Last verified: 30 September 2026 against UPSC CMS 2026 notice (9/2026-CMS), Appendix I.
Quick Answer
Paper I is General Medicine (96 questions) and Paediatrics (24). Paper II is Surgery, Gynaecology & Obstetrics and Preventive & Social Medicine, 40 questions each; Surgery includes ENT, Ophthalmology, Traumatology and Orthopaedics. Both papers are of MBBS standard, and the topic lists below are taken from the UPSC notice.
How many questions come from each subject?
This is the only weightage UPSC publishes: the number of questions per component, fixed in the notice.
| Paper | Subject | Questions | Share of written exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper I | General Medicine | 96 | 40% |
| Paper I | Paediatrics | 24 | 10% |
| Paper II | Surgery | 40 | 17% |
| Paper II | Gynaecology & Obstetrics | 40 | 17% |
| Paper II | Preventive & Social Medicine | 40 | 17% |
Planning tip: General Medicine alone is 40% of all written questions, and PSM carries as many questions as Surgery, so it needs the same planned revision time.
What is the Paper I syllabus?
General Medicine
- • Cardiology
- • Respiratory diseases
- • Gastro-intestinal
- • Genito-urinary
- • Neurology
- • Hematology
- • Endocrinology
- • Metabolic disorders
- • Infections / communicable diseases (virus, rickettsia, bacterial, spirochetal, protozoan, metazoan, fungus)
- • Nutrition / growth
- • Diseases of the skin (Dermatology)
- • Musculoskeletal system
- • Psychiatry (depression, psychosis, anxiety, bipolar disease, schizophrenia)
- • General
- • Emergency medicine
- • Common poisoning
- • Snake bite
- • Tropical medicine
- • Critical care medicine
- • Medical procedures
- • Pathophysiological basis of diseases
- • Vaccine-preventable and non-vaccine-preventable diseases
- • Vitamin deficiency diseases
Paediatrics
- • Common childhood emergencies
- • Basic newborn care
- • Normal developmental milestones
- • Accidents and poisonings in children
- • Birth defects and counselling, including autism
- • Immunization in children
- • Recognising and managing children with special needs
- • National programmes related to child health
What is the Paper II syllabus?
Surgery (including ENT, Ophthalmology, Traumatology and Orthopaedics)
- • General surgery: wounds, infections, tumours, lymphatics, blood vessels, cysts/sinuses, head and neck, breast
- • Alimentary tract: oesophagus, stomach, intestines, anus, developmental
- • Liver, bile, pancreas, spleen, peritoneum, abdominal wall, abdominal injuries
- • Urological surgery
- • Neurosurgery
- • Otorhinolaryngology (ENT)
- • Thoracic surgery
- • Orthopaedic surgery
- • Ophthalmology
- • Anaesthesiology
- • Traumatology
- • Diagnosis and management of common surgical ailments
- • Pre-operative and post-operative care
- • Medicolegal and ethical issues of surgery
- • Wound healing
- • Fluid and electrolyte management
- • Shock: pathophysiology and management
Gynaecology & Obstetrics
Obstetrics
- • Ante-natal, intra-natal and post-natal conditions
- • Management of normal and complicated labour
Gynaecology
- • Applied anatomy
- • Applied physiology of menstruation and fertilisation
- • Genital tract infections
- • Neoplasms of the genital tract
- • Displacement of the uterus
- • Normal delivery and safe delivery practices
- • High-risk pregnancy and management
- • Abortions
- • Intra-uterine growth retardation
- • Medicolegal examination in obstetrics and gynaecology, including rape
Family planning
- • Conventional contraceptives
- • IUDs and oral pills
- • Operative procedures, sterilisation and organisation of programmes in urban and rural settings
- • Medical Termination of Pregnancy
Preventive, Social and Community Medicine
- • Social and community medicine
- • Concept of health, disease and preventive medicine
- • Health administration and planning
- • General epidemiology
- • Demography and health statistics
- • Communicable diseases
- • Environmental health
- • Nutrition and health
- • Non-communicable diseases
- • Occupational health
- • Genetics and health
- • International health
- • Medical sociology and health education
- • Maternal and child health
- • National programmes
- • Management of common health problems
- • Monitoring national health programmes
- • Maternal and child wellness
- • Recognising, investigating, reporting, planning and managing community health problems, including malnutrition and emergencies
How should you use the syllabus to prepare?
- Weight your hours by question count. The split above is fixed by UPSC, so it is a more reliable planning guide than topic-frequency guesses.
- Read the Surgery list closely. ENT, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics and Anaesthesiology are not separate papers in CMS; they compete for the same 40 Surgery questions.
- Give PSM full attention. National programmes, epidemiology, health statistics and maternal and child health appear across the PSM list and overlap with Paediatrics and OBG.
- Check coverage with past papers. Kinase has 35 UPSC CMS papers from 2009 to 2026; see the UPSC CMS previous year papers page.
Structure and marking are explained on the UPSC CMS exam pattern page. For the source text, see Appendix I of the CMS 2026 notice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the UPSC CMS syllabus?▼
Paper I covers General Medicine (including dermatology and psychiatry) and Paediatrics. Paper II covers Surgery (including ENT, Ophthalmology, Traumatology and Orthopaedics), Gynaecology & Obstetrics (including family planning), and Preventive & Social Medicine. Both papers are of MBBS standard.
Does UPSC publish subject-wise weightage for CMS?▼
Yes, at the level of each paper's components. Paper I has 96 General Medicine and 24 Paediatrics questions; Paper II has 40 questions each from Surgery, Gynaecology & Obstetrics, and PSM. UPSC does not publish a topic-by-topic split within those.
Are pre-clinical subjects like Anatomy and Physiology in the UPSC CMS syllabus?▼
They are not listed as separate subjects. The syllabus is built around clinical subjects and PSM, though it includes applied topics such as the pathophysiological basis of disease, applied anatomy and applied physiology in gynaecology.
Are ENT and Ophthalmology part of UPSC CMS?▼
Yes. The notice places ENT (otorhinolaryngology), Ophthalmology, Traumatology, Orthopaedics and Anaesthesiology inside the Surgery part of Paper II.
Is Dermatology or Psychiatry asked in UPSC CMS?▼
Both are listed under General Medicine in Paper I. Psychiatry specifically names depression, psychosis, anxiety, bipolar disease and schizophrenia.
Has the UPSC CMS syllabus changed recently?▼
This page follows the UPSC CMS 2026 notice (9/2026-CMS). UPSC republishes the scheme and syllabus with each year's notice, so check the next notice for changes.
From the UPSC CMS 2026 notice
Official question split
35 past papers to practise
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