Apala Mishra is one of India’s most inspiring civil servants who achieved All India Rank (AIR) 9 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2020. What made her success even more remarkable was that she secured 215 marks in the UPSC Personality Test (Interview), the highest interview score among candidates that year. She is a qualified dental surgeon and later joined the prestigious Indian Foreign Service (IFS).
Quick Facts Summary: Apala Mishra at a Glance
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Dr. Apala Mishra |
| Popularly Known As | IFS Apala Mishra, Dr. Apala Mishra |
| Profession | Indian Foreign Service (IFS) Officer; former dental surgeon |
| UPSC Batch | Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2020 |
| UPSC All India Rank | AIR 9 |
| Service Allotted | Indian Foreign Service (chosen over an eligible IAS allotment) |
| Year of Birth | 1997 |
| Birthplace | Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh |
| Educational Background | BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery), Army College of Dental Sciences |
| UPSC Optional Subject | Anthropology (as reported in several aspirant-focused profiles) |
| UPSC Interview Score | 215 out of 275 — the highest among the top-10 rank holders of CSE 2020 |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Husband | Abhishek Bakolia, IFS officer (CSE 2021, AIR 218) |
| Current Role | Indian Foreign Service officer (specific present posting not officially confirmed in public reporting) |
Family & Personal Life
Apala Mishra comes from an Army family with a strong academic streak running through it as well.
- Father: Colonel (Retd.) Amitabh Mishra, Indian Army
- Mother: Dr. Alpana Mishra, Professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi
- Brother: Major Abhishek Mishra, Indian Army
- Husband: Abhishek Bakolia, an IFS officer himself (CSE 2021, AIR 218), originally from Kotkapura in Punjab’s Faridkot district
- Hometown: Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
- Marital Status: Married — the couple’s relationship became public knowledge after Apala shared an engagement-style social media post in November 2024 with the caption “diplomatic treaty >> wedding vows,” followed by wedding celebrations reported in April 2025
Interestingly, Apala Mishra’s husband followed a strikingly similar path to public service success: a Computer Science graduate of Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, who interned at J.P. Morgan before pivoting to UPSC preparation during the 2020 pandemic lockdown — and cleared the exam in his very first attempt. Their pairing has been covered in Indian media as one of several recent “civil-service power couples.”
Apala Mishra Educational Background
| Stage | Institution | Detail / Achievement |
|---|---|---|
| Schooling (up to Class 10) | School in Dehradun, Uttarakhand | Completed early schooling here, consistent with her father’s Army postings |
| Schooling (Class 12) | School in Rohini, Delhi | Completed higher secondary education after the family relocated |
| Undergraduate Degree | Army College of Dental Sciences | Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) |
| Professional Practice | — | Practiced and trained as a dental surgeon before shifting to full-time UPSC preparation |
| Competitive Exam | UPSC Civil Services Examination | Cleared CSE 2020 on her third attempt, AIR 9, with Anthropology as her optional subject (per multiple aspirant-focused profiles) |
Exact 12th-grade or BDS marksheet percentages for Apala Mishra are not part of any verifiable public record, despite being a frequently searched detail. UPSC does publish a consolidated marks document for recommended candidates after the final results are declared, and her well-documented figure from that process is her interview score of 215/275 — the detailed paper-wise mains breakdown isn’t confirmed in the sources used for this profile, so it isn’t reproduced here as a guess.
