Shruti Sharma, a student of history, has topped the civil services examination 2021, with women taking the first three ranks in the results announced by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Monday.

Ankita Agarwal and Gamini Singla have secured the second and third rank, respectively.

A total of 685 candidates — 508 men and 177 women — have qualified and their names were recommended by the commission for appointment to various central services, the UPSC said.

Sharma, who went to Jawaharlal Nehru University for her post-graduation, topped the examination with history as her optional subject.

Agarwal, an economics honours graduate from the University of Delhi, secured the second rank. She had political science and international relations as her optional subject.

Singla, a BTech in computer science, stood third with sociology as her optional subject, the UPSC said.

Aishwarya Verma secured the fourth position and Utkarsh Dwivedi achieved the fifth rank, it said.

The top 25 candidates include 15 men and 10 women.

Sharma on Monday gave credit to her “extremely supportive” parents and her friends who had guided her. A lot of hard work and patience was required, she said.

The result was a pleasant surprise, said Sharma, who had been preparing for the civils for the last four years and was a student of Jamia Millia Islamia’s Residential Coaching Academy.

The RCA is funded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to provide free coaching and residential facilities to students belonging to categories such as the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and minorities.

A Jamia official said 23 students of the coaching academy had cleared the exams.

“Top 25 successful candidates have opted for subjects like anthropology, economics, geography, Hindi literature, history, mathematics, medical science, political science & international relations, public administration, sociology and zoology as their optional choice in the written (main) examination,” it said.

The recommended candidates also include 25 people with benchmark disability (seven orthopedically handicapped, five visually challenged, eight hearing impaired & five with multiple disabilities), the commission said.

Of the successful candidates, 244 are from the general category, 73 from Economically Weaker Sections, 203 from Other Backward Classes, 105 from Scheduled Castes and 60 from Scheduled Tribes.

The civil services examination is conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages — preliminary, main and interview — to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) among others.

The civil services (preliminary) examination 2021 was conducted on October 10, 2021.

A total of 10,93,984 candidates applied for this exam, out of which 5,08,619 candidates appeared in the exam, the UPSC said.

As many as 9,214 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination, which was held in January this year.

A total of 1,824 candidates qualified for the personality test, it added.

The candidature of 80 candidates is provisional, while the result of one candidate has been withheld.

Results are available on the UPSC’s website — www.upsc.gov.in. “Marks will be available on the website within 15 days from the date of declaration of result,” it said.