracted topic-wise distribution of questions from UPSC CSAT 2014 to 2025.

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Also, Get to Know How To Prepare For CSAT UPSC

Subjects to Prioritize based on UPSC CSAT Previous Year Questions Trend

• Quantitative Aptitude - Quantitative Aptitude is the highest-weighing subject from which a good number of questions are asked. As per the data provided in the table, there has been a significant decrease in the number of questions asked in Quants from 2020 Onwards. A total of 33 questions were asked in the year 2025. As this is one of the most scoring subjects candidates should prioritize all topics coming under this subject. Work on your basics, and try to practice as many questions as possible to get a command in this section.
• Reading Comprehension - Under English Reading Comprehension comprises approximately 25-30 questions that have been asked in previous year exams which are 33% to 38% of the paper. Hence it becomes important to understand the passage holistically and to solve the questions in a synchronized way.
• Logical Reasoning / Decision making - Once the above topics are covered the next topic to cover is Logical Reasoning and Decision Making which comprises 15-25 Questions every year. Last year 18 questions were asked, though last year the weightage was less for this section it is advisable to prepare every section well so that you can score high in any situation.

Find out all details wrt all Public Services in India

UPSC CSAT 2025 Maths Analysis 

Checkout UPSC CSAT Syllabus - Topic-wise detailed breakdown

UPSC CSAT 2025 Reasoning Analysis

UPSC CSAT Exam Pattern 

CSAT Paper will be of 200 marks in total, comprising 80 objective type questions each carrying 2.5 marks. The total duration of this stage will be 2 Hours, which means on an average you will get around 1.5 minutes to answer a question. Every right answer is rewarded 2.5 marks and for every wrong answer one-third marks will be deducted.

​Note: No marks will be deducted for un-attempted questions.

Also, Checkout Complete UPSC CSE Exam Pattern for Prelims and Mains Stages!

What are UPSC CSAT Qualifying Marks?

In the CSAT Stage candidates need to score at least 33% marks to qualify for the next round. This comes up to nearly scoring 66 marks out of 200. It is one of the tricky and important stages in UPSC Civil Services journey which requires a balanced and thorough approach covering each CSAT section properly.

Hope this article about UPSC CSAT Subject Wise Questions Weightage helped you to channelize your preparations. For more detailed analysis of exam papers, Latest Government notifications and much more, download our Testbook App now and stay on the edge!