SBI PO syllabus
Most SBI PO material copies the IBPS PO section split and prints it under an SBI heading. The two papers are not the same shape. SBI PO Prelims carries 40 English questions against IBPS PO's 30, and 30 each in Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning against IBPS PO's 35. On a paper where each section is locked to 20 minutes, that difference moves roughly ten questions of your hour from arithmetic and puzzles into reading.
The second thing commonly got wrong is what Prelims is for. Prelims marks are qualifying. They decide who sits Mains and nothing after that. The final merit list is built from Mains and Phase III only, which means a candidate who scrapes through Prelims and a candidate who tops it start Mains level.
SBI also runs a third stage that no other major banking recruitment has. Browse the available SBI PO practice papers.
Syllabus by section
The Prelims paper has three sections, each with its own clock. There is no published question split beneath the section headings, so the topic lists further down are reconstructed from past papers.
| Section | Stage | Questions and marks | Syllabus page |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | Prelims | 40 questions, 40 marks, 20 minutes | English Language syllabus |
| Quantitative Aptitude | Prelims | 30 questions, 30 marks, 20 minutes | Quantitative Aptitude syllabus |
| Reasoning Ability | Prelims | 30 questions, 30 marks, 20 minutes | Reasoning Ability syllabus |
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SBI PO at a glance
| Conducting body | State Bank of India, through its Central Recruitment and Promotion Department |
|---|---|
| Mode | Online, computer based, objective type, with a descriptive paper at Mains |
| Frequency | Usually once a year, with the Prelims generally falling in the middle of the calendar year |
| Duration | Prelims one hour. Mains three hours for the objective paper and thirty minutes for the descriptive paper |
| Questions | Prelims 100. Mains 155 objective plus two descriptive questions |
| Total marks | Prelims 100, qualifying only. Mains 250, counted in the merit list |
| Marking | One mark for a correct answer in Prelims. One fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for a wrong answer |
| Sectional timing | Yes. Twenty minutes per section at Prelims, and a separate clock on every Mains section |
| Eligibility | A graduate degree in any discipline. Age generally 21 to 30 years, with relaxation for reserved categories |
| Validity | That cycle only. A fresh application is required for each recruitment |
Exam pattern
SBI PO Preliminary Examination
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Sections | English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning Ability |
| Questions | 100 |
| Marks | 100 |
| Duration | 60 minutes, split as 20 minutes per section |
| Correct answer | Plus 1 |
| Incorrect answer | Minus 0.25 |
| Unattempted | Zero |
| Medium | English and Hindi, except the English Language section |
| Nature | Qualifying. Marks are not carried into the final merit list |
The section lock is the single most important fact about this paper. Twenty minutes belong to English, twenty to Quantitative Aptitude and twenty to Reasoning, and time left over in one section is lost rather than carried forward. A candidate who finishes English in fourteen minutes does not get six extra minutes for puzzles.
SBI publishes no sectional cut-off for Prelims. An overall cut-off applies, which means a weak section can be carried by a strong one, provided the total clears the line. This is the opposite of the IBPS Specialist Officer paper, where every section has to be cleared separately.
At plus 1 and minus 0.25, four wrong answers cancel one correct answer. A guess between two remaining options is clearly worth taking. A blind guess across five options is not.
Where the exam runs across more than one shift, scores are normalised so that candidates sitting a harder shift are not penalised for the difficulty of their slot.
How the pattern has changed
The three stage structure has been stable. What moved is the composition of the Prelims paper and the weight of the third stage.
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| English raised to 40 questions, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning reduced to 30 each | Prelims now leans toward reading speed rather than calculation |
| Sectional timing of 20 minutes per section | Time cannot be moved between sections, so a slow section cannot be rescued later |
| Phase III expanded beyond a plain interview | A psychometric test and a group exercise now sit alongside the interview |
The English weighting is the change most often missed. Preparation plans built on the IBPS PO split under prepare reading comprehension and over prepare data interpretation, and candidates discover the mismatch in the first twenty minutes of the real paper.
