Candidates may choose any one of the Optional Subjects for UPSC (IAS) from the following list of subjects:

UPSC Optional Subject List for Mains

 (i) Agriculture 
 (ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science 
 (iii) Anthropology 
 (iv) Botany 
 (v) Chemistry 
 (vi) Civil Engineering 
 (vii) Commerce and Accountancy 
 (viii) Economics 
 (ix) Electrical Engineering 
 (x) Geography 
 (xi) Geology 
 (xii) History 
 (xiii) Law 
 (xiv) Management 
 (xv) Mathematics 
 (xvi) Mechanical Engineering 
 (xvii) Medical Science 
 (xviii) Philosophy 
 (xix) Physics 
 (xx) Political Science and International Relations 
 (xxi) Psychology 
 (xxii) Public Administration 
 (xxiii) Sociology 
 (xxiv) Statistics 
 (xxv) Zoology 
 (xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages: 
 Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and English.