UPSC & Career Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Before 2018 | Completed BDS from Army College of Dental Sciences; began practicing as a dentist |
| 2018 | First UPSC CSE attempt — did not clear the Prelims |
| 2019 | Second UPSC CSE attempt — did not clear the Prelims again |
| 2020 | Third UPSC CSE attempt — cleared with AIR 9; scored 215/275 in the interview, the highest among that year’s top 10 rank holders |
| 2020–2021 | Allotted to the Indian Foreign Service; began foundational training (officers of the CSE 2020 cycle are commonly referred to as both the “2020 batch” and, in some service records, the “2021 batch,” depending on whether the exam year or the year of joining training is used) |
| 2021 onward | Underwent IFS probationary training, including the Foundation Course and service-specific training components |
| November 2024 | Engagement publicly announced via social media |
| April 2025 | Wedding ceremonies with fellow IFS officer Abhishek Bakolia |
| 2026 | Continuing her career in the Indian Foreign Service; specific current posting not officially confirmed in public sources |
Major Achievements & Recognition
| Year | Achievement | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | AIR 9 in UPSC CSE | Secured the 9th All India Rank out of lakhs of candidates, on her third attempt |
| 2020 | Highest Interview Score in Her Cohort | Scored 215 out of 275 in the personality test/interview round — the highest among the top-10 rank holders that year |
| 2020 | Chose IFS Over an Eligible IAS Allotment | Despite her rank making her eligible for the Indian Administrative Service, she opted for the Indian Foreign Service by personal preference |
| Ongoing | Recognized Inspirational Case Study | Frequently cited in Indian media and UPSC-aspirant communities as an example of a mid-career switch (medicine to civil services) succeeding through repeated attempts |
Administrative & Diplomatic Positions Held
| Period | Role |
|---|---|
| 2020–2021 | IFS Probationer (Foundation Course and service training) |
| Post-training | Indian Foreign Service Officer — specific desk, division, or mission posting not officially confirmed in public sources reviewed for this profile |
Special Distinctions
- Doctor-to-diplomat crossover: Few UPSC candidates enter with a completed professional degree and an active medical career already underway; Apala Mishra’s switch from a BDS and a dental practice to full-time UPSC preparation is one of the more distinctive elements of her story.
- Highest interview score among the CSE 2020 top 10: Her 215/275 interview score outscored every other candidate in that year’s top 10 rank holders — a detail that received specific media attention.
- Choosing IFS over IAS: Rank 9 typically allows a candidate the choice of IAS; Apala Mishra’s decision to choose IFS instead is frequently highlighted as a notable, less conventional choice among top rankers.
Career Philosophy & Vision
In interviews, Apala Mishra has repeatedly emphasized three things: discipline over intensity, honest self-assessment after failure, and mental health as a non-negotiable part of preparation. She has described studying 7 to 8 consistent hours a day rather than erratic marathon sessions, and has spoken about treating her two failed prelims attempts as diagnostic feedback rather than verdicts on her ability — going back to rebuild her strategy each time rather than abandoning the goal. She has also been notably candid about the emotional toll of repeated attempts, encouraging aspirants to talk to people they trust, take real breaks, and not treat a single exam cycle as a referendum on their self-worth.
Detailed Biography
Early Life and Roots
Apala Mishra was born in 1997 into an Army household in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Colonel (Retd.) Amitabh Mishra, and her brother, Major Abhishek Mishra, both built careers in the Indian Army, while her mother, Dr. Alpana Mishra, became a professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi. Growing up between the discipline of a defense family and the intellectual rigor of an academic household, her schooling reflected her father’s postings — early education in Dehradun through Class 10, followed by a move to Delhi, where she completed Class 12 in Rohini.
A Dentist’s Detour
Rather than heading straight into civil services preparation after school, Apala Mishra pursued a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) at the Army College of Dental Sciences. She trained as a dentist and began practicing — a complete, credentialed medical career, not a placeholder degree. It’s this detail that gives her story its distinctive shape: she wasn’t a fresh graduate testing the UPSC waters straight out of college. She was already a working professional with a stable, respected career when she made the decision to walk away from it.
The UPSC Decision and Early Setbacks
Apala Mishra began UPSC preparation in earnest in 2018, while still connected to her dental practice. Her first attempt that year ended at the Prelims stage — she didn’t clear it. She returned in 2019, prepared again, and faced the same outcome: another Prelims-stage exit. For many aspirants, two consecutive failures at the very first hurdle would be reason enough to walk away permanently, especially for someone who already had a viable, respected career to return to. Instead, she treated both failures as data: evidence that her preparation method, not her capability, needed an overhaul.
