The Civil Services Preliminary Examination held in May faced widespread criticism from aspirants over its unusual difficulty, unpredictable format, and distorted subject distribution.
UPSC committed to transparency this year by releasing the answer key immediately after the exam, requiring questions to be sourced from 55 pages of government data.
The growing gap between preparation methods and the exam's format sparked protests on social media, prompting the UPSC Chairman to express empathy with candidates.