UPSC CSE 2021 topper Shruti Sharma did not get the highest marks in the interview round or personality test. The top scorer in this round is Ashutosh Kumar who secured AIR 77. He jointly shares the first rank in personality test with Kiran PB. Both of them got 206 out of a total of 275. Indian Masterminds presents the success story of Lucknow boy, Ashutosh Kumar.
26-year-old Ashutosh Kumar got this success in his 4th attempt. His hard work paid dividends after three successive setbacks as he finally cracked the exam in 2021 securing AIR 77 and the highest marks in interview.
BEGINNING
Ashutosh hails from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. His father Ajay Kumar Mishra is associate professor of chemistry at Shri Jai Narayan Mishra PG College (KKC). His Mother Praveena Mishra is assistant teacher in Junior High School. She has been a great source of motivation for him throughout his preparation journey.
Ashutosh passed 12th from St. Fidelis College, Indiranagar. Then he went to IIT Kanpur for his graduation. After completing B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from there, he started preparing for UPSC. He took coaching for a year, and after that, did self study.
Ashutosh says that was preparing for the exam since 2017. He failed thrice, but did not lose his confidence and got success in the fourth attempt. “I had made up my mind to appear in the Civil Services Examination at the time of graduation itself. When I saw friends preparing for UPSC, I also got inspired to prepare.”
That is why, he did not take up any job after completing his B.Tech. Instead, he started his preparation for the UPSC exam and gave his first attempt but couldn’t pass the Prelims.
He said, “My parents supported me in this and after finishing engineering, I returned to Lucknow for preparation. I failed in three attempts, but succeeded in the fourth. During the preparation, I focussed more on the topics where I was weak.”
UPSC PREPARATION
Ashutosh’s UPSC journey is same as other aspirants who continuously experienced failures but kept on analysing and correcting their mistakes, updating themselves all the while, until they achieved success. His optional subject was Political Science and International Relations (PSIR). He believes that PSIR is a great optional for UPSC exam as most of its syllabus overlaps with the other general studies subjects, and this eventually helps in scoring better marks.
He said, “There was a time when negative thoughts used to come to my mind but I decided that I won’t lose focus. I kept motivating myself by taking inspiration from all hardworking people around me.”
INTERVIEW ROUND
Ashutosh Kumar has scored 991 marks out of 2025 marks in total, that comprises 785 marks in the Civil Services (Main) written exam and 206 marks in the Personality Test, which is the highest mark in the interview round of UPSC CSE 2021.
He said that his interview was good and most questions were asked from DAF . As his optional was PSIR, so there were questions from International Relations like the current crisis in Sri Lanka and Ukraine, India’s relations with neighbouring countries, etc.
His suggestion for UPSC interview is to be real, analytical and positive. “Interview is to test your approach and analytical mindset, not for checking your knowledge, which was already done in prelims and mains,” he said.
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