what are the best books for UPSC IAS Exam?

The ideal approach to start your UPSC preparation, according to myself and other prior IAS test toppers, is to study through the NCERT books for UPSC and then move on to the normal UPSC book list (consisting of the standard books).

You should also be careful about the IAS books you chose for your preparation, as the UPSC prelims and mains are significantly distinct from one another, necessitating two separate sets of reading material for each. 

The UPSC Prelims, as a wholly objective sort of paper, would require its own set of book lists, while the UPSC Mains, as a completely subjective paper, would require its own.

Anyway, in this section of the site, I've listed the titles of all the key books for the UPSC CSEs, organised by phases and subjects.

One thing to keep in mind is that any decent booklist should always be extensive enough to cover the complete exam course.

Best UPSC Books for IAS Prelims

There are two papers in the IAS prelims round, both of which are objective in character. That implies both feature multiple-choice questions with negative feedback for each incorrect response.

I have already mentioned the NCERT books that you’d need to go through for the prelims in the section above. However, below I have given the list of the best IAS books for the Prelims round (apart from the NCERTs): 

SubjectUPSC Books History 1. India’s Struggle for Independence – Bipan Chandra
2. Facets of Indian Culture – Spectrum Geography 1. Certificate Physical Geography – G C Leong
2. World Atlas Indian Polity 1. Indian Polity – M Laxmikanth Economics 1. Indian Economy by Ramesh Singh
2. Economic Development and Policies in India: Jain & Ohri International Relations 1. Current Affairs CSAT 1. Tata McGraw Hill CSAT Manual
2. CSAT II – Arihant
3. Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning: R S Aggarwal Best UPSC Books for IAS Mains

If you pass the Prelims stage of the IAS test, you will be required to sit for the Mains. There are nine subjective type papers in the IAS Mains, two of which are subjects that you can choose from. 

So, accordingly, I have mentioned down below a list of the best books for your preparation for the Mains round of the IAS (apart from the NCERTs): 

SubjectUPSC Books History, Indian Heritage & Culture [GS Paper 1] • Bipan Chadra’s India’s Struggle for Independence
• Bipan Chandra’s India after Independence
• Satish Chandra’s History of Medieval India
• RS Sharma’s Ancient India Geography [GS Paper 1] • Majid Husain’s Geography of India
• Majid Husain’s World Geography
• World Atlas
• GC Leong’s Certificate Physical and Human Geography Polity & International Relations [GS Paper 2] • M. Laxmikanth’s Indian Polity
• DD Basu’s Introduction to the Constitution of India
• Rajiv Sikri’s India’s Foreign Policy Economy [GS Paper 3] • Ramesh Singh’s Indian Economy Ethics [GS Paper 4] • Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude for Civil Services Main Examination by Subba Rao and P.N. Roy Chaudary

As far as the UPSC Prelims and Mains rounds are concerned, this is the entire list of books I have for you.

However, there are two optional subject questions in the Mains exam that would require you to read from literature related to your chosen disciplines.

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