Shruti Sharma topped the civil services examination 2021 with 54.56 per cent marks, and second rank holder Ankita Agarwal scored 51.85 per cent in the prestigious test conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to select the country's civil servants. A total of 685 candidates – 508 men and 177 women – have cleared the examination, results of which were announced by the Commission on Monday.

The civil services examination is conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages – preliminary, main and interview – to select officers for the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Police Service among others. The preliminary examination consists of two papers of objective type (multiple choice) questions and carries a maximum of 400 marks.

This stage is meant to serve as a screening test only, and the marks obtained in it by the candidates, who are declared qualified for admission to the main examination, are not counted for determining their final order of merit. The merit is determined out of the total of 2,025 marks – written or main exam is of 1,750 marks and the interview is of 275.

Sharma got a total of 1,105 marks – 932 in the written and 173 in the personality test (or interview), according to the marks of recommended candidates disclosed by the UPSC. Agarwal scored 1,050 – 871 in written and 179 in interview, it said. Third rank achiever Gamini Singla got 1,045 – 858 in the main and 187 in the interview – and fourth rank holder Aishwarya Verma scored 1,039 (860 in written and 1179 in interview).

Utkarsh Dwivedi got the fifth rank with a total of 1,036 marks – 871 in written and 165 in the interview. The civil services (preliminary) examination, 2021 was conducted on October 10, 2021. A total of 10,93,984 candidates applied for this examination, out of which 5,08,619 candidates appeared. As many as 9,214 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in January this year.

A total of 1,824 candidates qualified for the personality test of the examination. Of the total of 685 successful candidates, 244 are from the General category, 73 from Economically Weaker Section, 203 from Other Backward Classes, 105 from Scheduled Castes and 60 from the Scheduled Tribes. The Centre had notified 749 vacancies – 180 of IAS, 37 of Indian Foreign Service (IFS), 200 of IPS and remaining central Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ services – to be filled through the 2021 examination.

(With PTI inputs)