UPSC IES Syllabus 2027: Prelims and Mains Guide for All Four Streams

The UPSC IES syllabus is set out in the Engineering Services Examination (ESE) 2027 notification issued by the Union Public Service Commission on 16 September 2026. It has one common paper, General Studies and Engineering Aptitude, and a discipline syllabus for each of the four streams: Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering.

This page summarises every paper topic by topic, shows how the prelims and mains syllabus overlap, and gives a phased plan to cover it before the preliminary exam on 31 January 2027. The summary is written for planning. For the exact wording, use the syllabus in the official notification, which UPSC says is set at the standard of an engineering degree exam of an Indian university.

Table of Contents

• UPSC IES syllabus at a glance

• Key points to know

• General Studies and Engineering Aptitude syllabus

• Civil Engineering syllabus

• Mechanical Engineering syllabus

• Electrical Engineering syllabus

• Electronics and Telecommunication syllabus

• Overlap between prelims and mains

• Is there a syllabus for the interview?

• How to cover the syllabus

UPSC IES syllabus at a glance

Key points to know

• One discipline syllabus, two uses: Each stream has a Paper I and a Paper II syllabus. Prelims Paper II tests both together in objective form, and mains tests them separately in conventional form.

• All 10 General Studies topics appear: The notification says questions are set from every topic, and each topic carries 5 to 15 percent of the paper's marks.

• No practical exam: There is no practical test in any subject.

• Standard tables are supplied: Where needed, standard tables and charts in SI units are provided in the exam hall.

• Older lists differ: Older pages may still show an outdated syllabus or paper structure, so follow the current notification.

General Studies and Engineering Aptitude syllabus (Prelims Paper I)

This paper is common to all four streams and is set at the level expected of an engineering or science graduate, without special study.

Because every topic carries at least 5 percent, skipping any of them is risky. Engineering mathematics, aptitude and material science overlap with your discipline papers, so they are quick wins.

Civil Engineering syllabus

Paper I

• Building materials: Stone, lime, cement, timber, bricks, aggregates, steel, plastics and fly ash; cement tests; concrete properties and mix design.

• Solid mechanics: Elastic constants, stress and strain, Mohr's circle, theories of failure, bending, shear and torsion.

• Structural analysis: Determinate and indeterminate structures, trusses and frames, influence lines, vibrations, cables and computer-aided design.

• Design of steel structures: Working stress method, tension and compression members, beams, connections, girders, industrial roofs and ultimate load design.

• Design of concrete and masonry structures: Limit state design, slabs, foundations, retaining walls, tanks, prestressed concrete, earthquake-resistant design and masonry.

• Construction practice, planning and management: Planning, equipment, estimation, network analysis, rate analysis, tendering, contracts, quality control and labour safety.

Paper II

• Fluids, hydraulic machines and hydro power: Fluid properties, dimensional analysis, open channel and pipe flow, boundary layer, pumps, turbines and power house layout.

• Hydrology and water resources: Hydrological cycle, groundwater, floods and droughts, reservoirs, irrigation, canal design, dams, weirs and river training.

• Environmental engineering: Water supply and treatment, wastewater and sewerage, sludge management, solid waste, and air and noise pollution.

• Geotechnical and foundation engineering: Soil properties and tests, seepage, consolidation, shear strength, earth pressure, foundations, slope stability and ground improvement.

• Surveying and geology: Survey methods and instruments, GPS, photogrammetry, remote sensing, curve setting and engineering geology.

• Transportation engineering: Highway planning and geometric design, traffic, pavement design, tunnelling, railways, harbours and airports.

Mechanical Engineering syllabus

Paper I

• Fluid mechanics: Fluid properties, manometry, buoyancy, Bernoulli's equation, viscous, laminar and turbulent flow, and pipe losses.

• Thermodynamics and heat transfer: Laws of thermodynamics, entropy, availability, power and gas cycles, conduction, convection, radiation, boiling and heat exchangers.

• IC engines, refrigeration and air conditioning: SI and CI engines, fuels and emissions, vapour compression and other refrigeration systems, psychrometry and load calculations.

• Turbomachinery: Pumps, Pelton, Kaplan and Francis turbines, velocity diagrams, steam and gas turbines, jet propulsion and compressors.

• Power plant engineering: Rankine and Brayton cycles with reheat and regeneration, fuels, boilers, condensers, precipitators and cooling towers.

• Renewable energy: Solar thermal and photovoltaic systems, wind, biomass, tidal energy and fuel cells.

Paper II

• Engineering mechanics and strength of materials: Force systems, friction, centroids, dynamics, stresses, bending, deflection, torsion and cylinders.

