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UPSC Civil Service Exam consists of three stages-

Preliminary: First Stage is MCQs based exam, it has two papers and each one consists of 200 marks,its numbers ain't added to final list, you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

First is GS Paper-I which consists of topics such as History of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World geography, Economic and social development- sustainable development, poverty,inclusion demographics, social sector initiatives etc,Indian polity and governance-constitution,political system,Current Events nationally and Internationally, General Science,General Issues on environmental ecology,biodiversity and climate change. you just need to score the required cut offs against your category.

Second Paper is CSAT which is qualifying by nature, you need to score merely 33% which is 66 marks out of 200, it includes following topics such as basic numeracy, comprehension, logical reasoning and analytical ability, general mental ability, decision making and problem solving, interpersonal skills including communication skills.

Mains: This is a second stage which it's more of a subjective type, you are required to write answers for Four General Studies Paper such as

GS-I includes Indian Heritage and Culture, History and Geography of the World and Society, since last past three year more than 75 marks comes from topics pertaining to social issue or society,

GS-II includes Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations, you can link the question of governance with constitutional ideals, policy of the government, articles, supreme court cases, Law Commission reports, NCRWS report, Committee of UN/IMF/World Bank,

GS-III includes Technology, Economic Development, Bio-Diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management, put emphasis on economic survey, introduce SDG wherever possible, map preparation helps in this regard,

GS-IV includes Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude, here focus upon the theory part also along with case studies by showing real life example, you can refer betterindia.com (//betterindia.com) for various inspirational stories to write in mains answer sheet.

There're Two Optionals, One Essay, Two Language Paper, In total there are nine papers in Mains, and each paper is of 250 marks, total adds up to 1750 marks.

Interview : The two stages are further followed by personality test of 275 marks.

In order to initiate your preparation, firstly get well acquainted with UPSC Syllabus , learn it by heart as this will enable you to know what to read and what to skip.

As per the recent trends UPSC is framing Prelims questions also based on Mains syllabus, so have an integrated approach towards the preparation

To cover such a humongous syllabus you will have to make a timetable, set targets on a daily,weekly and monthly basis, that's the only way to complete this extensive syllabus.

Newspaper reading is equally vital part of preparation, you can start with any newspaper like The Hindu, or Indian Express on a regular basis to be updated as well as gaining knowledge which shall be highly useful to you in future exam preparation part. Put a more emphasis on editorial part, it will not only broaden your perspective but help a lot in answer writing,and make sure whatever opinion you form it should be well balanced. You can also make notes of this,it'll be very useful in answer writing.

When it comes to reading books ,start with basics, for each subject, you can do with NCERTs for this. This will build your foundation strong, as you progress, move on to other relevant books as mentioned below;

For Prelims, you can refer the following books:

History ; NCERT Class XI and XII. India's Struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra, For Indian Culture, refer art and culture by Nitin Singhania

Geography ;, NCERT Class VI to XII, GC Leong's Physical Geography, World Atlas

Economics ; NCERT Class XI, Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh

International Relations & Polity ; NCERT XII Political Science with current affairs, Indian Polity by Laxmikanth

CSAT ; Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Agarwal, M Tyra's Quicker Maths

Coming to Mains Exam, you can refer the following books for four General Studies Paper;

GS I - For History , Class XI NCERT book with India's struggle for Independence by Bipin Chandra,India after Independence by Bipan Chandra,History of Medieval India by Satish Chandra, For Geography refer World Geography and Geography of India by Majid Hussain, GC Leong's Physical and Human Geography with NCERT Class XI book.

For GS II - Polity and International Relations , refer Indian Polity by Lamikanth,India's Foreign Policy by Rajiv Sikri

For GS III - For Economics refer Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh, read ARC report along with Economic Survey and Fiscal Budget.

For GS IV - For Ethics refer a book named Lexicon by Niraj Kumar, also you can go through study material of IGNOU.

Remember to keep your resources minimal, read one book many a times instead of many a book one time, revision is the only key for remembrance.

Writing mains is a huge task, for nine paper it requires immense practice along with knowledge. So, you have to start practicing answer writing in advance, even in a little way, There are many sites which provide questions on daily basis you can avail that. Try to give a holistic viewpoint while answer writing by providing political,economical and social aspect. You can get topper's answer sheet from various sites, try to analyze and study them minutely, you'll get an ideas about what to write, how to express and present viewpoint in organized manner.

Practice previous year question paper which you can get from the official website of UPSC,in addition mock papers, and test series which you can get it from any of the sites exclusively dedicated to UPSC, it's highly important to evaluate your performance while doing so.