• Uma Harathi N belongs to the state of Telangana.
• She achieved AIR-3 in UPSC CSE 2022 in her fifth attempt, which is a sign of her perseverance and consistent progress.
• She completed her B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Hyderabad and selected Anthropology as her optional subject.
• She scored 1060/2025 (873 written, 187 interview) by following a strategy of limited sources, deep revision, intensive PYQs/mocks, and strong family support.

Personal Details

Educational Background

• Uma Harathi N, who was ranked 3rd in UPSC 2022, has a degree of B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Hyderabad and attended Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Hyderabad for her schooling.
• Her robust technical and analytical education at IIT, which was based on a strong school foundation, was a great help in her preparation for the UPSC exam.

Family Background

• Uma Harathi N received her upbringing and education from a service-oriented, highly educated and ever-supportive family in Telangana.
• She significantly influenced her dream for civil services. Her father, N. Venkateshwarlu, holds the position of Superintendent of Police in Naryanpet district, whereas her mother is a stay-at-home wife and her brother is an Indian Engineering Services (IES) officer.

Uma Harathi N's UPSC strategy is based on a very comprehensive understanding of the syllabus, limiting the sources, heavy reliance on the use of PYQs/mocks, and consistent revision.But she separates the tailor-made approach for Prelims, Mains and Interview in three sessions as follows.​

Prelims Strategy

She focused on the multiple revisions of core static (NCERTs + standard books) plus a very strong coverage of current affairs; she used weekly revision cycles and short notes for quick recall.

She did a top-notch job on solving a large number of mock tests (she recommends dozens of tests), analyzing mistakes, and working on accuracy, intelligent guessing, and time management after failing Prelims four times previously.​

Mains (GS + Essay) Strategy

By doing a very thorough reading of the syllabus and PYQs, she was able to identify the recurring themes; keeping the sources limited she gave conceptual clarity priority over the new material.​

Regular answer‑writing through test series focusing on the structure (intro–body–conclusion), adding examples, diagrams, and value‑addition plus daily or nearly daily writing practice.​

Anthropology Optional Strategy

She laid a groundwork from standard books/notes and made concise notes on each topic, usually within one–two A4 pages per topic for fast revision.

She practiced a lot of optional test papers, using diagrams, case studies, and tribal examples, and she made answers very much like the syllabus keywords to achieve higher marks.​

Interview/Personality Test Strategy

She was very much aware of current affairs, DAF-related issues (IIT background, Telangana, hobbies), and governance topics preparing multi-dimensional viewpoints instead of one-sided stands.

She took several mock interviews to improve body language, clarity, and balanced analysis; aiming for calm and honest answers instead of perfection helped her score well in the personality test.