Every year, lakhs of candidates sit for the UPSC Civil Services Examination, and only a tiny fraction make it into the Indian Administrative Service. Among this elite group, a handful of names stand out not just for their rank, but for the age at which they cleared one of the world’s toughest competitive exams. Ansar Shaikh holds the record for the youngest IAS officer in India, having secured All India Rank 361 in the UPSC CSE 2016 at the age of just 21.
This article takes a detailed, research-backed look at Ansar Shaikh’s journey, profiles the other officers who joined the IAS in their early twenties, and draws out the lessons aspirants can actually use in their own preparation.
Who Is the Youngest IAS Officer in India?
Shaikh Ansar Ahamad — known widely as Ansar Shaikh — was born on 1 June 1994 in Shelgaon, a small village in the Jalna district of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region. He cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2016 in his very first attempt, securing AIR 361 at age 21, which made him the youngest candidate ever to be selected for the IAS.
What makes his achievement especially remarkable is the background he came from. His father earned a living driving an autorickshaw, and his mother worked as a farm labourer. The family had little financial cushion, yet they prioritised Ansar’s education even during difficult times. His elder brother reportedly gave up his own schooling after class 7 to work at a relative’s garage, contributing his monthly wages toward Ansar’s studies and coaching fees.
Education and Exam Strategy
Ansar was a strong student through school, and he went on to complete his graduation in Political Science. For the UPSC Mains and the Personality Test (interview), he chose to write and speak in Marathi, his mother tongue — a decision that reflected confidence in expressing complex ideas in the language he thought in, rather than English. He also picked Political Science as his optional subject, aligning it with his academic background, which is a strategy many toppers recommend since it reduces the learning curve during an already demanding preparation cycle.
By his own account, consistency mattered more than any shortcut: long, disciplined study hours sustained over roughly three years, built around a tight understanding of the syllabus rather than trying to cover everything superficially.
Career After Selection
Ansar Shaikh was allotted the West Bengal cadre. Over his decade in service, he has held postings including Additional District Magistrate in Jhargram, Cooch Behar, and Malda, along with a stint in the state’s Agriculture Department. As of his most recent transfer in May 2026, he is serving as Additional District Magistrate, Paschim Medinipur. His journey is frequently cited in UPSC coaching circles as proof that neither financial background nor age is a barrier to clearing the civil services exam, provided the preparation is disciplined and well-directed.
Top 10 Youngest IAS Officers in India
Beyond Ansar Shaikh, several officers have cleared the UPSC exam in their early twenties over the years. Note that “age” below refers to the candidate’s age when they cleared the exam that got them selected, and the “batch” is the training-year designation assigned after selection (which is usually the calendar year following the exam).
| Exam Year | Name | Age | AIR | IAS Batch / Cadre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Ansar Shaikh | 21 | 361 | 2016, West Bengal |
| 2013 | Roman Saini | 22 | 18 | 2014, Madhya Pradesh |
| 2015 | Tina Dabi | 22 | 1 | 2016, Rajasthan |
| 2000 | Smita Sabharwal | 23 | 4 | 2001, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) |
| 2002 | Ankur Garg | 22 | 1 | 2003, AGMUT |
| 2005 | Gaurav Goyal | 22 | 10 | 2006, Rajasthan |
| 2007 | Swati Meena Naik | 22 | 260 | 2008, Madhya Pradesh |
| 2011 | Amrutesh Aurangabadkar | 22 | 10 | 2012, Gujarat |
| 2017 | S. Susmitha | 22 | 151 | 2018 |
| 2018 | Ashima Jain | 22 | — | 2019 |
A quick word of caution for researchers: exact ages and ranks for the older entries on this list (2000s batches) vary slightly across secondary sources, since UPSC does not itself publish an “age at selection” list. The figures above reflect the most consistently reported details across independent profiles of each officer.
Brief Profiles
Roman Saini is arguably the most talked-about name on this list outside UPSC circles. Before attempting the civil services exam, he had already cleared the AIIMS entrance test at 16 and completed his MBBS from AIIMS Delhi. He cleared UPSC CSE 2013 in his first attempt with AIR 18 at age 22, joined the Madhya Pradesh cadre, but resigned from the IAS in 2015 to co-found the ed-tech platform Unacademy.
Tina Dabi topped the UPSC CSE 2015 with AIR 1 at age 22, becoming both the youngest and highest-ranked woman to top the exam in recent memory. A Political Science graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, she opted for the Rajasthan cadre and has served in postings including District Collector of Jaisalmer.
Smita Sabharwal, popularly known as the “People’s Officer,” cleared the exam with AIR 4 in 2000 at age 23 and joined the 2001 batch, Andhra Pradesh cadre (now Telangana after the 2014 bifurcation). She became the first woman IAS officer to be posted in the Chief Minister’s Office in Telangana and has since built a long career centred on public health and sanitation initiatives.
Ankur Garg, an IIT Delhi graduate, topped the UPSC CSE with AIR 1 at age 22 and was allotted the AGMUT cadre in the 2003 batch.
Gaurav Goyal secured AIR 10 at age 22 and joined the Rajasthan cadre in the 2006 batch, choosing Commerce and Public Administration as his optional subjects.
Swati Meena Naik, from Sikar, Rajasthan, cleared the exam with AIR 260 at age 22 in her first attempt and was allotted the Madhya Pradesh cadre in the 2008 batch.
Amrutesh Aurangabadkar from Pune secured AIR 10 in the 2011 exam at age 22 and joined the Gujarat cadre.
Youngest Female IAS Officer in India
Among women officers, Smita Sabharwal and Tina Dabi are the two names most commonly cited for clearing the exam in their early twenties, though the underlying numbers differ slightly: Sabharwal was 23 when she secured AIR 4 in 2000, while Dabi was 22 when she topped the exam outright with AIR 1 in 2015. Because Dabi both topped the exam and did so at a marginally younger age, many sources treat her as the benchmark for the youngest woman to become an IAS officer, while Sabharwal is frequently recognised as the pioneer among younger women IAS officers from an earlier generation.
Both officers have gone on to build reputations for hands-on, citizen-focused administration — Sabharwal through her long-running public health and governance work in Telangana, and Dabi through her district administration postings in Rajasthan — and both are frequently invoked as role models by young women preparing for the UPSC exam today.
What These Stories Have in Common
Read together, these journeys don’t point to a single formula, but a few patterns do repeat:
- A tightly chosen optional subject. Most of these officers picked an optional that matched their academic background (Political Science, Commerce, Public Administration) rather than chasing a “high-scoring” subject unfamiliar to them, which cut down the time needed to build subject depth.
- First-attempt clarity. Several — Ansar Shaikh, Roman Saini, Tina Dabi, Ankur Garg — cleared the exam on their first try, generally after a focused, single-minded preparation window rather than years of trial and error.
- Writing in a language of comfort. Ansar Shaikh’s choice to attempt Mains and the interview in Marathi is a reminder that medium of examination is a strategic decision, not just a formality — clarity of expression usually matters more than which language it’s expressed in.
- A support system, not solo grit alone. Nearly every profile above involves family members, friends, or a coaching institute stepping in during financially or emotionally difficult stretches of preparation — a detail that’s easy to skip over in “self-made success” narratives but shows up consistently in the actual accounts.
FAQs
The journeys above show that age is not the deciding factor in the UPSC exam — a clear strategy, a realistic optional subject choice, and disciplined, sustained preparation matter far more. Whether you’re 21 or in your late twenties, what these officers share isn’t luck; it’s a preparation approach that played to their strengths.