Everything you need to know about UPSC Topper Ettaboyina Sai Shivani – AIR 11 UPSC Topper 2025
- Name: Ettaboyina Sai Shivani
- Hometown/City: Warangal, Telangana
- Roll Number: 8200949
- Year of Appearance: 2024
- Attempts: Second
- Optional subject: Anthropology
- Age: 24 years
- Graduated in: BTech (IIIT Ongole)
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani a 24 year old from the state of Telangana achieved an impressive 11th rank in the UPSC examination 2024. She also emerged as the Telangana topper in the UPSC exam 2025. Her journey to become a civil servant without any formal coaching is an inspiration to thousands of upsc aspirants across the country.
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani Family background
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani comes from a middle class family from the district of Warangal Telangana. Her father works in the medical recruitment field while her mother is a homemaker. Her parents’ emphasis on education and moral values played a crucial role in the life of Shivani. Shivani had no pressure from her parents to pass the civil services examination. Her parents were supportive of her decisions. Shivani dedicated her success to her close ones for supporting her throughout her journey.
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani Educational background
Shivani’s preparation for the UPSC was not something that started two or three years back. It was started in early 2020, almost 5 years back. After completing her B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from IIIT Ongole in 2022, she decided to not to choose the conventional path of starting a job. Her goal was set to pass the UPSC and serve society. Her first attempt was in 2023 but she failed to pass prelims in her first attempt. She decided to attempt again in 2024, in which she secured an all-India rank. Her technical background gave Shivani the analytics skills to ace the exams.
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani Optional Paper
Despite being from a technical background, Shivani decided to opt for Anthropology as her optional paper. Shivani found the Anthropology paper interesting as it offered various insights into society, human cultures, etc. Anthropology as an optional subject offered fresh perspectives to Shivani different from her technical studies. Even though it was a new subject for her, she was committed to learn and understand more about the society and various human cultures.
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani Preparation Strategy
Shivani’s preparation for civil services was started during the early days of the COVID pandemic. She was an ECE student from IIT Ongole during the pandemic days. Instead of attending a coaching for UPSC, she decided to prepare on her own. She depended on various online materials to understand various subjects and to increase her writing skills. Shivani in an interview admitted that most of her time was spent on improving how to write answers. She mentioned that her focus was on the content, its presentation and also providing value in each answer.
Her preparation strategy was simple. It was to cover the entire syllabus using a strategic approach involving discipline and hard work. Although she failed to clear prelims in her first attempt by a small margin, she decided not to give up and give it another try. She was not only able to pass civil services in the second attempt, but was also able to secure an all-India 11 th rank. Shivani in a recent interview mentioned that she was confident that she would be in the final list of passed candidates, but was not expecting a national rank.
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani Personal interest and Hobbies
Ettaboyina Sai Shivani’s approach was not study based. A balanced approach towards preparation was adopted by Shivani. Instead of self-studying all day, she engaged in activities like practicing yoga, journaling, singing , and reading. This helped her to calm her mind and manage stress during preparation.
What makes Ettaboyina Sai Shivani’s journey unique is not being dependent on any coaching to become a civil servant. While more than half of the aspirants depend on coaching and mentoring to prepare for the civil services examination, Shivani didn’t depend on any. She prepared for exams all by herself by depending on online materials
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