UPSC interview: 275 marks, how the schedule and e-summon come out, and 25 DAF-based questions with answers

Tell us about yourself and your journey to this chair.

Ma'am, I am Aditi Deshmukh from Nashik. I studied civil engineering at COEP Pune, worked two years at L&T on the Mumbai coastal road, and left in 2023 to prepare. My optional is Geography. I grew up around my father's grape farm, which is why water and farm markets are the issues I care about most. This is my second attempt; last time I missed the Mains cut by 11 marks.

Under a minute, factual, with the thread that connects your DAF entries. The board will pick up on water and farm markets.

What does your name mean, and why did your parents choose it?

Sir, Aditi in the Vedas is the mother of the Adityas, and the word means boundless or free. My mother chose it because my grandmother was called Bandhana, which means a bond, and she liked the contrast. I have asked her about it; it is one of the few things in the DAF I had to go home and research.

A common opener. Know the meaning and the family story; a shrug on your own name is a bad first minute.

Nashik is known for grapes and for the Kumbh Mela. What is the one administrative problem of your district that you would fix first?

Sir, drinking water in the tribal talukas of Peint, Surgana and Trimbakeshwar. Nashik sends water to Mumbai through the Vaitarna system, and yet those talukas depend on tankers from February to June. I would first map every village's source and distance to it under Jal Jeevan Mission data, then prioritise small check dams and solar pumps over new pipelines, because the terrain breaks pipelines every monsoon.

Know your district: crops, industries, one social problem, one scheme. Give a specific first step, not a vision.

You are a civil engineer. Why not continue building roads instead of joining a service where you may never touch engineering?

Ma'am, at L&T I built one road for one client. As a district collector I would decide which roads get built, in which villages, and whether the money for them reaches the contractor or the village. On the coastal road I saw how a single clearance delayed by a department could idle five hundred workers for weeks. I want to be on the side that makes those decisions, and the engineering helps me read a DPR honestly.

Do not run down your old job. Connect the skill to the work of a district officer.

Why Geography as an optional when your degree is engineering?

Sir, three reasons. It was the subject closest to what I had been doing: hydrology, urban planning and transport are all in the Geography syllabus. It overlaps with GS I and GS III, which saved me time. And I genuinely enjoyed it; my favourite topic was regional planning, which I used to understand why the Nashik-Mumbai industrial corridor has not taken off.

Boards ask for a non-strategic reason too. Have one real topic you loved.

What is the difference between a check dam and a percolation tank, and which would you build in Peint?

Sir, a check dam is a small barrier across a stream that slows the flow and stores water on the surface for a few weeks; a percolation tank is built in a depression specifically to let water seep into the aquifer rather than be used directly. In Peint the terrain is hilly with shallow basalt, so I would build a series of small check dams on first-order streams, because percolation tanks need deeper soil to be worth the cost.

Degree and optional questions go one level deeper than the textbook. Answer to the point and stop.

You listed trekking as a hobby. Which was your last trek, and what did it teach you about leadership?

Ma'am, Harishchandragad in October 2025, a group of eight, by the Nalichi Vaat route. One member developed knee pain at the first ridge and two others wanted to push for the summit before sunset. I split the group: a friend took the fit five up, and I came down slowly with the injured member and one more. We missed the summit; nobody got hurt. I learnt that the leader's job is sometimes to not be at the front.

Hobbies are probed with when, where, with whom. The lesson must come from the incident, not from a quote.

The Union Budget has increased capital expenditure for several years. Is this the right priority when health and education spending remain low?

Sir, I think the capex push was right for the recovery years, because public investment crowds in private investment and India's logistics costs were a real constraint. But it cannot be the permanent priority. Health is still around two percent of GDP against the National Health Policy's target of 2.5, and learning outcomes in ASER surveys are flat. I would hold capex at the current level and let the growth in revenue go to health and school education, where the returns come slower but last longer.

Balanced, with a view and a number. Expect the counter: states spend on health, not the Centre.

Should India have simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies?

