The UPSC will begin releasing provisional answer keys starting with the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Thy will also be for all structured examinations conducted by UPSC. Union MoS Jitendra Singh. (@DrJitendraSingh X)
Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said this in a written reply to a question by Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma.
Sharma had asked about the steps taken to ensure real-time disclosure of preliminary exam marks and answer keys, as well as the measures taken to establish a single-window grievance portal for candidates to challenge factual errors in recruitment examinations
Singh said in his reply, “In compliance with the judgment of the Supreme Court in W.P. (C) No. 118/2024, UPSC has formulated guidelines to release the Provisional Answer Key on its official website after the Preliminary Examination is conducted. This will be implemented from the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026 onwards, for all structured examinations conducted by UPSC. Marks of the Preliminary Examination shall be released only after the declaration of final result of the Examination.”
In the 2025 Civil Services Examination, the government had received 937,876 applicants, of whom 576,793 wrote the examination. The UPSC conducts at least 16 examinations throughout the year.
The minister also listed the steps regarding an online portal for discrepancies in question papers and provisional answer keys. “For challenging factual errors, UPSC has a dedicated portal named Question Paper Representation Portal (QPRep) accessible on its website https://upsconline.nic.in. Candidates can submit representations regarding discrepancies in question paper and provisional answer keys (with effect from Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2026 onwards) through the portal. UPSC also deals with grievances submitted by candidates on Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and emails,” he said.