Turning the Corner: The 2020 Attempt
Her third attempt, in 2020, unfolded against an unusually difficult personal backdrop — by some accounts, her father was hospitalized during a COVID wave around the time of her interview preparation. She pushed through, cleared Prelims and Mains, and walked into the interview round with Anthropology as her optional subject. The result: All India Rank 9, with an interview score of 215 out of 275 — the highest of any candidate in that year’s top 10. It was, by any measure, a complete reversal of fortune in a single attempt cycle.
Choosing IFS, Not Just Chasing IAS
With AIR 9, Apala Mishra had the seniority to choose the IAS, the service most top rankers default to. She chose the Indian Foreign Service instead — a decision that drew almost as much attention in coverage of her story as the rank itself, precisely because it ran against the conventional path.
Building a Life Alongside a Career
Her personal life became part of her public story as well. In November 2024, she shared an engagement-related social media post with fellow IFS officer Abhishek Bakolia — himself a UPSC CSE 2021 topper-adjacent ranker (AIR 218) who had transitioned from a computer science and J.P. Morgan internship background into civil service through self-study during the pandemic. Their wedding celebrations followed in 2025, drawing further attention as another instance of two civil servants from the same professional track building a life together.
Landmark Contributions: A Note on Scope
Unlike field-posted IAS officers — who often get credited in local media with named infrastructure projects, sanitation drives, or development schemes tied to a district — IFS officers’ early career years are typically spent in training, desk assignments at the Ministry of External Affairs, and eventually postings at Indian missions abroad. There is no verified, named “signature project” attributed to Apala Mishra in public records at this stage of her career, and this profile does not invent one. Her most significant verified public impact to date has been as a widely cited motivational case study — proof, repeated across dozens of aspirant forums and media profiles, that a Prelims failure (twice over) doesn’t have to be the end of the road.
Conclusion:
Apala Mishra’s documented story isn’t built on a single dramatic moment — it’s built on a sequence of unglamorous setbacks (two Prelims failures) followed by one disciplined comeback. That arc, more than any single rank or score, is what has made her story resonate in UPSC aspirant communities: a working dentist who didn’t quit after the first failure, didn’t quit after the second, and then outscored the rest of the national top 10 in her interview round on the third try.
Her legacy, at this early stage of her career, is less about a finished body of administrative work and more about the example itself — proof that a career switch in your mid-twenties, backed by repeated failure and repeated recommitment, can still end in a top-10 national rank. Where her diplomatic career goes from here — which postings, which portfolios, which initiatives — is still being written, and any complete account of that will have to wait for verified reporting as it happens.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Apala Mishra an IAS or IFS officer?
She is an IFS (Indian Foreign Service) officer. Although her UPSC rank (AIR 9) made her eligible to choose the IAS, she opted for the Indian Foreign Service instead.
What is Apala Mishra’s UPSC rank?
She secured All India Rank 9 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2020, on her third attempt.
How old is Apala Mishra, and what is her date of birth?
She was born in 1997, making her approximately 28–29 years old as of 2026. Her exact date of birth (day and month) is not publicly disclosed.
Who is Apala Mishra’s husband?
She is married to Abhishek Bakolia, also an IFS officer (UPSC CSE 2021, AIR 218), originally from Kotkapura in Punjab’s Faridkot district.
What was Apala Mishra’s optional subject in UPSC?
Several aspirant-focused profiles report her optional subject as Anthropology, though a detailed, verified set of her Anthropology answer-writing notes is not part of any confirmed public record.
Where is IFS Apala Mishra currently posted?
Her exact current posting, including which country she may be stationed in, is not officially confirmed in the public sources available for this profile. Claims online naming a specific country should be treated with caution unless backed by verified, current reporting.
What was Apala Mishra’s UPSC marksheet or interview score?
Her best-documented and most widely reported figure is her interview/personality test score of 215 out of 275 — the highest among the top-10 rank holders of CSE 2020. A full paper-wise mains marksheet breakdown isn’t established in the sources reviewed here.
What is Apala Mishra’s 12th percentage?
This specific figure is not part of any verifiable public record and is not included here to avoid presenting a guess as fact.
Is “Dr. Apala Mishra” a medical doctor?
Yes — she holds a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and practiced as a dentist before transitioning to full-time UPSC preparation and, eventually, the Indian Foreign Service.
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