Optional Subject List for UPSC: Detailed Guide to Help You Choose the Perfect Optional Subject

Every year thousands of aspirants try their luck with the UPSC civil service examination to become IAS, IPS, and so on. But the success rate is very low owing to its competition, changing syllabus, and vast syllabus. CSE is conducted in three different phases, Preliminary, Mains, and Interview. But one thing is that it confuses each candidate. What? Optional subject. Out of nine papers of mains two are devoted to optional subjects.

The candidates have to choose one among the list of optional subjects provided by the UPSC. But the vast choice confuses them. They often get distorted among which one to choose? Which is the scoring optional subject? And, which optional subject is the best?

Let’s answer each of them and analyze the optional subject list for UPSC.

Optional Subject of UPSC Exam

UPSC CSE is conducted in three phases: Prelims, Mains and Interview. The mains is a written exam. It has around nine papers. And candidates have to clear all of them with minimum qualifying marks.

Among nine different papers, two are devoted to optional subjects. Each paper carries 250 marks and thus combined the optimal subject carries 500 marks out of 1750 marks. The candidates are provided with a long list of optional subjects to choose from and therefore candidates must be cautious to choose the best one for them.

Also Read: UPSC Optional Subject List: UPSC Toppers Recommended Best Optional Subject to Score High

List of UPSC Optional Subjects

The Union public service commission provides a long list of optional subjects for candidates to choose from.

Subject

Agriculture

Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science

Anthropology

Botany

Chemistry

Civil Engineering

Commerce and Accountancy

Economics

Electrical Engineering

Geography

Geology

History

Law

Management

Mathematics

Mechanical Engineering

Medical Science

Philosophy

Physics

Political Science and International Relations

Psychology

Public Administration

Sociology

Statistics

Zoology

Literature

Assamese

Bengali

Bodo

Dogri

Gujarati

Hindi

Kannada

Kashmiri

Konkani

Maithili

Malayalam

Manipuri

Marathi

Nepali

Odia

Punjabi

Sanskrit

Santhali

Sindhi

Tamil

Telugu

Urdu

English

Also Read: A Detailed Guide to Choose the Best Optional Subject for UPSC Exam: Find out WHich Optional is Best!

How to Choose the Best Optional Subject in UPSC?

Choosing the best optional subject is very important for your UPSC CSE mains. As already mentioned above, it carries 500 marks out of 1750 marks on the written exam. Therefore you have to be extremely careful while choosing the best of all subjects among the list of optional subjects provided by UPSC.

Usually, the choice of optional subject is the first from one candidate to another. Their choice is dependent on their educational background, subject preference, and their calculations. But apart from this, they are often confused to choose the best one. Therefore letters find out the best steps to find a perfect optional subject for you.

Here are three main steps to choose an optional subject:

#1. First, read carefully the list of optional subjects provided by the Union public service commission. There are many of the subjects listed by UPSC but among them, you have to filter some of your favourites.

#2. After choosing your favourite research deeply on each one. You should consider the syllabus, resources, and your knowledge and filter out the three best ones among them.

#3. After picking the best three, choose the best one according to your interest and resource availability.

Factors to Consider While Choosing the Optional Subject

#1. Overlapping Syllabus

Some of the subjects like political science, history, geography, sociology, economics syllabus overlap prelims, and general studies syllabus. This can help you with your time and help you to cover your syllabus fast.

#2. Popular Optional

Often candidates wonder which subject is more scoring. Subjects like history, geography, political science are popular choices and thus candidates are usually inclined to those. Remember popularity is one aspect but what matters the most is your interest.

#3. Resource Availability

Among 47 optional subjects, resource availability is different for each. For some subjects, more resources such as books, coaching institutes, assistance, and materials are available easily. But for some subjects resources are restricted.

#4. Educational Background

It is always smart to choose a subject similar to your graduation or post-graduation. This gives you an upper hand in that you can easily excel in it. Moreover, as you are already familiar with the subject you can easily understand the subject without much effort. Often you can find candidates with engineering background options for similar subjects.

#5. Interest

You should choose the subject that intrigued you most. This can help you to understand the vast syllabus without getting bored. For example, you choose a subject that looks ideal in all terms but does not intrigue you. You will get bored in the middle of your preparation and your scores will be affected.

