Pradeep Singh IAS

At present, he is 29 years old.
He topped the UPSC Civil Service Examination after going through a long journey of damn 4 attempts.
He was previously selected as IRS officer, and now after getting AIR-1 he is IAS officer (P).

About Pradeep Singh

"I never expected that I will top UPSC"

The All India Rank 1 is from Tewari village, Haryana.
He has done his schooling from S.D.Modern School, Sonipat, Haryana.
He has done B. Tech in Computer Science from Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Sonipat’s (Haryana).
His father's name is Sukhbir Singh, who is a farmer and former sarpanch of Tewari village (Haryana).

"My father is my biggest motivation"

During his preparation when he felt low as it was difficult for him to prepare for the examinations while working, it was his father Mr Sukhbir Singh who encouraged him not to give up and try hard.
He worked as an Inspector in the Income Tax department, in Faridabad, Haryana while preparing for the UPSC CSE. In his previous attempt he got 260th rank, he then took leave to prepare for the examination last year.

In his previous two attempts, he could not clear the UPSC prelims exam. Then later he got the Indian Revenue Services in IAS exam 2018.
He took coaching for preparation in his initial phase, but after selection in IRS; he prepared for the CSE without coaching (as he was already in training) in which he got AIR-1.

UPSC motivational quote

He says, there are many websites and online platforms which help an aspirant for free UPSC preparation.
He suggests the candidates should make a separate strategy for separate phases of UPSC.
He believes that the UPSC prelims, main and interview are three different exams and thus need different approaches to qualify each of them.

The topper suggests that for UPSC CSE prelims, his primary focus remained on Current Affairs and factual knowledge.
He suggests that all the UPSC aspirants should dedicate their last three or four months for the UPSC Prelims and design their study plan based on their strengths and weaknesses.

According to him, UPSC CSE mains requires the focus on answer writing practice along with the analysis of the current events and issues.
He suggests to all the candidates that one should start with the basic general studies topics (i.e reading NCERT's) and then go for the current affairs so they can understand and relate the current events with the general studies topics.
His optional subject was Public Administration.
He suggests that all the UPSC aspirants should focus on answer writing practise for UPSC Mains exam because the candidates get only three and a half months to prepare after the prelims exam and the syllabus of UPSC is very vast, the aspirant could not cover all the topics and the answer writing practice in such a short period.

In UPSC interview round, current affairs and Detailed Application Form (DAF) are the focus area.
For UPSC Interview round, he suggests that a UPSC aspirant can improve his personality over time.
He suggested that an aspirant who got a chance to appear in an interview must explore the questions which can be framed from their Detailed Application Form (DAF).

Total of Pradeep Singh's Marksheet comes to 1072

He was not at all expecting the AIR-1 and the UPSC IAS result surprised him, all just because he didn't give up and tried for almost 5 years.
He made his family and state proud by achieving the rank 1 in UPSC CSE.
And so you can too.