ESE Exam 2027: Dates, Notification Window and How to Apply

The ESE exam 2027 is the Union Public Service Commission’s Engineering Services Examination, 2027. It is the recruitment exam for Group A and Group B engineering posts in the central government. The annual calendar released on 20 May 2026 puts the notification on 16 September 2026, the last date for applications on 6 October 2026, and Prelims on Sunday, 31 January 2027. That apply window is still open until 6:00 pm on 6 October 2026.

Most people type IES when they mean this exam, and then mix it up with a different UPSC paper that actually uses the letters IES. ESE is the Commission’s name for the engineering exam. IES is the older popular name for the officers it produces. Indian Economic Service is a separate exam, listed on the same calendar as I.E.S./I.S.S., and it even shares the ESE Mains date of 18 June 2027. This note settles the 2027 dates, the four branches, the three stages and how to apply. It does not treat vacancy totals or cut-offs as fixed numbers.

ESE Exam 2027 Dates at a Glance

The dates below come from the Commission’s 2027 programme (as on 20 May 2026) and from the live Engineering Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2027 listing. Dates can still move. The UPSC syllabus on this site is the Civil Services map, not the ESE paper list. For the rest of the 2027 timetable, the live neighbour is the UPSC exam date 2026 calendar. A full UPSC Calendar 2027 page is the companion note for every other exam on that PDF.

Read the 2027 calendar PDF and the live examination notification before you treat any date as final.

The live notice also carries an expected vacancy figure of approximately 480, including 19 posts for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities. That number is liable to alteration. Do not plan a rank or a cut-off from it.

What Is ESE, and How Is It Different From IES?

ESE is the exam. IES is the older name people still search.

The Commission conducts the Engineering Services Examination. Selected candidates are appointed to listed Group A and Group B engineering services and posts, from railway management cadres to central engineering, telecom, power, defence production and similar technical services. Coaching shorthand still says IES exam. On the form, the calendar and the admit card, the name is Engineering Services.

The collision that actually wastes applications is with Indian Economic Service / Indian Statistical Service. That exam is abbreviated I.E.S./I.S.S. on the UPSC calendar. It is an economics and statistics recruitment, not an engineering one. In 2027 it is notified on 10 February 2027, closes on 2 March 2027, and starts on 18 June 2027, the same Friday as ESE Mains, for three days. If a headline says IES 2027, check whether the body is talking about engineers or economists.

ESE is also not the Civil Services Examination. The UPSC exam pattern note on this site is the CSE scheme. ESE has its own three-stage plan, its own four engineering categories and its own personality test. You can sit both in the same year if you are eligible for both. They do not share a prelims paper.

Which Branches Does the Engineering Services Examination Cover?

You apply in one of four categories. You do not sit a mixed-discipline paper.

• Category I: Civil Engineering
• Category II: Mechanical Engineering
• Category III: Electrical Engineering
• Category IV: Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering

The live notice lists the year’s participating services under each heading. A typical year draws in railway management (civil, mechanical, electrical, signal and telecom, stores), central engineering and roads, water, survey, border roads, power, telecom, radio regulatory, naval material, the Corps of EME and skill-development posts. That roster changes. Last year’s list is not this year’s offer letter.

Border Roads Organisation is the kind of technical service people mean when they say IES goes to the field. Some years an Assistant Executive Engineer post in the Border Roads Engineering Service is on the civil and mechanical lists. Confirm the 2027 row in the notice before you mark a preference.

A few electronics posts have historically accepted specified M.Sc. routes (wireless communication, radio physics, radio engineering) for Indian Naval Armament Service and Indian Radio Regulatory Service. That is an exception, not a back door for every B.Sc. physics graduate. If your degree is not a standard B.E. or B.Tech in the category you want, read the qualification para in the live notice, not a forum summary.

Prelims, Mains and Personality Test

ESE is three stages. Prelims is not a screening exam you can forget after 31 January. Marks from Stage-I count in the final merit.

The standing plan of examination in recent notices, including the 2026 notice, is this. Confirm Appendix I of the live 2027 PDF before you treat a mark total as gospel.

Prelims is one day. Paper I is the common GS and engineering-aptitude paper. Paper II is civil, mechanical, electrical or electronics, matching the category you chose. There is negative marking on the objective papers. Recent notices deduct one-third of the marks assigned to a question for a wrong answer, treat more than one marked answer as wrong, and impose no penalty for a blank.

Only candidates the Commission declares qualified in Prelims of that year are admitted to Mains of that year. The list is drawn on minimum qualifying marks in both Paper I and Paper II. The number called to Mains is about six to seven times the approximate vacancies. Mains is conventional: two three-hour papers, 300 marks each, in your discipline. The 2027 calendar gives Mains a single Friday, 18 June 2027. There is no second application form for Mains on that calendar row.

Personality Test is 200 marks, with no minimum qualifying marks in the standing scheme. The number summoned is about twice the vacancies. Final rank is Prelims plus Mains plus the interview. Service allotment then follows rank, the preferences you marked and medical fitness. The UPSC interview guide on this site is written around Civil Services. ESE’s personality test is shorter and more service-specific. Use the guide for board craft, not for CSE-style DAF mining.

Paper I is where non-engineering reading still matters: current issues, standards, material science, ICT, environment, ethics in engineering, drawing and safety, quality, project management. Monthly current affairs is the right neighbour for that paper’s current-issues slice. It will not carry a civil-engineering numerical.