#6. Current Affairs

Some subjects like political science & international relations, public administration, etc are closely related to current affairs and events. Therefore you should focus on current affairs related to it while preparing. On the other hand, subjects like history, sociology, and philosophy have more static components and do not depend on current affairs.

#7. Success Rate

You can also go through the choice of optional subjects of previous year successful candidates. This can help you to understand what is the success rate of the optional subject.

Which Optional Subject is Beneficial for General Studies?

Subjects that overlap with the general studies syllabus are beneficial for you. Here are the subjects that overlap the GS syllabus.

Subject	Paper
History	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
Geography	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I
Political Science	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper-II
Economics	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper III
Mathematics	Prelims CSAT
Public Administration	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper-II and IV
Sociology	Prelims and Mains General Studies Paper I, II, and Essay
Philosophy	Essay and Mains General Studies Paper IV
English	Prelims, Mains English Paper, Modern Indian Language and Essay
Hindi	Modern Indian Language and Essay

Also Read: 6 Best Optional Subjects in UPSC: Guide to Choose the Most Scoring Non-technical Subjects

Success Rate of Candidates with Different Optional Subject (2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014)

2017

Subject

No.	Optional Subject	Candidates Appeared	Candidates Recommended	Success Rate
1	Agriculture	89	11	12.4
2	Anthropology	880	85	9.7
3	Chemistry	126	11	8.7
4	Accounts	224	28	12.5
5	Electrical Engineering	193	19	9.8
6	Geology	37	2	5.4
7	Law	3041	43	4.1
8	Mathematics	441	26	5.9
9	Medical Science	313	32	10.2
10	Physics	140	14	10
11	Psychology	193	21	10.9
12	Sociology	1421	137	9.6
13	Animal Husbandry	23	2	8.7
14	Botany	44	5	11.4
15	Civil Engineering	124	11	8.9
16	Economics	233	16	6.9
17	Geography	2669	147	5.5
18	History	1074	59	5.5
19	Management	86	7	8.1
20	Mechanical Engineering	170	19	11.2
21	Philosophy	755	53	7
22	Political  Science	1246	117	9.4
23	Public Administration	1165	119	10.2
24	Statistics	3	0	0
25	Zoology	484	18	3.7

Literature

No.	Optional Subject	Candidates Appeared	Candidates Recommended
1	English Literature	21	2
2	Assamese Literature	3	0
3	Manipuri Literature	13	1
4	Hindi Literature	267	19
5	Maithili Literature	78	5
6	Bodo Literature	1	1
7	Odia Literature	5	0
8	Punjabi Literature	39	6
9	Marathi Literature	17	0
10	Gujarati Literature	101	8
11	Kannada Literature	115	4
12	Bengali Literature	3	0
13	Sindhi Literature	2	1
14	Tamil Literature	107	5
15	Telugu Literature	72	1
16	Urdu Literature	26	5
17	Sanskrit Literature	70	5
18	Nepali Literature	1	0
19	Malayalam Literature	111	8

2016

Subject

No.	Optional Subject	Candidates Appeared	Candidates Recommended	Success Rate
1	Agriculture	220	41	18.6
2	Medical science	98	16	16.3
3	Animal husbandry	65	8	12.3
4	Economics	326	37	11.3
5	Psychology	1061	116	10.9
6	Anthropology	345	37	10.7
7	Public administration	3201	337	10.5
8	Political science	1320	85	6.4
9	Geography	4049	236	5.8
10	Sociology	1555	89	5.7
11	Chemistry	124	7	5.6
12	Accountancy	266	15	5.6
13	History	3870	212	5.5
14	Law	365	19	5.2
15	Philosophy	2092	84	4
16	Zoology	484	18	3.7
17	Mathematics	277	8	2.9

Literature

No.	Optional Subject	Candidates Appeared	Candidates Recommended	Success Rate
1	Assamese	5	2	40
2	Punjabi	19	5	26.3
3	Gujarati	42	7	16.7
4	Kannada	84	14	16.7
5	Marathi	42	7	16.7
6	English	40	6	15
7	Urdu	29	4	13.8
8	Tamil	225	29	12.9
9	Sanskrit	122	10	8.2
10	Malayalam	67	5	7.5
11	Pali	255	18	7.1
12	Telugu	147	9	6.1
13	Hindi	974	56	5.7

