There is a running joke in the circles of UPSC applicants in the Mukherjee Nagar and Old Rajinder Nagar of Delhi. Even if one gets the UPSC Civil Services Examination paper before the examination, there is no guarantee that he would be able to solve it. Jokes apart, candidates and mentors post 2026 UPSC The questions of the Prelims paper on May 24 were tough enough to make even the best-prepared sweat.
The jest about the tough and unexpected nature of the exam raises an issue that has gained currency in the wake of a series of paper leak allegations. How is it that UPSC has been able to conduct some of the biggest examinations in India year after year without being in the centre of such scandals?
The matter came up in the Supreme Court last week with the National Testing Agency (NTA) being questioned on anomalies in examinations. During the course of hearing before a bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, the court cited the UPSC as an example of how large-scale examinations might be conducted without the controversy of papers being leaked repeatedly. “You have to learn,” Justice Narasimha said, asking how NTA had handled security for the exam.
The observation has thrown the emphasis on a puzzle that has intrigued students and ordinary people alike for a long time .
UPSC conducts examinations in thousands of centres with millions of students appearing every year. While several recruitment boards and examination bodies have faced claims of leaks and cancellations on multiple occasions, the Commission has mostly maintained its reputation for confidentiality and process integrity.
What is different about UPSC?
Is it only a matter of experience, or are there institutional safeguards that make leaks significantly more difficult?
And can other employment agencies like the NTA or the SSC learn not just from the UPSC but also from top schools like the IITs and IIMs that conduct high-stakes entrance examinations like the JEE and CAT on a vast scale?
Experts and stakeholders say the answers lie in a combination of secrecy, compartmentalisation of papers, use of technology and decades-old decorum India “The UPSC has a strictness, established protocols and institutional decorum that makes it far more difficult to compromise the examination process,” Chandigarh-based UPSC tutor Shekhar Dutt told Repute Today.
UPSC CHALLENGE WHAT IS UPSC EXAM?
UPSC conducts examination every year to recruit candidates for the most prestigious services of India such as Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Foreign Service. It is the Civil Services Examination or the CSE. It is one of the numerous tests conducted by the Constitutional authority.
The CSE alone gets around one million candidates every year. Apart from this, the commission conducts exams for engineering services, combined medical services, NDA, CDS, central armed police forces and other recruiting tests.
But the UPSC, unlike other state recruitment boards and entrance examinations that have been shaken by leak claims in recent years, has mainly retained a reputation for confidentiality and process integrity.
Who sets the UPSC CSE question paper?
One of the greatest contrasts is the UPSC CSE exam nature and the availability to the question papers.
“One reason UPSC is less prone to paper leaks is that most of its flagship examinations are conducted in multiple stages,” said Shekhar Dutt, UPSC mentor and founder of Sleepy Classes.“When an examination has prelims, mains and an interview stage, the incentive and impact of leaking a single paper is far lower than in a one-shot examination,” Dutt added.
He, however, cautioned against the perception of UPSC as an infallible organization. “It has its own share of issues and criticisms,” Dutt added. We’ll get to them in this piece.
Another reason he cited is that the question papers are set by a closely controlled network of specialists. The question papers are prepared from that pool of questions by the moderators and paper setters who sign tight confidentiality agreements and are prepared independently by many topic experts.
“There is no clear public information on the exact process followed by the UPSC,” Dutt added. “But in general, it is observed that there is some internal mechanism to monitor the question paper preparation and related security protocols,” Dutt said.
Dutt said that the UPSC examination was inherently a disincentive for leaks. “The stakes are quite high. “The officials who are part of the process are not going to risk their careers and reputations for something like this,” he said.
However, he noted, single-stage exams like NEET or UGC-NET give various incentives to the persons who leak question papers. In single state tests, you only need to leak the paper once.
“The motivation for a leak can be much higher. There are millions taking these examinations. This year, for CSE, eight lakh candidates applied and just five lakh appeared for the exam. In tests like NEET, a leaked paper might assist an applicant get admission into a medical college or any other school. You are talking about selection of persons who will go on to create the steel frame of the country in UPSC. The scrutiny, accountability and repercussions are on a different plane altogether,” Dutt said.
Several accused and arrested in NEET-UG 2026 paper leak case have intimate links with the question paper-setting process. The CBI has detained PV Kulkarni, a retired chemistry professor and a member of NTA’s expert panel. Among the specialists who got access to the paper was Pune’s Modern College botany professor Manisha Mandhare, another accused in the case.
UPSC’s SECURITY LAYER BEYOND QUESTION SETTERS
The printing and movement of question papers are classified as high-security procedures.
Papers are printed in safe, monitored environments and conveyed in sealed packets to examination sites. The UPSC examinations have the advantage of a substantial degree of government control and of being largely insulated from private players.
Dutt cited another reason which he believes renders UPSC comparatively less prone to paper leaks: the location of its exam centres.
“If you look at the UPSC centres, they are mostly in state capitals and big cities. Compare this with exams like NEET, where the centres are distributed throughout hundreds of cities including smaller towns. That creates a huge logistical difficulty in terms of protecting sanctity of question papers,” he said.
A 32-year-old UPSC aspirant, who did not want to be named, said, “Over the years, the Commission brought in many technological and procedural reforms to improve the transparency and security of exams. These include alteration in seating arrangements, control of exam centres through 5G jamming and the evaluation processes.
Many of these techniques were adopted by the UPSC and currently being followed by state commissions. “For instance, the UPSC has taken steps like giving answer sheets to candidates in the interest of transparency and has been followed by bodies like the BPSC,” said the UPSC aspirant, who has one chance left, and has been appearing for State Commission exams as a Plan B.
The applicant from Uttar Pradesh, who has already appeared for the UPSC CSE interview boards thrice, said he hoped such constructive efforts will be taken up by Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC).
Days after the Civil Services Preliminary Examination was conducted on May 24, the UPSC provided a provisional answer key, for the first time in its history allowing candidates to challenge answers before the final key was released. The move is viewed universally as a major step toward increased transparency.
NOT PAPER LEAKS, UPSC HAS OTHER PROBLEMS TO DEAL
The absence of significant controversies of paper leaks does not indicate there is no malpractice in UPSC. The Commission has had to face varied set of obstacles over the years including impersonation, cheating through electronic gadgets, faked credentials and candidates allegedly abuse reservation and handicap benefits,” Shekhar Dutt said.
Dutt remembered the most high-profile case of the probationary IPS officer Safir Karim who was discovered using a Bluetooth device while reappearing for Civil Services Examination in 2014 to better his rank and get the IAS.
His wife, Joyce Joy, was passing him answers from outside the examination hall, investigators claimed. The case was compared with sequences from Munna Bhai MBBS featuring Sanjay Dutt.
Dutt also remembered the instance of trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar who was in the eye of a storm over allegations of presenting OBC and disability certificates to gain reservation benefits and additional attempts at the CSE.
Investigations suggested that Khedkar had been writing the UPSC examination since 2012 and had used dubious certifications to be eligible for additional attempts.
Now, as the Supreme Court pulls up the NTA over the NEET paper leak and holds up the UPSC as a model worth following, one thing stands clear that institutional trust is not developed overnight. This is what decades of protocols, oversight and constant adaption to new forms of malfeasance have produced. And it is perhaps why the old joke of UPSC still lingers.