Philosophy Optional PYQs – Topic-wise (1995–2026)

Philosophy Optional PYQs Topic-wise for UPSC Mains (1995–2026) are listed below unit by unit, in the order of the official syllabus – 1490 questions in all. Click any unit to open all its previous year questions, arranged topic-wise with the latest first.

Paper I

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Western Philosophy	11	378	Click here →
2	Indian Philosophy	9	390	Click here →

Trend: Western and Indian philosophy each carry half of Paper 1 every year. In Western philosophy marks are spread across all eleven topics; Moore, Russell and early Wittgenstein, existentialism, the rationalists, Plato and Aristotle, and Kant are asked most, and the rationalists have risen in the last five years. In Indian philosophy, Nyāya–Vaiśeṣika and Vedānta together take about two-fifths of the marks, followed by Buddhism, Mīmāṁsā (rising recently) and Sāṁkhya.

Paper II

Unit	Topic (click to open PYQs)	Sub-topics	Questions	Link
1	Socio-Political Philosophy	10	368	Click here →
2	Philosophy of Religion	10	354	Click here →

Trend: Socio-political philosophy and philosophy of religion each carry half of Paper 2 every year. In socio-political philosophy, humanism, secularism and multiculturalism lead, followed by equality, justice and liberty, gender discrimination, and crime and punishment. In philosophy of religion the marks are evenly spread; proofs for the existence of God, the soul (immortality and rebirth), religious language and notions of God are asked most often.

More questions

Other questions (outside the present syllabus) – 12 questions

How this collection is organised

Considering the changing exam pattern over three decades, we felt it necessary to declare some practices we’ve adopted in this collection.

1. Units and topics follow the official syllabus. Paper 1 is a single list of twenty items in the notification; its Western part (items 1–11) is unit 1 and its Indian part (items 12–20) is unit 2, numbered 2.1–2.9 (so Paper 1 – 2.1 is Cārvāka and 2.8 is Vedānta). Paper 2 has two units, Socio-Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Religion, numbered as in the notification. Within each unit, questions are divided by these topics.

2. A question on a philosopher or school is placed under that philosopher’s or school’s topic, even when its concept is not among the topic’s listed components: for example, the “category mistake” under Cartesian dualism (Paper 1 – 1.2) and Bradley under Hegel (1.5). Comparative questions (e.g. Nyāya and Mīmāṁsā on the validity of knowledge, or theories of causation) are placed under both schools. Questions on theology and philosophy of religion are kept under reason, revelation and faith (Paper 2 – 2.5).

3. Some questions cover more than one topic. We’ve kept such questions in each topic of relevance. A few questions fit no topic of their paper’s present syllabus (for example on pragmatism, or on Indian family values); they are kept under “Other Questions (Outside the Present Syllabus)” at the end of the paper concerned.

4. Graphs for each unit show the weightage of its topics. Weightage is the share of marks asked from a topic, compared for 2013–2026 (white bars) and the last five years, 2022–2026 (black bars). A question placed under two topics has its marks split equally between them. The two sections of each paper always carry equal marks, so no section-wise graph is given.

5. Each of the topicwise question is suffixed by a question code like this [2024/10m/150w/5e]. This code indicates a) year in which the question was asked, b) maximum marks the question carried, c) prescribed word limit and, d) the question number in actual paper, in given order. Where UPSC prescribed no word limit, that field is skipped.

6. Until 2012, each paper carried 300 marks (60 per question); since 2013 each paper carries 250 marks (50 per question). Where a question offered more parts than were to be answered (for example “write short notes on any three” of four, up to 2009), every part is included with its own marks. A few early papers printed an alternative to a question (“Or”); the alternative is given with the question.

7. 2016–2026 papers are transcribed from the official UPSC question papers and 2008–2015 from scans of the printed papers. No scan of the 1995–2007 papers is available; they are taken from typed copies checked against each other, and the marks of 1995–1999 follow the fixed pattern of those papers.

8. The wording of the questions is as printed, including the papers’ own grammar. Sanskrit terms keep the diacritics each paper printed, so the same term may appear differently in different years.

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Last updated: 30 October 2026