Law School to AIR 77: Devansh Gupta (UPSC CSE 2025)

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16 hours ago
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Success in the Civil Services Examination is rarely the result of a single breakthrough moment. Instead, it is usually a story of persistence, reflection, and incremental improvement over several years.

The journey of Devansh Gupta, who secured AIR 77 in UPSC CSE 2025 with Law Optional, perfectly captures this reality.

His preparation story is not one of overnight brilliance or extraordinary study hours. Rather, it reflects a balanced approach: honesty about limitations, continuous self-assessment, and the courage to refine strategies after every attempt.

Devansh’s journey—from a law graduate to a top-ranked civil servant—offers valuable lessons for every UPSC aspirant.

This blog explores his background, preparation strategy, optional subject approach, and the wisdom he shared with future aspirants.

Early Life and Education

Devansh Gupta hails from Uttar Pradesh and has a strong academic background. According to his UPSC Detailed Application Form (DAF), he was born in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh and later grew up in Moradabad.

His schooling took place at Delhi Public School, Moradabad, where he studied science in Class XII

He then pursued B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Symbiosis Law School, Pune, graduating in 2021.

During law school, Devansh actively participated in socio-legal initiatives. His achievements include:

Winning the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Socio-Legal Film Making Competition on the impact of COVID-19 on domestic violence.
Publishing research on Foreign Direct Investment in India.
Serving as Convenor of the Community Legal Care and Literacy Cell at Symbiosis Law School.
Coordinating legal outreach programmes including Lok Adalat initiatives and prison advocacy at Yerwada Central Prison.

These experiences shaped his understanding of law not merely as an academic discipline but as a tool for social justice.

The UPSC Journey: Five Attempts of Learning

Devansh’s success did not come immediately. In fact, the UPSC journey took several years of learning and perseverance.

He graduated in 2021 and began preparing for civil services thereafter. Over the next few years, he appeared in multiple attempts. He had appeared in four previous prelims before the 2025 examination.

Like many aspirants, his journey included both progress and setbacks. In 2022, he cleared the prelims and appeared for the Civil Services Mains, but he did not make it to the final list.

For many candidates, such an experience can be discouraging. But Devansh approached it differently. Instead of blaming the system or luck, he carefully analyzed his shortcomings.

According to him, the key to surviving a long UPSC journey is maintaining both belief and honesty with oneself.

“You have to keep faith in yourself. But along with faith, you must remain truthful about your preparation and continuously check whether you are on the right track.”

This mindset allowed him to treat every attempt as a learning opportunity.

The Power of Self-Assessment

One of the most important lessons from Devansh’s preparation is accountability.

After each attempt, he evaluated:

Where he lost marks
Which subjects needed improvement
Whether his writing style was effective
Whether his preparation approach was aligned with the exam’s expectations

He noticed significant improvement in his answer-writing over time. Even mentors reviewing his answer sheets observed that his later copies were vastly better than the earlier ones.

This highlights a crucial insight: UPSC success is often about improving your weaknesses rather than endlessly accumulating new resources.

Choosing Law as Optional

Being a law graduate, Devansh chose Law as his optional subject.

However, his preparation for law optional evolved over time. In the beginning, he relied heavily on traditional textbooks and extensive note-making.

Later, he realized that a more focused and exam-oriented approach was required.

Let us examine how he prepared each major component of the law optional syllabus.

Strategy for International Law

Initially, Devansh began preparing international law using Malcolm Shaw’s textbook, which is nearly 1700 pages long.

He meticulously prepared notes from this massive book. Later, he realized that such an exhaustive approach may not always be necessary.

For future aspirants, he suggests:

Using concise notes or summaries
Studying topic-wise concepts
Adding current international developments

One factor that helped him significantly was incorporating recent geopolitical events and international developments into answers.

He also recommended online lectures from Bilkent University, Turkey, which helped clarify complex concepts in international law.

Constitutional Law Preparation

For Constitutional Law, Devansh primarily relied on V.N. Shukla’s Constitution of India.

However, the real improvement came when he studied the answer copies of previous toppers.

He observed two key features in high-scoring answers:

Use of relevant quotes
Integration of recent constitutional developments

Inspired by this, he began incorporating:

Landmark judgments
Contemporary debates
Comparative constitutional examples

For instance, he sometimes cited provisions from other constitutions such as South Africa to enrich answers on topics like judicial appointments.

This comparative approach helped make his answers more analytical.

Contract Law Strategy

Contract law is often considered vast and detail-heavy.

Devansh tackled this challenge through extreme consolidation.

After multiple revisions, his contract law notes were reduced to just 25 pages.

His approach focused on:

Important sections
One example per concept
One relevant case law

This method ensured that he could revise the entire subject quickly before the exam.

Handling Vast Acts: Selective Study

Certain acts in the law syllabus are extremely vast, including:

Sale of Goods Act
Arbitration and Conciliation Act
Negotiable Instruments Act

Instead of trying to cover every provision, Devansh adopted a Previous Year Question (PYQ) based approach.

