Hello,

When it comes to Paper A of Mains syllabus for UPSC, it includes languages that are there in the eight schedule of the Indian Constitution which are Assamese,BengaliBodo,Dogri,Gujarati,Hindi,Kannada,Kashmiri,Konkani,Malayalam,Manipuri,Marathi,Maithili,Nepali,Oriya,Punjabi,Sanskrit,Santhali,Sindhi,Tamil,Telugu,Urdu. English doesn't feature in the list, hence you cannot opt for the same, however those who belong to north-eastern states that of Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram are exempted from taking this compulsory paper of Indian Language, however the concerned candidate need to submit the proof in the form of uploading the scanned documents issued by authorities such as district officer/sub-divisional officer pertaining to the district where his/her parents live in, this is to be done while filling the DAF for the Mains Exam of UPSC, Paper A is qualifying by nature, out of 300 marks only 25% which is 75 marks is to be obtained in order to pass.

Hi

In your UPSC Mains examination,
*paper A is compulsory indian language
* paper B is English.
No ,you cannot choose English for Paper A i. e compulsory indian language. For paper A you can choose any one of the language listed below

-) Assamese
-) Bengali
-) Gujarati
-) Hindi
-) Kannada
-) Kashmiri
-) Konkani
-) Malayalam
-) Manipuri
-) Marathi
-) Nepali
-) Odia
-) Punjabi
-) Sanskrit
-) Sindhi
-) Tamil
-) Telugu
-) Urdu
-) Bodo
-) Dogri
-) Maithili
-) Santhali

To help you for further, here's a brief of UPSC examination pattern
UPSC civil services examination  has 3 stages listed below :-

*prelims exam :- it is objective paper and is of qualifying nature , so you just  need to at least qualify it to be eligible for mains examination, the score /marks obtained by you in your prelims examination is not added up or used in your final merit. Your prelims exam consist of 2 papers: -
-) general studies 1
-) general studies II ( csat )
You get 2 hours for each paper

*Mains exam. :- it is descriptive /written examination . There are a total of 9 papers  which are listed below:-

-) paper A :- compulsory indian language.
-) paper B :- english
-) essay
-) general studies I
-) general studies II
-) general studies III
-) general studies IV
-) optional I
-) optional II

The compulsory indian language and english are qualifying in nature . You just need to qualify them. The marks obtained by you in these two papers will not be counted towards merit list.

*Interview :- After qualifying mains, you have to go through interview round, and it is more of test of your personality rather than knowledge.

So, if you managed to sail through all the three stages  then congratulations you can become an ias  officer depending upon  rank obtained by you in UPSC civil services examination ,your preference of services and your category .

For detailed information , I will recommend you to go through our page the link for the same is provided below

https://school.careers360.com/articles/how-to-become-an-ias-officer

If you have any other doubt then feel free to ask them :) we are always here to help you out and guide you

Thank you