What is the difference between IES and ESE?

Many students have confusion between IES and ESE. Here are some important facts about the examination. 

• UPSC used to conduct IES as Indian Engineering Services before. IES also used to stand for Indian Economic Services. A petition was launched to change the name of the exam since the abbreviations for both the exams were some. 
• After the petition, UPSC changed the Indian engineering services to Engineering Services Examination. ESE is for engineering streams. For non-technical streams, the name remained IES which stands for Indian Engineering Services.
• But the IES name became quite famous among engineering students. As the craze of government jobs increased after the recession. So, till now coaching institutes called it IES instead of ESE.

So, IES stands for Indian Engineering Services. It is for non-engineering streams. While ESE stands for Engineering Services Examination and for engineering students. 

You must be curious about why it was not changed for Indian Economic Services. It was probably because the Indian economics services domain was established before the Indian engineering services.