He:

Analyzed past questions
Identified frequently asked areas
Studied those topics selectively

This helped him optimize time without sacrificing marks.

IPC/BNS Strategy

For Indian Penal Code (IPC), Devansh followed a structured format:

For each topic he prepared:

Section number
Meaning of the section
Example scenario
Relevant case law

However, for major topics like:

Murder vs culpable homicide
Theft
Robbery

He prepared multiple case laws.

This allowed him to demonstrate conceptual depth.

Learning from an Unexpected Exam Twist

During the law optional exam, an unexpected situation occurred.

A question on murder and culpable homicide was expected to be answered in four pages, but the answer sheet provided space for only three pages.

Many candidates had planned to write case laws at the end and struggled to adjust.

Devansh’s strategy saved him here: he inserted case laws within the answer itself, immediately after explaining a point.

This made his answers compact yet rich.

Current Affairs in Law Optional

Devansh emphasized the importance of recent case laws and contemporary legal developments. He relied on Current Affair for law Optional given by De Facto IAS

Examples he mentioned include:

Anbazhagan vs State of Tamil Nadu
Rupesh Thapa vs State of Sikkim

He also used recent international developments to strengthen answers in international law.

Thus, his optional preparation was not purely theoretical—it was dynamic and current affairs oriented.

Approach to Answer Writing

Another major improvement in Devansh’s strategy was changing his answer writing style.

Earlier, he wrote long, descriptive answers.

Later he adopted a GS-style structured approach, which included:

Headings taken directly from the question
Clear segmentation of answers
Short and crisp points
Case laws inserted within points

He also followed an important rule:

Never begin the answer with a case law.

Instead:

First state the legal principle
Then mention the case law in brackets

This ensures the examiner understands that the candidate knows the concept, not just the citation.

Preparation Without Coaching

Interestingly, Devansh cleared the exam without formal coaching.

He relied primarily on:

Standard textbooks
Online notes
Previous year questions
Self-prepared notes

He divided his study schedule into two parts:

Morning:

4 hours for Law Optional

Later in the day:

4 hours for General Studies

This balanced approach ensured that neither GS nor optional was neglected.

Realistic Study Hours

One of the most refreshing aspects of Devansh’s story is his honesty about study hours.

Many aspirants claim to study 12–14 hours daily, creating unrealistic expectations.

Devansh openly stated:

“I could not study more than 8–9 hours, even during mains preparation.”

He emphasized that quality and consistency matter far more than exaggerated study hours.

Smart Use of AI

Devansh did experiment with AI tools, but cautiously.

He used AI mainly for:

Summarizing international conventions
Getting short overviews of treaties

However, he avoided using AI for case laws, because AI tools sometimes produce hallucinated or non-existent judgments.

This balanced approach shows how technology can assist preparation without replacing reliable sources.

CSAT Strategy

Devansh also shared valuable advice for the CSAT paper.

Despite having a law background and not being strong in mathematics, he cleared CSAT comfortably by following a time management strategy:

First 45 minutes:

Solve reasoning and mathematics questions

Next 45 minutes:

Attempt reading comprehension passages

Last 15–20 minutes:

Revisit difficult questions

Most importantly, he never spent more than one minute on a question if the solution was not immediately clear.

Advice for Law Students

Devansh offered an interesting piece of advice for law students considering UPSC.

He believes that students should not start intense UPSC preparation during college.

Instead, college years should be used to:

Build strong conceptual foundations
Participate in extracurricular activities
Develop personality and friendships

UPSC preparation can begin more seriously after graduation.

The Importance of Strategy Personalization

Perhaps the most important lesson from Devansh’s journey is this:

There is no universal UPSC strategy.

He strongly advises aspirants not to blindly follow one topper’s approach.

Instead:

Study multiple strategies
Identify what suits your learning style
Spend time designing your own plan
Once finalized, stick to it

As he said:

“You cannot replicate someone else’s journey.”

Every aspirant has a unique learning curve, background, and strengths.

Luck vs Hard Work

Devansh also reflected honestly on the role of luck.

He believes success is approximately:

80% hard work
20% luck

For example, in his final attempt, he wrote only one test for law optional, yet succeeded.

However, he clearly warned that aspirants should not treat this as a strategy, because writing multiple tests is generally beneficial.

Lessons from Devansh Gupta’s Journey

The story of Devansh Gupta is not about extraordinary talent or extreme study hours. Instead, it is a story of persistence, adaptability, and self-awareness.

His journey teaches us several important lessons:

Believe in yourself but remain self-critical.
Improve with every attempt.
Use concise notes and revise repeatedly.
Write structured answers with clarity.
Integrate current affairs into optional subjects.
Do not blindly copy others’ strategies.
Focus on consistent effort rather than exaggerated study hours.

Ultimately, UPSC preparation is not merely an academic process. It is a journey of self-discovery.

Devansh Gupta’s story reminds aspirants that success does not come from copying others—it comes from finding what works for you and pursuing it with discipline and honesty.

And sometimes, as Devansh humbly admits, a little bit of luck helps too.