Ma'am, the case for it is cost, the Model Code's freeze on governance, and voter fatigue; the Kovind committee estimated large savings. The case against is federal: a state government that falls mid-term would get a truncated term, which weakens the assembly's mandate, and it needs constitutional amendments with state ratification. My view is that the goal is reasonable but the sequencing matters: start by aligning the states whose terms already end within six months of the Lok Sabha, and see whether the savings are real before a constitutional change.

Civil-services answers stay balanced and non-partisan: both sides, then a considered view with a practical route.

You are the SDM. A religious procession and a political rally are both scheduled on the same road on the same afternoon, and both sides refuse to shift. What do you do?

Sir, first I would check which permission was granted first and what the standing route orders say, because the law gives me the ground. Then I would call both organisers together with the SP, not separately, and offer staggered timings, two hours apart, with police at the junction. If neither moves, I would allow the earlier-permitted event on the road and offer the other a nearby ground with public transport. I would record the reasons in writing and inform the Collector before, not after.

Situational questions want order: facts, law, consultation, decision, record. Do not play hero or coward.

Your senior officer asks you to sign a completion certificate for a road you know is only 70 percent done, because the funds lapse on 31 March. What will you do?

Ma'am, I would not sign a certificate that is false. I would tell my senior that I will record the actual progress and ask for a time extension or re-appropriation under the finance rules, which exist for exactly this case. I would also put my site measurement on file the same day. If I am still pressed, I would put my objection in writing and leave the decision to him; I would not sign over my own note.

Integrity questions have one answer: no, with a lawful alternative and a paper trail, without drama.

What was the last book you read, and what did you disagree with in it?

Sir, Breaking the Mould by Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba, in August. They argue India should bet on high-skill services rather than low-end manufacturing. I agree on skills, but I disagree that manufacturing can be skipped; in Nashik the MIDC estates employ people with a Class 10 education who will not become service exporters, and I think the book underestimates how many such workers India has.

If reading is in your DAF, have two recent books with one argument you can push back on.

Why IAS over IPS, when both are in your preference list?

Ma'am, IPS is my second preference, and I would be glad to serve in it. I put IAS first because the problems I have seen closest, water, farm markets, and school quality, sit with the Collector and the departments, not with the police. If I am allotted IPS, I would take it and not sit for another attempt.

Respect every service in your list. Boards remember a candidate who called a service a fallback.

There is a gap of fourteen months between your leaving L&T and your first attempt. What did you do in that time?

Sir, I prepared full-time, from Pune, with a coaching test series. I also took a part-time contract with a Nashik NGO, Yuva Mitra, for six months, helping farmer producer companies file their first GST returns, two days a week. It kept me in touch with the farm economy and paid for my rent. The gap is on my DAF as preparation, and I have the NGO's letter.

Gaps are asked plainly; answer plainly. Any work you mention may be probed for detail.

India's farm exports have grown, but the grape farmers in your district complain about residue rejections in Europe. What is the problem and what can a district officer do?

Sir, the European Union sets maximum residue limits for pesticides, and consignments from Nashik have been rejected when growers spray late in the season. The Grapenet traceability system run by APEDA exists, but small growers do not follow the spray schedule. A district officer can push the agriculture department's residue monitoring labs, make the schedule available in Marathi through the FPOs, and get exporters to pre-test lots before packing. It is an extension problem, not a trade policy problem.

District plus degree plus current affairs in one question. Show that you know the mechanism.

Do you think reservation should be based on economic criteria alone?

Ma'am, I do not think caste-based reservation can be replaced by economic criteria alone, because the Constitution treats social and educational backwardness as the basis and caste discrimination still shows up in data on access and marriage, not just income. At the same time, the EWS quota shows that Parliament has accepted economic criteria for those outside the existing categories. I would support a caste census so that the creamy layer and sub-categorisation debates are decided on data rather than assertion.

A sensitive question; stay constitutional, factual, and avoid the language of either side's politics.

What is the role of the District Collector in a disaster, say a flash flood on the Godavari in Nashik city?

