The journey from law school to working in a corporate law firm or litigating in court to writing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Civil Services Examination is anything but straightforward. This year, 27 law graduates have cleared the exam.
Bar & Bench's Hiranya Bhandarkar spoke to law graduates who cleared the UPSC CSE 2025 to uncover their preparation styles, the thought process behind choosing the law optional, how they managed their mental health, and the strategy that worked in their favour.
Jaiswal hails from Madhya Pradesh and and graduated in law from Symbiosis Law School, Pune. She worked for almost 2 years with Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai and quit in the end of 2022 to prepare for the civil services examination. On her third attempt, she secured AIR 43.
Hiranya Bhandarkar: How did you tackle the vastness of the syllabus?
Rupa Jaiswal (RJ): I prepared without coaching from my hometown. I started off topic-wise. For History, I started with basic NCERTs first and I would try to identify the topics from the previous year questions. After NCERTs, I referred to the standard books which are recommended by toppers. A lot of free resources are available on YouTube, which will guide you for sources of preparation and everything else.
I limited my sources. I revised the same books a number of times and I think that was really the strategy for me clearing the exams.
HB: You have given 3 attempts. How did you manage your mental health? What motivated you?
RJ: The ultimate motivation was to create a larger impact in the society and that was the passion for which I was working. The thing is when I did not clear the first Prelims, I did get upset. I spoke to a few individuals who were already in this UPSC journey and had given 3-4 attempts. That made me feel better. I think I did not treat this exam as life. I treated it just as an exam and I think that kept me going for 3 attempts.
I got AIR 512 in the 2024 examination. That is what also kept me motivated that if I can get AIR 512, I can probably get a 2 digit rank as well.
HB: Many aspirants are confused in deciding between the Law optional and other subjects. How did you decide that and did your law degree help?
RJ: The selection of Law optional came very natural to me because I had a law degree. I had also worked in a law firm so I was very comfortable with law. In UPSC preparation, if you choose an optional, you have to realise that you will have to study the same books, the same content for at least 3-4 years till you clear the exam. You should not be bored of your optional subject.
Of course, this was a strategic decision also because any optional that you want to pick up should have some overlap with the other papers in UPSC. The Law optional, for example, has a lot of overlap with polity in General Studies 2. This helped me score well even in Polity. Law option also helps you generate really good examples, case laws in your essays. I would quote a lot of Supreme Court judgments in my essays. The Ethics paper has a particular theme, which is widely asked, which is law versus morality or law versus ethics. That theme also you can tackle better if you have good knowledge of law.
HB: What is something that you would advise aspirants to do differently in their preparation?
RJ: In this exam, mock tests are really, really important. But what students do not realise is that just solving a mock test is not enough. After solving the mock, you need to analyse the mistakes you make. This goes for both the preliminary as well as the mains.
This exercise is really important because ultimately what helps you is your ability to control your senses to not mark the wrong answers in a hurry.
HB: What would you suggest to a final year law student who is unsure whether to sit for placements or prepare for UPSC?
RJ: I did not want to go for the civil services examination straight out of law school because I had my education loan to repay. So if a student wants immediate financial independence then definitely take a law firm or any other job that legal field offers. If you have that capacity to just go on after law school and study more without earning, then definitely you can go for civil services examination. All these factors should be considered.
Baldwa has been blind since early childhood. He started preparing for UPSC in his fifth year at National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore.
HB: What motivated you to write the UPSC exam?
AB: My motivation was I saw blind people were joining banks, railways, group D services. My intention was simply that I wanted to do something different, which my community members are not doing.
The other motivation was from my third year when I filed some writ petitions for the enforcement of accessibility norms in movies. I won two cases. After the conclusion of those cases, I felt I was able to bring some changes in the society. I thought through civil services, I will be able to enforce more change in diverse areas.
HB: What did your preparation strategy look like? How did you balance it with 5th year academics?