• Engineering materials: Crystallography, phase diagrams, heat treatment, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, nano-materials, testing and corrosion.

• Mechanisms and machines: Kinematics, cams, vibrations, gears and gear trains, balancing, gyroscopes and governors.

• Design of machine elements: Static and fatigue design, joints, shafts, gears, bearings, brakes, clutches and flywheels.

• Manufacturing, industrial and maintenance engineering: Casting, forming, joining, machining, metrology, CIM, production planning, operations research and condition monitoring.

• Mechatronics and robotics: Microprocessors, PLCs, sensors and actuators, control system modelling, and robot kinematics.

Electrical Engineering syllabus

Paper I

• Engineering mathematics: Matrices, numerical methods, calculus, differential equations, complex variables, probability and statistics.

• Electrical materials: Conducting, insulating and magnetic materials, ceramics, solid state basics, nano-materials and superconductors.

• Electric circuits and fields: Network theorems, transients, AC analysis, two-port and three-phase circuits, electrostatics, magnetostatics and Maxwell's equations.

• Electrical and electronic measurements: Bridges, analog and digital instruments, power and energy measurement, instrument transformers, oscilloscopes and transducers.

• Computer fundamentals: Number systems, Boolean algebra, CPU, memory and I/O organisation, operating systems and networking basics.

• Basic electronics engineering: Diodes, BJTs, FETs and MOSFETs, amplifiers, frequency response, oscillators and feedback.

Paper II

• Analog and digital electronics: Op-amps, combinational and sequential logic, converters, filters, microprocessor basics, and analog and digital communication.

• Systems and signal processing: Signals and LTI systems, Fourier, Laplace and Z transforms, DFT and FFT, and FIR and IIR filters.

• Control systems: Transfer functions, signal flow graphs, stability criteria, Bode, Nyquist and root locus, compensators, state space and PID control.

• Electrical machines: Transformers, DC machines, induction motors, synchronous machines, and servo and stepper motors.

• Power systems: Transmission and cables, faults and protection, circuit breakers, load flow, stability, HVDC and FACTS, distributed generation and smart grids.

• Power electronics and drives: Power devices, controlled rectifiers, choppers, inverters, switched mode converters and DC and AC drives.

Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering syllabus

Paper I

• Basic electronics engineering: Semiconductors, diodes, BJTs, JFETs and MOSFETs, amplifiers, oscillators, ICs, op-amps and optoelectronics.

• Basic electrical engineering: DC and AC circuits, electromagnetism, transformers, machines, power sources and batteries.

• Materials science: Crystal structures, ceramics, insulating and magnetic materials, nano-materials and superconductivity.

• Electronic measurements and instrumentation: Measurement principles, errors, transducers, telemetry and data acquisition.

• Network theory: Network graphs, time and frequency domain analysis of RLC circuits, Laplace methods, two-port parameters and state equations.

• Analog and digital circuits: Small signal models, biasing, amplifiers, feedback, active filters, converters, logic families, counters, memories and microprocessors.

Paper II

• Analog and digital communication systems: Noise, probability, information theory, AM and FM, PCM, digital modulation, multiple access and optical communication.

• Control systems: Signals and systems, transforms, stability criteria, Bode and Nyquist plots, compensators and PID control.

• Computer organisation and architecture: CPU, memory and I/O, operating systems, virtual memory, databases and concurrency.

• Electromagnetics: Maxwell's equations, wave propagation, transmission lines and Smith chart, waveguides and antennas.

• Advanced electronics topics: VLSI technology and design, DSP and digital filters, microprocessors, microcontrollers and embedded systems.

• Advanced communication topics: Communication networks and the OSI model, cellular networks, microwave and satellite links, and fibre-optic systems.

Overlap between prelims and mains

Is there a syllabus for the interview?

No. The personality test has no written syllabus. UPSC assesses leadership, initiative, intellectual curiosity, tact, social qualities, practical application and integrity. Expect questions on your engineering background, your preferred services and current issues in your field.

How to cover the UPSC IES syllabus

1. Weeks 1 to 8: Core discipline subjects with the highest overlap across both papers. Spend 30 to 40 minutes a day on General Studies topics.

2. From week 6: Add topic-wise objective tests for finished subjects, without a calculator, and keep an error log.

3. Weeks 9 to 12: Finish the remaining discipline subjects and all 10 General Studies topics. Solve previous year papers from the UPSC website.

4. Final phase before prelims: Full-length Paper I and Paper II mocks under timed conditions, same-day analysis and error-log revision.

5. After prelims: Shift to conventional answer writing, derivations and numericals for the main exam.

The full topic text is in the official ESE 2027 notification.