Why was CSE 2023 Prelims cutoff 75.41 — the lowest in UPSC history? A deep-dive.

Three forces collided in 2023: (1) GS-I leaned heavily on factual elimination with few logical anchors, (2) CSAT was deliberately punitive — eliminating a chunk of GS-strong candidates entirely before ranking, and (3) the vacancy expansion to 1,105 didn't compensate. The result was 75.41 — a decade low that has not repeated since.