AB: Yes, it's very difficult. It's a little unethical or whatever you would like to call it, but I would sometimes study for UPSC instead of listening to classes. I utilised AI both in academics and in UPSC effectively. I would cover class content just before the exams and read UPSC materials during classes. In the last months of trimester, maybe January and May I wouldn't study anything for UPSC.
I adopted the shortcut strategy. I just reverse engineered the entire thing. Instead of reading the entire books, I just relied on mock tests, read the solution and understood the concept from that. I just gave 40 to 50 mocks in last 2 or 3 months. I took coaching, but I didn't utilise it at all. I just relied on the online resources available on Telegram or other platforms.
HB: What advice would you give law student aspirants who are preparing for 2026 and 2027?
AB: Wisely decide on your optional subject because we have the instinct to take Law as an optional. I took Sociology after I heard that people with Law are not getting very high marks. Talk to some people before deciding on your optional.
Don't hide behind this excuse that you cannot manage preparation with your academics. I have done it. Everybody can do it. You have to manage a little, you need to schedule things, but it is possible.
Vidyan pursued law from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University (RMLNLU) and holds an LL.M. from Faculty of Law, Delhi University (2023-25).
HB: What was your preparation strategy? When did you start preparing?
VV: I began in January 2022. My first prelims were in May 2023, coinciding with my graduation. For the first 15 days, I watched random YouTube videos about UPSC and various toppers to get a broad sense of the exam. With the beginning of my 8th semester, I purchased an online subscription to an ed-tech platform and started studying formally. Preparation ran alongside college semesters and events.
I appeared in my first prelims in May 2023, one month after graduation, and qualified for the mains. Credit is certainly due to RMLNLU for providing flexibility and space to students to prepare for competitive examinations alongwith legal training.
HB: How did you balance preparation while being a practising advocate?
VV: I had set a personal limit of 3 full-time attempts for UPSC. At the same time, I did not want a gap year on my CV. I decided to pursue an LL.M. from September 2023 to June 2025 while continuing my preparation in Delhi. I cleared the prelims in May 2025 and wrote the mains in August 2025. I worked as Supreme Court law clerk for about two months before being shortlisted for the UPSC interview.
I took a brief break to prepare and appeared for the interview, where I secured a respectable 210 marks. In January 2026, I began practising at the Delhi High Court in the chambers of Advocate Mukesh Gupta.
HB: How did the law degree help in your preparation?
VV: First, there is a significant overlap between law and the UPSC syllabus, particularly in Polity and General Studies Paper II. Legal training develops an intuitive understanding of the Constitution. Second, I opted for Law as my optional subject. Activities like mooting train us to examine issues from multiple perspectives, construct arguments and think critically, which is an asset in the interview.
Jha completed her law in 2021 from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.
HB: What did your preparation strategy look like? When did you start preparing?
Shreya Jha: I started preparing right after graduation. My strategy revolved around grasping the concepts in the basic books, especially the NCERTs and practicing papers - both previous year questions and mock tests to ensure that the concepts are grasped thoroughly.
For my optional subject, I chose Law. I ensured that I was well-versed with the latest developments so that I could incorporate the same in my answers along with the case laws, relevant statutes and constitutional provisions.
Yadav pursued law from RMLNLU and prepared for UPSC after graduation. After his third attempt, when he cleared the mains, he started litigating at the Delhi High Court.
HB: What was your preparation strategy?
Praveen Yadav (PY): My preparation strategy focused heavily on revision. In my first year of preparation, my primary goal was to revise whatever I studied on the same day.
Another important aspect of my preparation was keeping my resources limited. Many aspirants tend to get influenced by new materials, often leaving their previous ones incomplete. I believe that multiple revisions of a single resource can take you much further.
Additionally, I focused a lot on mock tests. I attempted more than 40 mock tests for the prelims, close to 40 for the mains and around 10 mocks for the interview stage.
HB: How did you manage your mental health during your preparation?
PY: I feel that mental health is an aspect of civil services preparation that is not discussed enough. Personally, I made sure to stay physically active. I used to play badminton every day and I also enjoy running. These activities helped reduce the mental fatigue that builds up during long study hours.