IBPS SO Exam Pattern & Syllabus
Last verified 31 Jul 2026
The IBPS SO exam pattern is set out below. Yes — one fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer.
IBPS SO exam pattern
| Section | Questions | Marks | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims — English Language | 25 | 25 | 20 minutes |
| Prelims — Reasoning | 25 | 25 | 20 minutes |
| Prelims — Quantitative Aptitude (General Awareness with reference to Banking for Law and Rajbhasha) | 25 | 25 | 20 minutes |
| Prelims — Professional Knowledge | 25 | 50 | 20 minutes |
| Prelims total | 100 | 125 | 80 minutes |
| Mains — English Language | 30 | 30 | 25 minutes |
| Mains — Reasoning | 40 | 40 | 35 minutes |
| Mains — Quantitative Aptitude (General Awareness for Rajbhasha) | 30 | 30 | 25 minutes |
| Mains — Professional Knowledge (Objective) | 50 | 100 | 40 minutes |
| Mains — Descriptive Paper (English) | 2 | 25 | 30 minutes |
| Mains total | 152 | 225 | 155 minutes |
What counts towards the final merit
Only the Main Examination and the Interview count towards the final merit list.
Professional Knowledge is now tested in the Preliminary Examination
CRP SPL-XVI moved Professional Knowledge into the Preliminary Examination, worth 50 of the 125 marks — twice the weight of any other section. Previous cycles kept the Preliminary Examination to three general sections and tested subject knowledge only in the Main. A candidate preparing from an older syllabus plan will walk into the wrong exam.
Every section is separately timed
Bank examinations lock each section to its own clock. You cannot carry unused minutes from an easy section into a hard one, and once a section closes you cannot return to it. Practising a full paper without sectional timers trains the wrong habit entirely.
Syllabus
Reasoning Ability
Puzzles and seating arrangement, syllogism, inequality, blood relations, direction sense, coding and decoding, order and ranking, input-output, data sufficiency, and statement and assumption. Puzzles and seating arrangement dominate the section.
Quantitative Aptitude / Numerical Ability
Data interpretation, number series, simplification and approximation, quadratic equations, and arithmetic — percentage, ratio and proportion, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time speed and distance, mixture and alligation, and probability.
English Language
Reading comprehension, cloze test, error spotting, sentence improvement, para jumbles, fillers, word usage and vocabulary in context.
General / Financial / Banking Awareness
Current affairs of the last six months with a banking and economic slant, RBI circulars and monetary policy, banking terminology and abbreviations, financial institutions and their headquarters, government schemes, budget and economic survey highlights, and static awareness.
Computer Aptitude
Fundamentals of computers, hardware and software, operating systems, MS Office, internet and networking basics, database basics, computer abbreviations and security.