UPSC ESE Syllabus 2026: Check IES Prelims and Mains Syllabus

Q: Ques: Is the syllabus the same for all the streams of UPSC ESE?

Ans: The syllabus of Prelims exam is same for all the streams. The mains syllabus is however different for the respective streams, containing subject-specific matters.

Q: Ques: Does UPSC ESE have negative marking?

Ans: UPSC ESE has negative marking in the Prelims round. ⅓ of the marks will be deducted for every wrong answer. Mains, however, does not have negative marks.

Q: Ques: Does the prelims syllabus contain descriptive questions?

Ans: The Prelims syllabus of UPSC ESE does not contain descriptive questions. The questions are objective in nature. The mains syllabus has descriptive questions.

Q: Ques: Should candidates prepare on current affairs for UPSC ESE 2026?

Ans: Candidates must prepare on engineering-relevant national and international events for the Prelims exam as it is an included topic.

Q: Ques: Does UPSC ESE interview have a separate syllabus?

Ans: UPSC ESe interview round does not have a separate syllabus. It tests the traits such as ability for practical application, communication skills, etc.

Shilpa S

Feb 6, 2026

UPSC ESE 2026 Syllabus can be understood in two stages – Prelims and Mains, with each stage further divided into two papers. Prelims consist of objective-type questions, while Mains contain descriptive questions designed to test in-depth knowledge. Paper 1 of Prelims is common for all streams and evaluates General Studies and Engineering Aptitude, whereas the remaining papers in both stages differ discipline-wise. Candidates must have expertise in engineering aptitude and specialised subject knowledge in their respective streams to qualify for UPSC ESE 2026.

UPSC ESE Prelims Syllabus 2026

IES 2026 Prelims Syllabus consists of 2 papers. Paper 1 of General Studies and Engineering Aptitude and Paper 2 of subject-specific matters. Paper 1 of Prelims contains the following topics:

Engineering-relevant national and international current issues
Logical reasoning, analytical ability, data interpretation
Engineering Mathematics and Numerical Analysis.
General Principles of Design and Drawing
Production, construction and maintenance.
Basics of Energy
Project Management.
Material Science and Engineering.
Information and Communication Technology
Ethics and values in the Engineering profession.

Candidates must note that the Prelims Paper 2 syllabus and Mains combined syllabus are the same for the respective streams.

UPSC ESE Mains Syllabus 2026

IES 2026 Mains Syllabus consists of 2 papers, both being subject-specific. In-depth knowledge and application skill of subject matter is the core focus. Candidates can practice IES Mock Tests to familiarise themselves with the focus areas.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Chemical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 1):

Topic	Sub Topics
Building Materials	Stone, Lime, Glass, Plastics, Steel, FRP, Ceramics, Fly Ash, Aluminium, Bricks and Aggregates, Classification, properties and selection criteria, etc.
Solid Mechanics	Elastic constants, Stress, plane stress, Strains, plane strain, Mohr’s circle of stress and strain, Principal Stresses, etc.
Structural Analysis	Suspended Cables; Concepts and Use of Computer-Aided Design, Analysis of determinate and indeterminate structures, etc.
Design of Steel Structures	Principles of Working Stress methods, Design of tension and compression members, Design of beams and beam column connections, etc.
Design of Concrete and Masonry Structures	Limit state design for bending, shear, Staircases, Earthquake-resistant design of structures, Design of Masonry Structure, etc.
Construction Practice, Planning and Management	Construction - Planning, Equipment, Site investigation and Management, including Estimation with latest project management tools, network analysis for different Types of works, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Chemical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 2):

Topic	Sub Topics
Flow of Fluids, Hydraulic Machines and Hydro Power	Fluid Mechanics, Open Channel Flow, Pipe Flow Hydraulic Machines and Hydro Power
Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering	Hydrological cycle, Groundwater hydrology, Well hydrology and related data analysis; Streams and their gauging; River morphology; Flood, drought and their management; Capacity of Reservoirs. Water Resources Engineering
Environmental Engineering	Water Supply Engineering: Waste Water Engineering Solid Waste Management Air, Noise Pollution and Ecology
Geo-technical Engineering and Foundation Engineering	Geo-technical Engineering Foundation Engineering Surveying and Geology
Transportation Engineering	Highways Tunneling Railways Systems Harbours Airports

Check the table below for IES 2026 Mechanical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 1):

Topic	Sub Topics
Fluid Mechanics	Basic Concepts and Properties of Fluids, Manometry, Viscous flow of incompressible fluids, Laminar and Turbulent flows, etc.
Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer	Thermodynamic systems and processes; properties of pure substance, Modes of heat transfer, Radiative heat transfer, etc.
IC Engines, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning	SI and CI Engines, Fuels, Emissions, andEmission Control, Refrigerants and Working cycles, Evaporators and Expansion devices, etc.
Turbo Machinery	Reciprocating and Rotary pumps, Pelton wheel, Impulse and Reaction principles, Steam and Gas Turbines, etc.
Power Plant Engineering:	Rankine and Brayton cycles with regeneration and reheat, steam turbines and other power plant components like condensers, etc.
Renewable Sources of Energy	Solar Radiation, Solar Thermal Energy collection, Thermal Energy Storage, Applications, Bio-mass and Tidal Energy, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Mechanical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 2):

