Combined Medical Services Examination

**Combined Medical Services Examination**
	; Civil Service Exam in India
Exam Overview
Acronym	UPSC CMSE
Type	Objective Type
Administrator	Union Public Service Commission
Year started	1977(48 years ago)
Skills tested	Medical knowledge (MBBS level)
Purpose	Recruitment of Group A Medical Officers
Duration	Paper I - 2 hours ; Paper II - 2 hours ; Personality Test ~ 30 minutes
Maximum Marks	Paper I - 250 ; Paper II - 250 ; Personality Test - 100
Negative Marking	Yes
Offered	Once a year
Regions	India
Languages	English
Number of Applicants	49,026 (2022)
Number of Test takers	20,613 (2022)
Applicants to Posts Ratio	71.36 (2022)
Prerequisites	MBBS Degree
Fee	₹200
Used by	CHS ; IRHS ; NDMC ; MCD
Website	https://upsc.gov.in/

Last updated August 26, 2025

The Combined Medical Services Examination or the CMS Examination is conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for recruitment of Medical Officers (Group A posts) to various Government Services/Organizations such as the Central Health Service (CHS), Indian Railways, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and New Delhi Municipal Council.^[2]

History

The Combined Examination for recruitment to Medical posts under Central Government was first conducted by UPSC on 18^th February 1977.^[4] Prior to 1977, recruitment to these posts was on the basis of interview.^[5] CMSE 2007 introduced the Negative Marking in the evaluation of Objective type question papers.^[6] From CMSE 2010 onwards, female candidates were granted exemption from payment of exam fee.^[7] CMSE 2014 introduced the Computer Based Mode of Examination.^[8] From CMSE 2017 onwards, UPSC implemented the Public Disclosure Scheme for making publicly available the Scores of those candidates who appeared in the final stage of the examination but were not recommended. This is to ensure that other recruiting bodies can use this data to recruit these qualified candidates who are willing to publicly disclose their scores.^[9] Syllabus of the examination was changed in CMSE 2018.^[10] From CMSE 2020 onwards, the upper age limit for Medical Officer Grade of CHS GDMO sub-cadre was enhanced from 32 years to 35 years.^[11]

Services/Posts

Through Combined Medical Services Examination, the Medical Officers are being recruited to following services or organisations.^[12]


CATEGORY - I
1	Medical Officer Grade (Level 10) in the General Duty Medical Officer (GDMO) sub-cadre of the Central Health Service (CHS)
CATEGORY - II
1	Assistant Divisional Medical Officer (ADMO) in the Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS)
2	General Duty Medical Officer in the New Delhi Municipal Council
3	General Duty Medical Officer Grade -II in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Eligibility Criteria

Nationality: Citizen of India; Subject of Nepal or Bhutan; and some Tibetan refugees, a person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka or East African Countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire and Ethiopia or from Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India.
Age: Must not have attained the age of 32 years (for the Central Health Service (CHS) posts, the upper age limit must not exceed 35 years), with relaxations for various categories such as SC, ST & OBC.^[13]
Educational Qualifications: Passed the written and practical parts of the final MBBS Examination.^[14]

Scheme of Examination

Part I : Written Examination

An objective-type written examination with two papers of two hours duration, each carrying a maximum of 250 marks. Both papers are attempted on the same day.

Paper I

Maximum Marks : 250

Subject	Questions
General Medicine	96
Paediatrics	24

Paper II

Maximum Marks : 250

Subject	Questions
Surgery (including ENT, Ophthalmology, Traumatology and Orthopaedics)	40
Gynaecology & Obstetrics	40
Preventive & Social Medicine	40

Candidates who qualify in the written examination are called for an Interview/Personality Test.

Part II : Personality Test

Personality Test carrying 100 marks conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for those candidates qualifying the written examination.^[15]

Medical Examination

The candidates need to undergo a medical examination to assess fitness, prior to appointment.

Exam Statistics


Year of Examination	2015^[16]	2016^[17]	2017^[9]	2018^[10]	2019^[18]	2020^[19]	2021^[20]	2022^[21]	2023^[22]	2024^[23]	2025^[13]
Number of Posts	1402	1025	717	504	919	560	845	687	1261	827	705
Number of Applicants	31,786	33,986	39,166	40,556	36,415	43,120	60,154	49,026
Candidates appeared for Exam	15,420	16,864	18,183	19,873	19,479	20,213	23,299	20,613
Candidates Interviewed	2998	3288	1585	1447	1856	1150	1176
Applicants to Posts Ratio (APR)	22.67	33.15	54.62	80.46	39.62	77.00	71.19	71.36

Cut-off Marks
Year of Examination		2020^[24]	2021^[25]	2022^[26]	2023^[27]	2024^[28]	2025
Cut-off Marks at Final Stage (Out of 600)	Category - I	365	370	324	332	403
Cut-off Marks at Final Stage (Out of 600)	Category - II	357	369	319	322	386

Cadre allocation

Once the final results are declared by the UPSC, the cadre allocation for the selected candidates are done by the CHS-I section of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) according to the cadre preferences submitted by the candidates and their ranks.^[29]

References

External links

UPSC Website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 3 UPSC 73rd Annual Report 2022-2023

[2] Notification for Combined Medical Services Examination 2024

[3] "ESIC IMO Grade-II Recruitment - CMSE" (PDF).