2015

No.	Optional Subject	No. of Candidates Appeared	No. of Candidates Recommended	Success Rate Percentage
1	Medical Science	235	55	23.4
2	Economics	269	51	19
3	Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science	52	12	23.1
4	Law	246	42	17.1
5	Agriculture	122	20	16.4
6	Commerce & Accountancy	188	28	14.9
7	Management	167	24	14.4
8	Geology	28	4	14.4
9	Botany	104	12	11.5
10	Zoology	228	29	12.7
11	Political Science & International Relations	1107	121	10.9
12	Chemistry	104	11	10.6
13	Civil Engineering	47	5	10.6
14	Sociology	2490	230	9.2
15	Philosophy	1116	99	8.9
16	History	2090	174	8.3
17	Psychology	1163	92	7.9
18	Geography	4351	314	7.2
19	Anthropology	579	38	6.3
20	Mathematics	325	23	7.1
21	Physics	266	17	6.4
22	Electrical Engineering	126	8	6.3
23	Public Administration	7077	359	5.1
24	Mechanical Engineering	64	3	4.7
25	Statistics	16	1	6.3

2014

No.	Optional Subject	Number of Candidates  Appeared Recommended	Number of Candidates Recommended	Success Rate Percentage
1	Literature of Santali Language	1	1	100
2	Law	144	35	24.3
3	Economics	188	38	20.2
4	Literature of Urdu Language	28	5	17.9
5	Literature of Bengali Language	6	1	16.7
6	Statistics	6	1	16.7
7	Literature of English Language	30	5	16.7
8	Medical Science	293	48	16.4
9	Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science	32	5	15.6
10	Botany	50	7	14.0
11	Management	16723		13.8
12	Civil Engineering	54	7	13.0
13	Literature of Gujarati Language	64	8	12.5
14	Literature of Kannada Language	75 9		12.0
15	Anthropology	449	53	11.8
16	Electrical Engineering	11313		11.5
17	Literature of Punjabi Language	54 6		11.1
18	Literature of Maithili Language	84 9		10.7
19	Literature of Tamil Language	758		10.7
20	Literature of Oriya Language	10 1		10.0
21	Zoology	92 9		9.8
22	Psychology	34834		9.8
23	Sociology	1647	150	9.1
24	Agriculture	77	7	9.1
25	Physics	147	13	8.8
26	Literature of Malayalam Language	69	6	8.7
27	Philosophy	73658		7.9
28	History	1303	100	7.7
29	Commerce & Accountancy	20015		7.5
30	Chemistry	85  6		7.1
31	Geology	151		6.7
32	Mechanical Engineering	60   4		6.7
33	Public Administration	2840	176	6.2
34	Political Science & International Relations	65140		6.1
35	Mathematics	32920		6.1
36	Geography	3158	178	5.6
37	Literature of Sanskrit Language	71	4	5.6
38	Literature of Manipuri Language	20	1	5.0
39	Literature of Telugu Language	93	4	4.3
40	Literature of Hindi Language	284	12	4.2
41	Literature of Marathi Language	26	1	3.8
42	Literature of Dogri Language	1	0	0.0
43	Literature of Sindhi (Devanagari) Language	1	0	0.0
44	Literature of Assamese Language	2	0	0.0

Also Read: Highest Scoring Optional in UPSC: List of IAS Toppers with Optional Subjects

Toppers and their Optional Subject

Year	UPSC Topper Name (Rank 1)	Optional Subject Chosen
2020	Subham Kumar	Anthropology
2019	Pradeep Singh	Public Administration
2018	Kanishka Kataria	Mathematics
2017	Anudeep Durishetty	Anthropology
2016	Nandini K. R.	Kannada Literature
2015	Tina Dabi	Political Science
2014	Ira Singhal	Geography
2013	Gaurav Aggarwal	Economics

Also Read: UPSC Toppers Optional Subjects 2020-21: A Complete List of Most Chosen UPSC Optionals by Toppers

Conclusion

Here was a detailed guide for your optional subject. I hope you are clear with your choice by now. Do let us know about your choice in the comment section below. Also for better UPSC preparation and help visit UPSC Pathshala website now.

Best of Luck!