Anuj Agnihotri is AIR 1 in the UPSC CSE 2025 exam, and he cracked this exam in his third attempt.
In the previous ten years, nine other candidates stood in the same spot, one per year, with no ties for the number 1 rank in this ten-year period. Once we move out of AIR 1, the ranks get increasingly broad.
Hundreds of people have occupied ranks 2 to 10 in the past decade, while thousands of others clear the exam every year without getting any top ten ranks.
UPSC Toppers List From 2016 To 2026 (Updated)
The following table shows all the people who have achieved AIR 1 from the past ten sessions of the UPSC Civil Services Exam.
| Year | AIR 1 Topper | Home State | Optional Subject | Attempt | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Anuj Agnihotri | Rajasthan | Medical Science | 3rd | 1071 |
| 2024 | Shakti Dubey | Uttar Pradesh | PSIR | 5th | 1043 |
| 2023 | Aditya Srivastava | Uttar Pradesh | Electrical Engineering | 3rd | 1099 |
| 2022 | Ishita Kishore | Air Force family (pan-India) | PSIR | 3rd | 1094 |
| 2021 | Shruti Sharma | Uttar Pradesh | History | 2nd | 1105 |
| 2020 | Shubham Kumar | Bihar | Anthropology | Not disclosed | 1054 |
| 2019 | Pradeep Singh | Haryana | Public Administration | Not disclosed | 1072 |
| 2018 | Kanishak Kataria | Rajasthan | Mathematics | 1st | 1121 |
| 2017 | Anudeep Durishetty | Telangana | Anthropology | 5th | 1126 |
| 2016 | Nandini K.R. | Karnataka | Kannada Literature | 4th | 1120 |
2025: Anuj Agnihotri
Mr. Anuj Agnihotri has succeeded in becoming AIR 1 of the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2025 with his outstanding academic and professional background in medicine. The success story of Mr. Anuj Agnihotri begins with MBBS from AIIMS Jodhpur and concludes with UPSC topper 2025.
AIR 1 has been attained by Rajasthan again within a span of ten years after Kanishak Kataria achieved it in 2018. Both individuals have chosen to abandon their careers in software and medicine, respectively, to appear for the examination.
2024: Shakti Dubey
Shakti Dubey is an IAS officer of the 2025 batch (Uttar Pradesh cadre) who has achieved All India Rank 1 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2024.
Despite having the lowest overall score amongst all ten rank holders on this list with 1,043 marks, she secured the top position in an exam that had over ten lakh applicants and only 1,009 recommended students.
She hails from Uttar Pradesh, which has now produced three out of the last four AIR 1 winners in this list since 2021, 2023 and 2024.
2023: Aditya Srivastava
Aditya Srivastava is the AIR 1 topper of the UPSC Civil Services Exam 2023 (CSE). He has done his education in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and previously worked in Goldman Sachs.
He has appeared in the civil service exam earlier and got an all-India rank of 236 in that exam and was being trained for IPS at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy.
The highest interview score among these toppers is 200 marks out of 275 by him. His optional subject, Electrical Engineering has been scored nearly 308 marks.
2022: Ishita Kishore
Ishita Kishore is a 2023-batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, known for scoring All India Rank 1 in the UPSC Civil Services Exam of 2022.
In 2022, the year when Ishita Kishore got her rank, there was an unusual situation: the top four ranks were bagged by women.
Ishita’s Political Science & International Relations optional is shared with two other top scorers on this list, becoming the most popular optional among all these ten people.
This rank is another proof of how failing the prelims two times does not mean being unable to get a high rank in two years.
2021: Shruti Sharma
Shruti Sharma scored AIR 1 in the 2021 UPSC Civil Services Examination. Having missed the cut-off for the mains examination, Shruti Sharma has turned her one-mark failure into the fourth highest overall score of the decade.
It was only one mark short of the cut-off in her 2019 attempt due to some problem in the medium of instruction. History was her optional subject, which she had studied in graduation. It has been the strongest written score for any of our listed toppers.
This is an example of how sometimes just one mark makes all the difference between toppers and others who don’t get a chance even once. And again, choosing the degree subject as your optional is still one of the safest options among the toppers listed above.
2020: Shubham Kumar
UPSC topper of 2020, Shubham Kumar, was successful in securing All India Rank 1 in his third attempt. The optional subject ‘Anthropology’ earned him 170 marks in one paper and 150 marks in another, and his total marks of 1,054 are the second lowest amongst the ten toppers listed here.
The reason behind his success can be attributed to his focus on the topic rather than learning something new during the revision process.
His result clearly indicates that a lower score does not necessarily impact the standing of the topper if he has secured the top most rank in that particular year. His liking for rural development over research work further separates him from the rest who have a business or research background.