[4] 28th Annual Report of UPSC, 1978

[5] 27th Annual Report of UPSC, 1977

[6] ttps://www.saarc-sec.org/index.php/resources/publications/62-comparative-study-on-public-service-commissions-published-copy/file

[7] 60th Annual Report of UPSC 2009-2010

[8] 65th Annual Report of UPSC 2014-2015

[:3-9] 1 2 68th Annual Report of UPSC 2017-2018

[:2-10] 1 2 69th Annual Report of UPSC 2018-2019

[11] 71st Annual Report of UPSC 2020-2021

[12] "'Discrepancies' in medical service exam: Congress whip in Lok Sabha to PM Modi". 20 November 2024.

[:1-13] 1 2 UPSC Combined Medical Services Examination 2025 Notification dated 19/02/2025

[14] "Eligibility Conditions"

[15] "Syllabus and Exam Pattern"

[16] 66th Annual Report of UPSC 2015-2016

[17] 67th Annual Report of UPSC 2016-2017

[18] 70th Annual Report of UPSC 2019-2020

[19] 71st Annual Report of UPSC 2020-2021

[20] 73rd Annual Report of UPSC 2022-2023

[21] UPSC CMSE 2022 Notification

[22] UPSC CMSE 2023 Notification

[23] UPSC CMSE 2024 Notification

[24] ttps://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CutoffCMSE-20-Engl-080421.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}

[25] ttps://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/Cutoff-CMSE-2021-engl-141122.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}

[26] ttps://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CMS_2022_CutOff_Eng_05062023.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}

[27] ttps://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CutOff-CMSE-23-engl-141223.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}

[28] ttps://upsc.gov.in/sites/default/files/CutOff-CMSE-24-Engl-211124.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}

[29] Cadre Allocation of Category-II CMSE 2024

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]

Exam Overview
Civil Service Exam in India

Acronym	UPSC CMSE
Type	Objective Type
Administrator	Union Public Service Commission
Year started	1977(48 years ago) (1977)
Skills tested	Medical knowledge (MBBS level)
Purpose	Recruitment of Group A Medical Officers
Duration	Paper I - 2 hours Paper II - 2 hours Personality Test ~ 30 minutes
Maximum Marks	Paper I - 250 Paper II - 250 Personality Test - 100
Negative Marking	Yes
Offered	Once a year
Regions	India
Languages	English
Number of Applicants	49,026 (2022)^[1]
Number of Test takers	20,613 (2022)^[1]
Applicants to Posts Ratio	71.36 (2022)^[1]
Prerequisites	MBBS Degree
Fee	₹200
Used by	CHS IRHS NDMC MCD
Website	https://upsc.gov.in/

v t e Public Services of India
All India Services	Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Indian Forest Service (IFS) Indian Police Service (IPS)
Central Civil Services	Central Health Service (CHS) Central Labour Service (CLS) Central Secretariat Service (CSS) Indian Foreign Service (IFS) Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS) Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS) Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) Indian Defence Estates Service (IDES) Indian Economic Service (IES) Indian Information Service (IIS) Indian Postal Service (IPS) Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IPTAFS) Indian Railway Protection Force Service (IRPFS) Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) Indian Revenue Service (Custom and Indirect Taxes) (IRS-CIT) Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) (IRS-IT) Income Tax Service (Group B) (ITS-B) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Civil Services (DANICS) Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli Police Services (DANIPS)
State Civil Services	Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) Gujarat Administrative Service (GAS) Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) (1957–2019) Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) Kerala Administrative Service (KAS) Provincial Civil Service (Jharkhand) (JPCS) Provincial Civil Service (Uttar Pradesh) (UPPCS) Provincial Civil Service (Uttarakhand) (UKPCS) Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) Tamil Nadu Civil Service (TNCS) West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS)
State Forest Services	Provincial Forest Service (Uttar Pradesh) (UPPFS) Provincial Forest Service (Uttarakhand) (UKPFS)
State Police Services	Provincial Police Service (Uttar Pradesh) (UPPPS) Provincial Police Service (Uttarakhand) (UKPPS) West Bengal Police Service (WBPS)
Other State Services	Provincial Development Service (PDS) Provincial Finance and Accounts Service (PFAS) Provincial Secretariat Service (PSS) Provincial Transport Service (PTS) Rajasthan Accounts Service (RAcS) West Bengal Judicial Service (WBJS) West Bengal Legal Service (WBLS)
Others	Civil Services of India