UPSC CSAT 2025 Difficulty Level: Topic-Wise Breakdown, Trend Analysis

The Union Public Service Commission conducted the UPSC CSE Prelims 2025 on 25th May 2025, marking the beginning of the UPSC CSE selection process for 2025-26. The paper consisted of the GS Paper I and GS Paper II (CSAT), both objective-type papers, carrying 200 marks each. 

According to Career Launcher’s UPSC Experts, the UPSC CSAT 2025 difficulty level was moderate to difficult. The paper was lengthy and time-consuming, and required a good grasp of concepts. Most candidates found the paper to be challenging. For a more in-depth breakdown of difficulty level, read on.

Also Check –

UPSC CSAT Answer Key 2025

UPSC Prelims Result 2025

UPSC CSAT 2025 Difficulty Level: Breakdown

Like previous years, UPSC CSAT 2025 had 80 questions from 3 sections- Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability, and Quantitative Aptitude. Out of the 80 questions, 34 were from Quantitative Aptitude, 17 were from Logical Reasoning, and 29 were from the Verbal Ability section. 

This year’s quantitative ability section was difficult, with tricky and challenging questions. Most of the questions were from topics of Number Systems, Percentage, LCM/ HCF & Averages. The UPSC CSAT difficulty level for Quants over the years is as follows.

The reasoning section saw a majority of moderate to easy questions, and a few difficult ones as well. Thus, making the overall difficulty level moderate. The majority of questions were from Coding-Decoding, Data Sufficiency, and Series-based. The UPSC CSAT difficulty level for Reasoning over the years is as follows.

The verbal ability section was extremely lengthy and had more of Level 1 and Level 2 passages. The overall difficulty level of questions was towards the difficult side, with most of the questions falling into the moderate to difficult category. The UPSC CSAT difficulty level for Verbal Ability over the years follows.

Thus, despite CSAT’s qualifying nature, its difficulty level remains on the rise. This year’s paper was no exception. It has become increasingly difficult to score 33% marks in CSAT without structured preparation. If you’re an aspirant targeting UPSC Prelims 2026, you can check out our CSAT 2026 Foundational Program.

UPSC CSAT 2025: Trend Analysis

Following is the UPSC CSAT 2025 Trend Analysis of the number of questions in each section over the years. 

For an in-depth analysis of UPSC CSAT 2025, check the linked article.

For the live analysis by our UPSC experts, check out the video below.