The UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2025 is now behind us, and like every year, it brought its own set of surprises and patterns. This time, however, the paper seemed slightly tilted towards familiarity and revisited themes — making it a relatively doable exam for well-prepared aspirants. Let’s break down how the paper fared subject-wise and how it compares to the trends of the last five years.
Paper Overview: Easy to Moderate with a Critical Edge
This year’s paper can largely be classified as Easy to Moderate in terms of difficulty. While many questions were direct and NCERT-based and built on the themes of PYQs, a few areas — particularly Science and Technology — raised the bar and potentially acted as the decider for cut-off margins.
UPSC Prelims 2025- Subject-wise split
Subject-wise Analysis comparing with Previous Year Trends:
Subject wise Weightage for UPSC CSE Prelims (2011 to 2025)
| Year | Histoy | Geograpy | poliy | Econoy | S&T | Environmet | C.A. |
| 2025 | 16 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 14 |
| 2024 | 08 | 16 | 18 | 13 | 09 | 16 | 20 |
| 2023 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 21 | 24 |
| 2022 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 22 |
| 2021 | 18 | 8 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 19 | 16 |
| 2020 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 16 | 15 |
| 2019 | 17 | 14 | 16 | 14 | 7 | 11 | 22 |
| 2018 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 16 | 7 | 13 | 28 |
| 2017 | 14 | 7 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 34 |
| 2016 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 18 | 8 | 18 | 27 |
| 2015 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 29 |
| 2014 | 17 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 20 |
| 2013 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 15 | 11 | 13 | 28 |
| 2012 | 17 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 26 |
| 2011 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 19 | 15 | 13 |
Note: Current Affairs and Geography consists of International Relations and Mapping as well.
�� History: The Saviour This Year
Unlike recent years where History either carried obscure themes or undeciding weightage, History emerged as a saviour in 2025. Questions were largely from previous year themes and standard sources like NCERTs, Tamil Nadu state board books, and classnotes of La Excellence PCM course.
Art & Culture was moderate, and Ancient/Medieval history saw predictable topics — much to the relief of aspirants.Questions like Non Cooperation Movement, Rajendra chola, Araghatta, Fahien are all repeated themes.
Trend shift: From tricky and unconventional to predictable and source-based.
Geography: Repetition and Relevance
Geography maintained its pattern of conceptual and map-based questions. Many topics reflected themes from previous years, with a mix of physical geography, Indian geography, and environmental geography. Aspirants who kept track of recurring topics like monsoons, ocean currents, and important passes would’ve found this section very manageable.
The Questions based on water density, isotherms and other such aspects are purely from PYQs and NCERTs. What we needed is strong basics and conceptual clarity on the topics.
Polity: moderate to slightly tough
Polity was in line with standard expectations. Questions were direct, principle-based, and Conceptually demanding— focusing on fundamental rights, constitutional provisions, and recent landmark judgments. The questions like Lokpal, Pardoning power and others requires you to have strong basics and be updated with news analysis.
Infact, many polity questions came from our notebook and Daily Current Affairs based MCQs given to our PCM students.
No major surprises here, but a steady contributor to score stability. Questions seemed a bit lengthy but once you understand them, there is not much scope to confuse. But students might struggle due to lengthy pattern of questions.
Environment: Familiar Ground
Environmental questions largely revolved around repeated themes of the last 5 years — endemic species, international conventions, biodiversity hotspots, and reports by global bodies. Elimination techniques had a scope in few questions like that on Peacock Tarantula. If you are having strong basics like spider is not a crustacean, then you can attempt this question with ease.
Aspirants following PYQs, current affairs compilations like RRP material of La Excellence would have found it comfortable.
Current Affairs and International Relations:
Unlike earlier year Current Affairs, the focus this time was more on application oriented ones barring a few. There were not much secret topics. Many of the topics were in news. However, what could be challenging in exam is recalling those current affairs and linking them to the institutions and that too with precise information. Like the BIMSTEC question requires one to have accurate information.
Science and Technology: The Decider
This section was the trickiest of all this year. Although rooted in basic concepts and NCERTs, the framing was unconventional and required applied conceptual clarity.
Topics ranged from General Science, bio-technology basics, space tech to recent technological terms from current affairs.
Trend Insight: This marks a departure from superficial fact-based questions to deeper concept-application linkage.Questions like Fuel cell vehicles, EV batteries look simple, but they require deeper conceptual clarity from NCERTs and application of them. Also the questions like Statement 2 and 3 explains statement 1 are time killing and would definitely mount pressure on you.
The more time you spend on Science and technology, the less time you spend for other areas. So one should always spend five to ten minutes on analysing question paper before starting exam.
Science and Tech might just turn out to be the cut-off decider this year.
�� Five-Year Trend Comparison (2020–2025)
| Subject | 2020–2024 Trend | 2025 Paper Highlights |
| History | Undeciding weightage, obscure topics | Revived, predictable, PYQ-based, aspirant-friendly |
| Geography | Moderate, recurring concepts | Similar themes with repeat emphasis |
| Polity | Doable, few current linkages | Standard, conceptual based, principle-focused |
| Environment | High weightage, current-heavy | Repeat themes, manageable with PYQs + static |
| Science & Tech | Mixed, fact-based | slightly tough, NCERT+current integration, concept-driven |
| Current Affairs | Easy to moderate | Moderate with focus on Institutions. Linked to basic concepts |
| Overall Paper | Moderate to tough with surprises in odd areas | moderate to slightly tough, familiarity-driven with emphasis on basics. Time consuming. |
Key Takeaways for Aspirants
- History & Geography saved the day — trust your basics and PYQs.
Environment continues its dominance — static + current mix holds strong.
Polity remains reliable but only if you have strong basics
Science & Tech demands renewed focus — especially in concept application and NCERT fundamentals. - Relying purely on Current Affairs magazines without basic News Paper support would have proved fatal to your exam.
PYQs and NCERTs are indispensable — their relevance is reaffirmed this year.
�� Conclusion
UPSC Prelims 2025 Paper proved to be a throwback to conventional preparation wisdom — rewarding those who stuck to basics, revised standard books, and practiced PYQs religiously. However, the Science & Technology section was a timely reminder that the exam still retains its unpredictability.
As we await official cut-offs, one thing is clear:
UPSC rewards consistency, conceptual clarity, and PYQ-centric preparation — year after year.
CUT OFF ANALYSIS:
After analysing the trends of cutoffs in the last ten years, experts and mentors at La Excellence opine that, the cut off for Unreserved Candidate could be around 85-87. For People Who has not written the UPSC Prelims this year, La Excellence is conducting a MOCK PRELIMS next Sunday. We will update you on the further process of registration shortly.
We have prepared key for you, taking the help of subject experts at La Excellence. Check your scores, Don’t share with many.
The below is the key:
NOTE: This is a preliminary key. The revised key will be released by Tuesday evening ie 27th May.
For more such preparation strategies, you can read here: https://laex.in/category/preparation-strategy/
La Excellence IAS Academy, the best IAS coaching in Hyderabad, known for delivering quality content and conceptual clarity for UPSC 2025 preparation.
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