Indian Engineering Services (IES/ESE)

Planning, building and running public engineering works. Depending on your service, this could be buildings and roads for the Central Government, railway civil, electrical, mechanical or signal work, telecom networks, power systems, or defence engineering and quality checks. You lead teams, check designs and tenders, visit sites and manage budgets.

A day in the work
An officer in a works department might start by checking progress reports and then drive out to a building or road site. There, they check the quality of work with the contractor and the junior engineers. After lunch, they go through drawings, estimates and bills, sign off files and attend a review meeting with senior officers. In Railways, Telecom or Defence, the work is different but the pattern is similar: some time in the field, some time with files and teams. Emergencies, such as a failed power line or a damaged road after rain, can pull you out at odd hours.

1. Step 1 · Class 11–12Take Physics, Chemistry and Maths. Most engineering colleges ask for this, and it keeps all four ESE branches open. Decide later whether Civil, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronics & Telecom suits you.
2. Step 2 · 4 years after Class 12Do a B.E./B.Tech in one of the four ESE branches. You enter through JEE Main, JEE Advanced or a state entrance test. UPSC accepts a degree from a university set up by an Act of Parliament or a State or Central Act, or a deemed university. Final-year students can usually apply for the Preliminary, but their admission stays provisional until they show the degree (reported).
3. Step 3 · Preliminary examESE 2027 Preliminary: 31 January 2027. It is one day, with objective questions in two papers: General Studies & Engineering Aptitude (200 marks) and your branch paper (300 marks). Wrong answers lose marks. Unlike the Civil Services prelims, these marks count towards your final merit (reported). You can apply for only one branch. (reported — check with the official body)
4. Step 4 · Main examESE 2027 Main: 18 June 2027. There are two written papers in your branch, 300 marks each, 3 hours each. You write long answers by hand. Only those who clear the cut-offs go on to the interview.
5. Step 5 · Personality Test (interview)Held at UPSC, New Delhi, and worth 200 marks (reported). The board checks your engineering knowledge, clarity, character and awareness. Final merit is the total of Preliminary, Main and interview marks (1,300 in all) (reported). (reported — check with the official body)
6. Step 6 · Medical and service allotmentRecommended candidates are medically examined. UPSC then allots services by your rank, your category, the preferences you gave, and the number of vacancies in each service, subject to medical fitness.
7. Step 7 · Training and probationYou join as a Group A officer, usually as Assistant Executive Engineer or similar, and go through the training and probation set by your service, such as Railways, CPWD or Defence. Length and place differ from service to service. Check the rules of the service you are allotted. (reported — check with the official body)

Fees from: UPSC: ESE 2027 notice No. 02/2027-ENGG · NIT Uttarakhand B.Tech Fees Structure 2026-27 (official PDF) · Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology B.Tech Annual Fee Structure 2026-27 (official PDF) · AICTE Students Development Schemes (official page). Fees change every year — check the college's own fee page before you pay.

Pay starts at a fixed government level and rises with promotions, so it is the same whichever city you are posted in, apart from city-based allowances. Your service matters too. Later, the posts you reach and the postings you get (such as housing, vehicle and staff) change what the job feels like and pays.

The 2027 notice reserves 19 vacancies for persons with benchmark disabilities: 11 for locomotor disability (including leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy), 6 for hard of hearing, 1 for low vision, and 1 for specific learning disability and multiple disabilities. The upper age limit is relaxed for PwBD candidates by up to 10 years, and different services and posts have their own medical standards. For some posts, the eligibility of transgender candidates is yet to be decided by the Government. Women do not pay the exam fee (reported).

• Class 7–9Build a small working model this month, such as a bridge from ice-cream sticks, a simple electric circuit or a rain-water collector. Test it and note what fails and why.
• Class 10–12Take a free introductory engineering or physics course on NPTEL or SWAYAM. If you are 15+, look at community projects on MY Bharat to see how local work gets planned and run.Open link ↗
• College or afterRead the latest ESE notice on upsc.gov.in once, start to finish. Note the eligibility, age rules and the list of services. Then pick one core subject from your branch and follow a free NPTEL course on it.Open link ↗

• ESE 2027 was notified on 16 September 2026 and applications closed on 6 October 2026. If you are in school now, you will apply in a later year, usually in the final year of your B.Tech or soon after. The notice normally comes out around September.
• Age limit in the 2027 notice: 21 to 30 years on 1 January 2027. The upper limit is relaxed by 3 years for OBC, 5 years for SC/ST, 5 years for eligible ex-servicemen and up to 10 years for PwBD candidates. Read the full notice for the rules and combinations.
• UPSC does not recruit through ESE on GATE scores. Some posts need extra conditions. For example, the notice says a few services accept an M.Sc. with a wireless or electronics speciality, and degrees from IETE or the Aeronautical Society of India taken after 31 May 2013 are not accepted. Always read the latest notice.
• Some Group A services in the list are not mainly about construction. They cover telecom, radio regulation, naval stores and armament, skill development, and defence quality checks.