The wait is finally over. The Union Public Service Commission declared the UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2025 final result on March 6, 2026, and the country has a new batch of officers ready to step into administration, diplomacy, and policing. A total of 958 candidates have been recommended across services including IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, and other Group A and B central services. Check UPSC toppers list 2026
This year’s result carries a few genuinely interesting stories. The topper is a doctor who traded prescriptions for policy files. The female topper is an engineer who had previously topped a state-level civil services exam. The third-ranker is a commerce graduate who had been refining his preparation across multiple attempts. The diversity of backgrounds in the top ranks is one of the more encouraging trends in this cycle.
Quick Facts: Result Date: March 6, 2026 | Total Selected: 958 candidates | AIR 1: Anuj Agnihotri | Female Topper: Rajeshwari Suve M (AIR 2) | Marks release: within 15 days (by March 20, 2026)
Here is the complete top 10 list as officially released by UPSC:
| AIR Rank | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Anuj Agnihotri |
| 2 | Rajeshwari Suve M |
| 3 | Akansh Dhull |
| 4 | Raghav Jhunjhunwala |
| 5 | Ishan Bhatnagar |
| 6 | Zinnia Aurora |
| 7 | A R Rajah Mohaideen |
| 8 | Pakshal Secretry |
| 9 | Astha Jain |
| 10 | Ujjwal Priyank |
The official merit list PDF, containing names and roll numbers of all 958 recommended candidates, is available on the UPSC website at upsc.gov.in. Detailed marks for all candidates will be published within 15 days of the result, which means by around March 20, 2026.
The list does not stop at 10. Ranks 11 through 20 are equally competitive and represent candidates from varied states and academic backgrounds:
| AIR Rank | Name |
|---|---|
| 11 | Yashaswi Raj Vardhan |
| 12 | Akshit Bhardwaj |
| 13 | Ananya Sharma |
| 14 | Surabhi Yadav |
| 15 | Simrandeep Kaur |
| 16 | Monika Srivastava |
| 17 | Chitwan Jain |
| 18 | Sruthi R B |
| 19 | Nisar Dishant Amrutlal |
| 20 | Ravi Raaz |
AIR 1
Anuj Agnihotri is from Rawatbhata in Rajasthan, a small town known largely for its nuclear power plant where his father works. He completed his MBBS from AIIMS Jodhpur in 2023, which alone is no small achievement. He cracked the civil services on his third attempt, and has been serving in DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service), a Group B gazetted service, before this result elevated his career trajectory significantly.
His story is particularly compelling because he comes from a non-coaching hub, smaller-town background, and still managed to outperform lakhs of candidates who had spent years in Delhi’s coaching corridors. His transition from medicine to administration has drawn wide attention, and he’s already become a reference point for aspirants who come from technical or science backgrounds.
AIR 2 — Female Topper
Rajeshwari Suve M is from Vadipatti in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu. She is an Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate from Anna University, Chennai, and chose Sociology as her optional subject for the UPSC examination. She appeared in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination five times before this breakthrough, which speaks volumes about her perseverance.
What makes her story particularly interesting is that she was not starting from scratch. Rajeshwari had already cracked the TNPSC Group I examination and was serving as a Deputy Collector in Tamil Nadu when this result came in. Going from state-level topper to national-level AIR 2 while holding a public service posting is a rare kind of achievement, and her family’s strong academic background, with her mother serving as an Associate Professor, clearly played a role in shaping her outlook.
AIR 3
Akansh Dhull hails from Rohtak in Haryana and completed his schooling in Chandigarh before pursuing a B.Com (Hons) from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi. He chose Commerce and Accountancy as his optional subject, a relatively uncommon choice that he handled exceptionally well.
Dhull had already cracked the examination in earlier cycles, securing AIR 342 in 2023, and continued appearing with improved preparation each year. His story is a good reminder that there is no fixed timeline for success in UPSC, and that iterating on your strategy while keeping your motivation steady is what separates those who eventually make the top ranks from those who stop midway.
“My parents nudged me to do this, and I was good in academics, so I thought it could be a good opportunity for me to try. I come from Haryana, and I have firsthand seen how civil services can impact the lives of people.”
AIR 4
Raghav Jhunjhunwala completed his B.A. (Hons) in Economics from the University of Delhi and went with Economics as his optional subject, building on his strong academic foundation in the discipline. His rank is a result of deep subject mastery combined with consistent performance across the mains papers.