Do not hunt for a 2027 cut-off on this page. The Commission publishes cut-offs after the stage, on its own site. Any number you see in a coaching PDF before that is not an official figure.

Who Can Apply for ESE 2027?

Nationality, age, a listed engineering qualification and medical fitness. Admission at every stage is provisional until the Commission checks originals, which it does after you qualify for the Personality Test. An e-admit card is not a clearance.

Nationality. A candidate must be a citizen of India, or a subject of Nepal or Bhutan, or another class named in the notice (with the usual eligibility certificate where the notice requires one). Read the nationality para in the live PDF if you are not an Indian citizen.

Age. For this examination you must have attained 21 years and must not have attained 30 years on 1 January 2027. In the notice’s usual wording, that means born not earlier than 2 January 1997 and not later than 1 January 2006. Relaxations for SC, ST, OBC, PwBD, ex-servicemen and departmental candidates are set out in the notice. They are not the Civil Services age table. The UPSC age limit page on this site is the CSE calculator. Use it only as a reminder that UPSC exams do not share one age rule.

Qualification. The standing rule is a degree in Engineering from a university incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India, or from an institution established by an Act of Parliament or deemed a university under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or another qualification the notice lists (Institution of Engineers India, specified foreign degrees, IETE, Aeronautical Society of India, and the M.Sc. routes for named electronics posts). Final-year candidates should read the proof window in the live notice. If you qualify Prelims and Mains, you will be asked to upload proof of passing before the Personality Test.

Fee. Rs 200, paid by net banking or Visa, Master or RuPay credit or debit card or UPI, unless you are Female, SC, ST or PwBD. OBC and EWS candidates pay the fee. Fee once paid is not refunded and is not held for another exam. An EWS claim is a reservation claim, not a fee waiver.

Medical and physical standards. Recommended candidates undergo a medical examination as the Department of Telecommunications decides. Physical standards sit in the Rules, not in a coaching checklist. Blindness has historically had no identified vacancy in this examination. Low-vision candidates should apply only against posts whose functional classification in the notice actually includes them.

How to Apply on upsconline.nic.in

Apply only on the Commission’s portal, upsconline.nic.in. No other mode is allowed. The old One Time Registration module is dead. You need a fresh account on the new portal if you have not already built one.

The portal has four modules. Three of them are common to every UPSC examination and can be filled any day of the year. The fourth is exam-specific and can be filled only inside this notice’s window.

1. Create an account with a valid, active email and mobile number. The Commission will use that email later.
2. Complete Universal Registration and generate a Universal Registration Number (URN). URN is once in a lifetime. It stays constant. There is a one-time edit facility for the URN profile; changes do not rewrite applications you have already submitted.
3. Fill the Common Application Form (CAF). Upload a photograph, capture a live photograph, and upload a signature sheet with three signatures, one below the other, in black ink on white paper. Aadhaar is the ID the Commission asks you to prefer. You still need one photo ID (Aadhaar, Voter Card, PAN, passport, driving licence or another government photo ID) recorded in the URN profile, and you should carry that same ID to the hall. DigiLocker helps when you already store board and degree certificates there. The portal still wants the files the module asks for.
4. Open the examination-specific module for Engineering Services Examination, 2027. Choose the engineering category, the Prelims centre, fee details and the claims the form asks for.
5. Upload supporting documents for date of birth (matriculation or equivalent), educational qualification and any age or fee concession.
6. Pay Rs 200 if you are not exempt, through the modes the notice names.
7. Submit. You cannot withdraw the application. You cannot correct fields after submission. Keep both the URN and the Application Number. The Application Number is new for each exam. Any later email to the Commission should carry name of examination, URN, Application Number, roll number if you have one, full name and the address on the form.

The helpdesk during this window is 011-24041001 and 011-40303444, and the email [email protected], 10:00 am to 5:30 pm on working days from 16 September 2026 to 6 October 2026. Use it for fee, upload and form errors, not for a syllabus debate.

Centre allotment in recent notices is first-apply-first-allot once a centre hits its ceiling, with a few large centres excepted. Applying on 6 October afternoon is how people lose the city they wanted. The link disables at 6:00 pm on 6 October 2026.

What Happens After You Submit?

Nothing you can chase for a few months, and that is the design.

e-Admit cards are issued on the last working day of the preceding week of the examination and are downloaded from the portal. Nothing arrives by post. If you have asked for a change of scribe up to seven days before the exam, the card may come three days before. Prelims is 31 January 2027. Work backward from that week, not from a coaching rumour about an admit-card date.

Prelims is objective, black ball pen only on the OMR sheet, face authentication at the venue, and entry closed 30 minutes before each session. Mobile phones, smart watches and similar devices are banned even when switched off. After the objective papers, the Commission opens a short window on the portal for representations on questions and provisional keys. That window is not an application correction window.

If you qualify, Mains is 18 June 2027. The calendar does not print a second notification date for ESE Mains. You do not fill a fresh ESE form for Stage-II. You download a Mains e-admit card when the Commission says it is up. Personality Test dates come later, by e-summon. Recommended names then go through medical examination and service allocation.

Until 6:00 pm on 6 October 2026, the only task that matters is a complete, paid, submitted form in the right engineering category. After that, the ESE exam 2027 is a Prelims paper on the last day of January.

Frequently Asked Questions

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