2019: Pradeep Singh
All India Rank 1 was achieved by Pradeep Singh in UPSC Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2019. Pradeep Singh maintained a balance between a full-time posting in the tax department along with UPSC CSE preparation in his fourth attempt.
Public Administration, which is Pradeep Singh’s optional paper, is one of the most popular subjects opted by working candidates due to its syllabus relevance with everyday governmental operations.
With an interview score of 158 out of 275, it is the lowest personality test score amongst the top ten candidates here.
It proves that even a low score in the interview section can be compensated for by a sufficiently high score in written exams. This also proves that having a government job while preparing for UPSC CSE is not a liability.
2018: Kanishak Kataria
Kanishak Kataria is a UPSC CSE Topper of the 2018 Batch. He ranked 1st in his very first attempt to take up the UPSC Civil Services Examination, 2018, and became one of the famous first-attempt toppers.
Kanishak Kataria quit his job as a Data Science Analyst at Samsung in South Korea to return back and prepare for the UPSC CSE examination, for which he had no previous experience.
According to reports, his optional scores range to around 361 out of 500 marks in both papers, and he has one of the best optional scores in the history of UPSC for a technical subject.
This story of Kanishak shows how having technical knowledge can be an asset for a UPSC aspirant if the aspirant takes the optional subject as his main subject. First-attempt toppers remain a rare case until now.
2017: Anudeep Durishetty
Anudeep Durishetty is a civil servant belonging to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), who managed to bag All India Rank 1 in the 2017 UPSC Civil Services Examination.
While working as a government servant, Anudeep Durishetty amassed the maximum marks in this entire ten-year list, an achievement that would be considered satisfactory by most of his peers.
He scored 155 marks in his essay paper, and he scored 176 marks in his interview as well. Anthropology, an uncommon optional subject amongst the toppers, whereas Political Science and Public Administration are more commonly chosen, allowed him to score more than any other individual in this decade.
He became a member of the IAS in the cadre of Telangana State.
2016: Nandini K.R.
In 2016, Nandini K.R. was the top ranker of UPSC CSE in her fourth attempt. She turned four failures into an opportunity for the best performance in the regional language optional in this entire list.
Her optional subject, Kannada Literature, is something which not many AIR 1s of the last decade have selected. The marks scored by her in this optional are largely responsible for giving her an edge over toppers who had chosen popular subjects like History or Public Administration.
It sends a message to aspirants that an optional in mother tongue is capable of competing at the top level, rather than clearing the cut-off marks.
This result also proves that a government posting before does not necessarily have to be a fall-back option. For Nandini, it was a springboard.
Which State Has The Most UPSC Toppers In The Last 10 Years?
Uttar Pradesh tops the table with three AIR 1 students over the past ten years: Shruti Sharma in 2021, Aditya Srivastava in 2023 and Shakti Dubey in 2024.
Delhi is next with two: Tina Dabi in 2015 and Ishita Kishore in 2022. One AIR 1 student comes from Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Bihar.
How Many Attempts Does It Usually Take to Top UPSC?
Two toppers on this list cleared the exam on their first attempt: Tina Dabi and Kanishak Kataria. The one who cleared for the second time was Shruti Sharma.
The next two did so for the third time: Ishita Kishore and Shubham Kumar. Three toppers cleared for the fourth time: Nandini K.R., Pradeep Singh, and Aditya Srivastava.
Two cleared the exam for the fifth time: Anudeep Durishetty and Shakti Dubey. Thus, the average is about three attempts.
Conclusion
Overall, of these ten UPSC outcomes, nearly 830-1,000 people have been recommended every year despite having over 10 lakh applicants in each exam. Such uniformity renders the topper score comparable only in the same year.
Anudeep Durishetty made the highest topper score of 1,126 marks in 2017, which continues to hold even now. After his success, he got into IAS as part of the Telangana cadre.
Though Uttar Pradesh kept winning the title of toppers till 2024, Anuj Agnihotri of Rajasthan snapped the winning trend in the following round. Ultimately, no matter who becomes the topper, they all get Rank 1in one of the toughest Indian exams.
FAQs
UPSC had not declared a final result for the Civil Services Examination 2026 as of July 2026. An AIR 1 is released by the commission only after the completion of prelims, mains, and the interview for that year. For further details, visit upsc.gov.in.
Uttar Pradesh, with its four successive years from 2021 to 2024 via Shruti Sharma, Ishita Kishore, Aditya Srivastava and Shakti Dubey.
PSIR (Political Science and International Relations) has seen the most AIR 1 holders in the recent past, followed by Anthropology and Public Administration.
In 2018, Kanishak Kataria became the topper on his first try, whereas Anudeep Durishetty (2017) and Shakti Dubey (2024) required five attempts each.
On upsc.gov.in after each Civil Services Examination. The result PDF is released by the Union Public Service Commission, with names and roll numbers ranked according to merit.
