The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to various Civil Services of the Government of India, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). It is one of the most esteemed and toughest exams in the country. With a success rate of 0.1- 0.3 percent of the total percentage of candidates who apply, it is really difficult to nail the examination.

On the other hand, the Madhya Pradesh Police Service Commission is state-based examination which is responsible for recruitment of candidates for the government jobs across the state of Madhya Pradesh. Both have their own integral value, the only difference being is that the former is a national-level exam and the latter is based in the state. Click on this link to read about MPPSC Prelims Exam Analysis. 

UPSC IAS vs MPPSC State Service Examination

In this article, we are going to discuss the basic differences between both the exams i.e UPSC IAS vs MPPSC State Services Examination. There are many differences between both the exams which can be categorized in the following sections:

UPSC IAS vs MPPSC- Vacancies and Number of Attempts

There is a massive difference between the number of vacancies offered in MPPSC State Services Examination and UPSC Civil Services Examination.

• The total number of vacancies for the MPPSC Exam is 358 in the state of Madhya Pradesh. For the UPSC IAS Exam, the total number of vacancies is 1079 in the entire country.
• In the UPSC IAS Exam, the number of times a candidate may attempt the exam is as follows,

1. General Category: 6
2. OBC Category: 9
3. SC/ST Category: Unlimited

 For the MPPSC Exam, the number of times a candidate may attempt the exam is as follows,

1. General Category: 4
2. OBC Category: 7
3. SC/ST category: Unlimited

Hence, this outlines a major difference between UPSC Civil Services Examination and MPPSC State Services Examination.

UPSC IAS vs MPPSC- Eligibility Criteria

Owing to the complexities of both examinations, their eligibility criteria also happen to differ.

MPPSC State Services Examination

• The candidates should be legal citizens of India.
• A candidate must hold a degree of any of the universities incorporated by an Act of the Central of State Legislature in India or other Educational Institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be a deemed university under section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act.
• The age limit for MPPSC is 21-30 years.

UPSC Civil Services Examination

• The candidates must be citizens of India.
• A candidate must hold a degree from any Central, State or Deemed University.
• The age limit for UPSC IAS is 21-32 years.

Note: Age relaxation is applicable in terms of reserved categories in accordance with the norms stated by the Government in both the cases. The candidates in the upper age limit will be quite prevalent in MPPSC State Services Examination in comparison with UPSC IAS Examination.

UPSC IAS vs MPPSC- Exam Type

MPPSC State Services Examination

There are two stages in this examination:

1. Preliminary Examination (Objective Type)
2. Mains Examination (Written and Interview)

UPSC Civil Services Examination

1. Preliminary Examination (Objective Type)
2. Mains Examination (Written and Interview)

• In the MPPSC exam, the questions asked are mostly state related questions i.e the state of Madhya Pradesh, whereas in the UPSC IAS exam most questions are based on national level.
• MPPSC State Services Exam is a state-level exam conducted by Madhya Pradesh Police Service Commission, whereas UPSC IAS Exam is a central-level exam conducted by the Union Public Service Commission.

UPSC IAS vs MPPSC- Exam Pattern and Marking Scheme

MPPSC State Services Examination

(1) The preliminary exam consists of 2 papers:

Points to be noted:

• The question paper for both the exams in prelims will be bilingual in nature i.e Hindi and English.
• The preliminary exam serves as a screening test for mains.

(2) The mains exam will consist of a written test and an interview.

(i) Written Examination – The Written examination will consist of seven papers of conventional essay type questions as given below.

(a) Compulsory Papers

(b) Optional Papers

(ii) The Interview Test will be of 250 marks.

Points to be noted:

• Question papers other than language papers will be bilingual in nature.

UPSC Civil Services Examination

(1) The structure for Preliminary Exam for UPSC IAS is as follows:

Important Points to remember:

• The minimum qualifying marks for Paper II is 33 percent.
• In both Paper I and Paper II for each wrong answer there is a negative marking of 1/3rd of the allotted marks for that question.

(2) For the mains examination, there are a total of 9 papers, out of which 2 are qualifying in nature and rest of the 7 are based on merit.

Now let us discuss the major differences between both the papers based on the pattern of exam,

• The preliminary section in the MPPSC exam consists of 2 papers, namely, General Studies and General Aptitude Test which carry 400 marks in total. The time allotted for each exam is 2 hours which is similar to that of the UPSC IAS Examination.
• In the UPSC IAS exam, you are ought to take an English exam, while in the MPPSC exam you have to take a Hindi exam.
• In the UPSC IAS exam, you get to select one subject as optional from the prescribed list of subjects. In the MPPSC Exam, you have to select two optional subjects from the prescribed list of optional subjects.
• In the UPSC IAS exam, you have 4 types of papers from General Studies that carry 250 marks each. In the MPPSC Exam, you have only 2 types of papers from General Studies which carry 300 marks each.
• In the UPSC IAS exam, you have to take an exam on one of the Indian languages prescribed in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. There is no such exam in the MPPSC Exam.
• The Interview Test for UPSC IAS Exam carries 275 marks and the MPPSC Exam carries 250 marks.

We conclude our article highlighting the basic differences between MPPSC State Services Examination and UPSC Civil Services Examination.

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