Hi

To become an IAS officer you need to clear UPSC civil services examination

You can choose any subject or course like BA, Btech, Bsc, bcom, etc based on your interest for your graduation/degree

This is because,

to be eligible for UPSC  examination there is no compulsion to be a graduate in a particular subject, all you need to be eligible is a  graduation degree in any discipline.

For your reference,

UPSC eligibility  criteria is provided below:-

************* You  must  have  a  bachelor's  degree in any, discipline    from a  recognised university  .

*************  Minimum  age  limit :-  you  need to  be at least  21  years  old   to be  eligible as on 1st of August of the year of filling the form

*************  Maximum  age  limit :-  32 years , also there's 3  year  relaxation on upper age limit for  obc and of  5 years  for sc/st category as on 1st August of the year of examination

************* Attempt limit:- The maximum of times one can appear in UPSC is given below category wise :-

• General/ EWS - 6

• OBC or  General PwD - 9

• SC/ ST - No limit ,   can appear till upper age limit .

You can check detailed eligibility at :- https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-eligibility-criteria

But yes ,

When it comes to upsc preparation and if you are totally focused towards it  then ,

choosing BA can be really helpful for your UPSC  examination, this is because in BA you will be learning subjects like history , polity etc which are a part of the UPSC syllabus so it will help you in your upsc examination

Some of the best graduation courses regarding upsc are :-

----------)  BA Public Administration –   Highly relevant,  it has compact syllabus, it has a lot of overlaps with your polity & governance part in your GS II.

----------)  Ba     Sociology – it's   study of society, lots of material are useful  in GS I, Essay, in Ethics paper as well.

----------)   BA     History   – useful for prelims and your GS I.

----------)   BA Geography   -relevant for both prelims and GS

----------)  BA Political Science   – relevant for both prelims and GS II

Some other options are are BA Economics,BA Philosophy etc.

So, take your time and decide.

To help you further, here's a brief of your UPSC examination pattern

Your UPSC civil services examination consists of three stages

********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:-

-----) compulsory indian language.

-----) 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.

For detail examination pattern check out :- https://competition.careers360.com/articles/upsc-ias-exam-pattern

Thank you

Generally, speaking you can take any graduation subject you wish to . From exam point of view, there is nothing like "better graduation subject" in UPSC exams (to become an IAS).

However, opting for Arts (BA) related courses like History/Geography/Political Science etc will be advantageous as questions from these subjects will also come in GS (General Studies, Prelims).

If you want to look at the available courses, you can take after Class 12, you can check out this link - 60+ Courses after 12th 2022 - Arts, Commerce & Science Students (careers360.com)