Sir, the Collector chairs the District Disaster Management Authority under the 2005 Act. In a flash flood the first hours are warning and evacuation of the low-lying ghats and Saraswati nagar areas, with the municipal corporation, police and NDRF or SDRF; then relief camps, drinking water and medical teams; then damage assessment and the relief disbursement under the SDRF norms. The Gangapur dam discharge coordination with the irrigation department is what decides whether the warning comes early enough.

Know the legal structure plus the local geography. One sentence on what actually goes wrong adds weight.

You have a woman member on this board. What is your view on the low number of women in the civil services?

Ma'am, women are roughly a third of recent CSE recommendations, up from about a quarter a decade ago. The barrier is earlier: fewer women reach the attempt stage because of marriage age and family mobility expectations. Representation improves when girls see district officers who are women; in my school in Nashik a woman Collector's name was used as an example, and it worked on me. The change is slow but structural.

Do not perform for a member. Give data, a cause, and a view.

Explain the difference between fiscal deficit and revenue deficit to a farmer in Nashik.

Sir, I would say: the government is like a household. If you borrow money this year to build a well, that is like the fiscal deficit, borrowing to spend more than you earn. If you borrow money just to pay for this year's groceries and salaries, that is the revenue deficit; it is worse, because nothing is left behind when the money is spent. A government should be borrowing for wells, not groceries.

Boards test whether you can translate for the public; jargon loses marks here.

If you are not selected this year, what will you do?

Ma'am, I have one more attempt under the age limit, and I will take it. Alongside, I have cleared the MPSC prelims this year and will continue in it; a Deputy Collector in Maharashtra would let me work on the same problems. I would not go back to construction.

Realistic and unembarrassed. The board is checking that you are not betting your whole life on one result.

What is Article 243 and why does it matter to you?

Sir, Part IX of the Constitution, Articles 243 to 243-O, inserted by the 73rd Amendment in 1992, gives constitutional status to panchayats: three tiers, five-year terms, reservation for SC, ST and women, a State Election Commission and a State Finance Commission. It matters to me because in Nashik the gram panchayats in tribal talukas are where PESA applies, and the gap between the Act and the actual powers of a sarpanch is where most village problems sit.

Polity is asked through your DAF. Connect the article to something you have seen.

Your hobby says you play the tabla. Which taal would you play for a slow khayal, and who is your favourite tabla player?

Ma'am, for a slow or vilambit khayal I would play ektaal or jhumra, usually ektaal in vilambit; teentaal is for the drut. My favourite is Zakir Hussain for solo, but for accompaniment I prefer Anindo Chatterjee because he stays under the singer. I learnt for six years at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya centre in Nashik and gave the Madhyama exam.

Unusual hobbies attract the member who knows them. Be ready for a question only a practitioner can answer.

Is the collegium system of appointing judges working, or should the NJAC be revived?

Sir, the collegium has the virtue of independence but is criticised for opacity and for recommendations sitting with the government for months. The NJAC was struck down in 2015 because the Court held that a veto by the executive-appointed members threatened independence. My view is that the collegium should stay but publish reasons and timelines, and the Memorandum of Procedure should be finalised with a clear outer limit for the government to return a file; that would address the opacity complaint without reopening the basic-structure question.

Balanced, constitutional, and with a workable middle path. Do not pick a side as if it were a debate.

What has been your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?

Ma'am, in my first attempt in 2024 I missed the Mains cut-off by 11 marks because I left two questions in GS III unattempted; I had spent too long on the first ten. I learnt that in the service, like in the paper, a complete answer to every file beats a perfect answer to half of them. This time I timed every answer at seven minutes and finished every paper.

A real failure with a number, no excuse, and a change you can show.

Do you have any question for the board?

No question, sir. I would only like to thank the board; the question on drinking water in Peint is the one I have thought about most in the last two years, and it was good to be asked it here rather than only in my notes. Thank you, ma'am, thank you, sirs.

Keep it short and gracious. Do not ask for feedback or your score.