AIR 5 to AIR 10
The remaining top 10 represent a geographically and academically diverse set of candidates. A R Rajah Mohaideen’s presence at AIR 7 is worth noting as it reflects strong representation from southern India in this cycle. Zinnia Aurora at AIR 6 adds to the strong women’s showing in this year’s results. Full details including marks and optional subjects for these candidates will be available once UPSC releases the detailed scorecard by around March 20.
UPSC had announced 1,087 vacancies for the Civil Services Examination 2025 cycle. Here is how the major services break down:
| Service | Vacancies |
|---|---|
| Indian Administrative Service (IAS) | 180 |
| Indian Police Service (IPS) | 150 |
| Indian Foreign Service (IFS) | 55 |
| Other Group A & B Central Services | Remaining posts |
Out of the 958 recommended candidates, 38 positions are reserved for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD). Category-wise, 317 of the total 958 selected candidates belong to the General category, and 104 are from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category. The remaining selections cover OBC, SC, and ST categories as per reservation norms.
Importantly, actual appointments to individual services will depend on the specific number of vacancies reported by the government for each service, candidate preferences, and category-wise merit. The service allocation process comes after the final merit list is released.
A lot of aspirants understand the examination process but are less clear on what happens after the result. Here is how it works in practice.
Once the merit list is published, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) takes over and issues appointment letters. Selected candidates are called for a foundation course, after which they proceed to their respective training academies. IAS officers go to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie, IPS officers head to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad, and IFS officers go through the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi.
The cadre allocation for IAS is based on a mix of rank, home state preference, and category. Higher-ranked candidates have more say in which state cadre they are allotted. For IPS, zonal allocation operates similarly. IFS postings are handled by the Ministry of External Affairs and are central service deployments across embassies and consulates.
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Prelims Examination | May 25, 2025 |
| Mains Examination | August 22 to 31, 2025 |
| Personality Test (Interview) begins | December 2025 |
| Personality Test concludes | February 27, 2026 |
| Final Result Declared | March 6, 2026 |
| Detailed Marks Release (expected) | By March 20, 2026 |
One thing worth noting: UPSC wrapped this result just seven days after the interviews concluded on February 27. That is consistent with recent years, where the commission has been increasingly efficient in closing out the cycle quickly after the personality test ends.
If there is one takeaway from the UPSC CSE 2025 topper list, it is that there is no single template for success. The AIR 1 is a doctor. The AIR 2 is an engineer who chose Sociology as her optional and cleared the exam on her fifth try. The AIR 3 is a commerce graduate. Raghav Jhunjhunwala at AIR 4 is an economics graduate who matched his academic background with his optional subject choice.
What cuts across all these backgrounds is the quality of preparation rather than the discipline or the degree. Optional subject selection, consistent answer writing practice, newspaper reading habits, and performance in the personality test together determine final rank. There is no shortcut, but there is clearly no single right path either.
A few practical patterns visible in recent years worth keeping in mind for UPSC 2026 preparation:
| Exam Year | AIR 1 | Total Selected |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Anuj Agnihotri | 958 |
| 2024 | Shakti Dubey | 1,009 |
| 2023 | Aditya Srivastava | 1,016 |
| 2022 | Ishita Kishore | 933 |
| 2021 | Shruti Sharma | 685 |
| 2020 | Shubham Kumar | 761 |
The 2025 cycle selected fewer candidates (958) compared to 2024 (1,009) and 2023 (1,016), largely because the government advertised fewer vacancies this year at 979 compared to 1,105 in 2024. The slight dip in total selections is a direct reflection of vacancy reporting, not any change in difficulty or standards of the exam.
If you appeared for the examination and want to verify your status, here is how to do it:
Candidates who have qualified will receive official communication from DoPT regarding the next steps, including document verification and training schedules. For any queries, UPSC’s Facilitation Counter is reachable on working days between 10 AM and 5 PM at 23385271, 23381125, and 23098543.
The UPSC CSE 2025 result is more than just a list of names and ranks. Behind every single one of those 958 selections is a multi-year journey of reading, revising, failing, recovering, and pushing forward again. Anuj Agnihotri topping with a medical background, Rajeshwari Suve building on a state-level posting to crack the national examination, and Akansh Dhull improving from AIR 342 to AIR 3 across attempts, these are the kinds of stories that make this examination unique in its character.
For those still preparing, UPSC 2026 prelims are scheduled for May 24, 2026, with mains on August 21, 2026. The window to start your preparation, or recalibrate it, is right now.
We will update this post as UPSC releases the detailed marks sheet and further information on service allocation. Bookmark this page and check back.
Source: Official UPSC merit list PDF (upsc.gov.in), PTI
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