Topics	Sub Topics
Engineering Mechanics	Analysis of System of Forces, Friction, Centroid and Centre of Gravity, Bending Moment and Shear Force Diagrams, etc.
Engineering Materials	Basic Crystallography, Alloys and Phase diagrams, Heat Treatment, Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals, Non-metallic materials, etc.
Mechanisms and Machines	Types of Kinematics Pair, CAMs with uniform acceleration and retardation, cycloidal motion, oscillating followers, etc.
Design of Machine Elements:	Design for static and dynamic loading; principles of the design of machine elements, etc.
Manufacturing, Industrial and Maintenance Engineering	Metal casting-Metal forming, Machining and machine tool operations, computer-integrated manufacturing, etc.
Mechatronics and Robotics	Microprocessors and Microcontrollers: Architecture, programming, Programmable logic controller, Optical Encoder, Resolver, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Electrical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 1):

Topic	Sub Topics
Electrical Materials	Electrical Engineering Materials, crystal structures and defects, ceramic materials, magnetic materials, etc.
Electric Circuits and Fields	Circuit elements, network graph, Node and Mesh analysis, Norton’s, Superposition and Maximum Power Transfer theorems, etc.
Electrical and Electronic Measurements:	Principles of measurement, a Bridges and potentiometers; moving coil, dynamometer and induction type instruments, etc.
Computer Fundamentals	Number systems, Basic Architecture, Central Processing Unit, I/O and Memory Organisation, peripheral devices, etc.
Basic Electronics Engineering:	Basics of Semiconductor diodes and transistors and characteristics, different types of transistor amplifiers, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Electrical Engineering Syllabus (Paper 2):

Topics	Sub Topics
Analog and Digital Electronics:	Operational amplifiers, A/D and D/A converters, basics of filter circuits and applications, simple active filters, Microprocessor basics, etc.
Systems and Signal Processing :	Representation of continuous and discrete-time signals, Fourier series representation of continuous periodic signals, sampling theorem, etc.
Control Systems:	Principles of feedback, transfer function, block diagrams and signal flow graphs, steady-state errors, transforms and their applications; Nyquist techniques, etc.
Electrical Machines :	Single-phase transformers, parallel operation, auto-transformer, energy conversion principles, DC machines, etc.
Power Systems :	Basic power generation concepts, steam, gas and water turbines, symmetrical components, fault analysis, principles of protection systems, etc.
Power Electronics and Drives :	Semiconductor power diodes, transistors, thyristors, triacs, triggering circuits, phase control rectifiers, bridge converters, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering Syllabus (Paper 1):

Topic	Sub Topics
Basic Electronics Engineering:	Basics of semiconductors; Diode/Transistor basics and characteristicsTransistor amplifiers of different types, etc.
Basic Electrical Engineering:	DC circuits-Ohm’s & Kirchhoff’s laws, Electro-magnetism, Faraday’s & Lenz’s laws, induced EMF and its uses, etc.
Electronic Measurements and Instrumentation:	Principles of measurement, Static/dynamic characteristics of measurement systems, etc.
Network Theory:	Network graphs & matrices, Solution of network equations using Laplace transforms, etc.
Materials Science	Electrical Engineering materials; Insulating laminates for electronics, etc.
Analog and Digital Circuits	Small signal equivalent circuits of diodes, BJTS and FETs; Diode circuits for different uses; Biasing & stability of BJT & JFET amplifier circuits; Analysis/design of amplifier, etc.

Check the table below for IES 2026 Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering Syllabus (Paper 2):

Topics	Sub Topics
Analog and Digital Communication Systems	Random signals, noise, information theory; Analog versus digital communication & applications, etc.
Control Systems:	Classification of signals and systems; Application of signal and system theory; System realisation, etc.
Computer Organisation and Architecture:	Basic architecture, Hardware /software issues, Data representation& Programming; Operating systems-basics, etc.
Electromagnetics:	Elements of vector calculus, Gauss’, Stokes’ theorems; Wave propagation through different media; etc.
Advanced Electronics Topics:	VLSI technology: Processing, interconnects, packaging, testing; VLSI design: Principles, Moore & Mealy circuit design, etc.
Advanced Communication Topics	Communication networks, Basic packet multiplexed streams/scheduling, Cellular networks, etc.

Candidates must be familiar with both general engineering sections and stream-specific topics to clear UPSC ESE 2026. Those who qualify the Prelims and Mains stage will be called for the Personality Test round of UPSC ESE 2026.

Relevant links
UPSC ESE Answer Key	UPSC ESE Admit Card
UPSC ESE Eligibility	UPSC ESE Vacancy
UPSC ESE Previous Year Papers	UPSC ESE Mock Tests

UPSC ESE 2026 FAQs

Ques: Is the syllabus the same for all the streams of UPSC ESE?

Ans: The syllabus of Prelims exam is same for all the streams. The mains syllabus is however different for the respective streams, containing subject-specific matters.

Ques: Does UPSC ESE have negative marking?

Ans: UPSC ESE has negative marking in the Prelims round. ⅓ of the marks will be deducted for every wrong answer. Mains, however, does not have negative marks.

Ques: Does the prelims syllabus contain descriptive questions?

Ans: The Prelims syllabus of UPSC ESE does not contain descriptive questions. The questions are objective in nature. The mains syllabus has descriptive questions.

Ques: Should candidates prepare on current affairs for UPSC ESE 2026?

Ans: Candidates must prepare on engineering-relevant national and international events for the Prelims exam as it is an included topic.

Ques: Does UPSC ESE interview have a separate syllabus?

Ans: UPSC ESe interview round does not have a separate syllabus. It tests the traits such as ability for practical application, communication skills, etc.