Thousands walked into the CSS 2026 race chasing a coveted place in Pakistan’s civil service. But after the written exam, only 476 aspirants remain standing, with a staggering 97.26% failing to make the cut.
Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) has announced the results, revealing just how brutal the competition was this year. A total of 24,321 candidates applied for the prestigious examination, but only 17,351 actually appeared in at least one written paper. Even among those who entered the examination hall, 16,342 candidates appeared in all the papers.
Among those who cleared the written exam, 239 are men and 237 are women, making the final successful pool almost perfectly balanced between male and female candidates.
The CSS examination was held from February 4 to February 15, 2026, putting aspirants through one of Pakistan’s toughest competitive examinations. The results have now been uploaded to the FPSC website, giving successful candidates a reason to celebrate — but the battle is far from over.
Those who made it through the written stage must still face medical examinations, psychological assessments and interviews. FPSC will announce the schedule for these stages later.
The competition had started on an even larger scale. As many as 63,368 candidates applied for the CSS Multiple Choice Questions Preliminary Test (MPT). Of these, 43,189 appeared for the test, while 36,758 candidates qualified for the next stage. But the written examination proved to be the real filter.
