Top 10 IAS Interview Question and Answers
The final and most important stage of the most prestigious Indian Administrative Services is the IAS Personality Test, or interview. Candidates who pass this stage of the Civil Services test are selected to serve as administrators in a variety of scenarios. After the extensive two-level evaluation structure of the IAS Prelims and IAS Mains, many have questioned the convenience or utility of an IAS Interview. The IAS Interview is like any other enlistment test in that it assesses the applicant’s character and personality in addition to their knowledge and general awareness of a variety of topics.
1-Why do you want to become IAS Officer?
This is another standard IAS interview question that aspirants face which is aimed at bringing out not only the candidates’ goals as an IAS officer but also indicates the clarity of thought in this regards. Although considered to a common question, this is one of the most important one, as it gives a brief overview to the panellists about your passion, goals, interests and the motivation that has driven you up to this point to join the civil services. Therefore, it is advised that aspirants do some advance preparation for this question.
2-Tell me about your positive and negative strengths.
While academic knowledge and quirky mental alertness are the key components that form basic tenets of an IAS officer, honesty and integrity are also equally important. This question is generally posed by the IAS interview panel to not only understand your strengths and weaknesses but also to assess how honest you are to them. Aspirants should keep in mind that the IAS interview panel consists of subject matter experts, who have vast experience. In short, cheating them by giving vague or confusing answers is not going to serve you well. Thus, try to be honest and list out your strengths and weaknesses to the best of your understanding and back them up with logical explanations and examples.
3-What happened when the wheel was invented?
The candidate who got selected answered ‘It caused a revolution’.
Explanation: The candidate used ‘Pun’ and personification figure of speech to convey a quirky answer. The answer has two levels to it, where in prima facie, it conveys the basic function of a wheel, which is to revolve. On a deeper level, the invention of the wheel led to the basic foundation of mechanics causes a revolution changing the world and technology as we know today. Thus, the argument of revolution also stands true.
4-What is the difference between vision, mission aims, and objectives?
vision is at the top of the broad overarching destination. The mission can be used in terms of technology. Aims and Objectives have to do with long-term and short-term goals or outcomes of the mission.
Here the panel wants to see your ability to answer the question with a calm mind.
5.What will happen if you throw a red stone into a blue sea?
Answer- it will become wet.
This question looks difficult and candidates make the mistake of not understanding the concept behind it. Take your time than answer the question.
6.The interviewer placed an order for a cup of coffee. Coffee was brought in and placed in front of the applicant. What do you have in front of you?
Answer: Because the letter ‘T’ comes before the letter ‘U,’ T comes before U.
Explanation: Normally, a candidate would respond with ‘Coffee,’ but knowing that the panellist had bought coffee just to create the circumstance in which he could ask this question necessitates some creative thinking. The ideal response to this issue would be to entirely disregard the coffee and seek an explanation elsewhere. The applicant who was chosen stated ‘Tea’ was in front of him and explained that the letter ‘T’ comes before ‘U’, thus T comes before U.
7.If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?
I probably have answered eight apples and eight oranges and most of our respected viewers would have also thought it like that way if they were asked, but the candidate here answered it very wisely which proved him intelligent out of the box.
8.Dr. Agrawal. You are serving in a rural area as a doctor for the past 4 years. Why do you want to leave such a noble thing you are doing ?
Answer: Sir. As a doctor, I can only cure the problems. As an administrator, I can prevent the problems of all fields from happening them to occur altogether and it is well known that prevention is better than cure.
9-So there is a lot of allegation on brain drain and subsidized education etc. What do you think about this, is it right or wrong blah blah and do we need any policies to attract them back etc. ?
Ans- Sir the objective of Nehru in setting up IITs is that they can help solve the problems of nation like poverty, illiteracy, and hunger (The issues of India I really had to feel for) and I personally think it is the moral responsibility (stressed moral of every IITian to contribute back to the society as it is also hugely subsidized but some also opine that because of this, we have good relations with the US today.
However sir, after the 1990s the brain drain reduced, and hardly 20 percent leave to states now. If they leave, it is because of opportunities but not for the love of other countries sir. And sir there is really a need for using the expertise of them for our country. For e.g. in the electronics sector, if the present trend continues, we would be importing more electronic hardware than we import oil/ gold in the future.
10– What is governance? What is governance deficit? What should we do to solve this deficit?
Sir, Governance is about making policies for common good, providing basic services, executing and implementing schemes, initiatives and upholding the welfare of one and all. Governance deficit is the inability of the government to reach out to its people, the mismatch between government priorities and needs of people and lack of participation of people in process of governance. This deficit can be bridged by enabling direct contact between government institutions and people, bridging trust deficit with good governance, democratizing government processes. For examples, community policing is an effective way to bridge the trust deficit between the police and the common man. (you can give any other example as well to prove your point) For more
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