Eligibility
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Qualification | A degree in any discipline from a recognised university. Candidates in the final year may apply, subject to producing proof of passing by the stated date |
| Age | Generally 21 to 30 years as on the date given in the advertisement |
| Age relaxation | As per government rules for OBC, SC, ST, persons with benchmark disabilities and ex servicemen |
| Attempts | Limited. The number of permitted attempts differs by category and is stated in the advertisement |
| Nationality | Indian, or as otherwise specified in the advertisement |
The attempt limit is worth reading carefully, because SBI counts an attempt from appearing at Prelims, not from applying. It is one of the few banking recruitments that caps attempts at all.
Selection process
- Phase I, the Preliminary Examination. Qualifying only. Candidates are shortlisted for Mains in a multiple of the vacancies, typically around ten times
- Phase II, the Main Examination. An objective paper of four sections and a descriptive paper of letter and essay writing
- Phase III, which combines a psychometric test, a group exercise and an interview
- Document verification and medical fitness for candidates who are provisionally selected
The descriptive paper is evaluated only for candidates who clear the objective cut-off, so a strong essay cannot rescue a weak objective score.
How the merit list is decided
Final merit is built from the Mains score and the Phase III score, combined in the weighting stated in that year's advertisement, with the Mains paper carrying the larger share. Preliminary Examination marks are not added at any point.
Two consequences follow. The first is that Prelims should be treated as a gate rather than a scoreboard, and the right target is a comfortable clear rather than a maximum. The second is that the descriptive paper and the interview matter more than most candidates assume, because they sit inside the only scores that count.
The psychometric test does not carry marks of its own. Its output is used as an input to the interview, which means inconsistent answers surface as interview questions rather than as a deduction.
English Language
- Reading Comprehension, including passage based vocabulary and inference questions
- Cloze Test
- Error Spotting and Sentence Correction
- Para Jumbles and sentence rearrangement
- Fill in the Blanks, single and double
- Sentence Improvement
- Word Swap and Word Usage
- Phrase Replacement
- Idioms and Phrases
- Connectors and sentence combination
- Paragraph Completion and Inference
Forty questions in twenty minutes is thirty seconds a question, and a single long comprehension passage can swallow a third of the section. The full English Language breakdown covers the order these are best attempted in.
Quantitative Aptitude
- Data Interpretation, covering tables, bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts and caselets
- Simplification and Approximation
- Number Series, missing and wrong term
- Quadratic Equations and inequality comparison
- Percentage, Ratio and Proportion
- Profit and Loss, Discount and Partnership
- Simple Interest and Compound Interest
- Average, Age and Mixture and Alligation
- Time and Work, Pipes and Cisterns
- Time, Speed and Distance, including Boats and Streams and Trains
- Mensuration
- Permutation, Combination and Probability
- Data Sufficiency
Data Interpretation is the largest single block and the one that decides the section. The full Quantitative Aptitude breakdown covers which sets are worth opening and which are worth leaving.
Reasoning Ability
- Puzzles, including floor, box, month and category based arrangements
- Seating Arrangement, linear, circular and uncertain
- Syllogism, including reverse syllogism
- Inequality, direct and coded
- Blood Relations
- Direction Sense
- Order and Ranking
- Coding and Decoding
- Alphanumeric and Number Series
- Data Sufficiency
- Input Output
- Logical Reasoning, including statement and assumption and course of action
Puzzles and seating arrangements take up the bulk of the section and arrive in sets rather than as single questions. The full Reasoning Ability breakdown covers how to judge a set before committing to it.
What is not in the syllabus
- No General Awareness at Prelims. It appears only in the Mains paper
- No Computer Aptitude at Prelims
- No official topic list. SBI publishes section names and nothing beneath them
- No sectional cut-off at Prelims. Only an overall cut-off applies
- No carry forward of Prelims marks into the merit list
- No option to move time between sections
How to spend the time
Sectional timing changes the arithmetic of preparation. Because no section can borrow from another, the right target is a safe return inside each twenty minute block rather than a high total built on one strong section. A candidate who reliably takes 22 attempts in English, 16 in Quantitative Aptitude and 16 in Reasoning is in a better position than one who takes 40 in English and 8 elsewhere.
English is the section the new split rewards, and also the section where a single hard passage can cost the block. Reading the question stems before the passage, and taking vocabulary and inference questions ahead of the main idea questions, is usually what keeps the section inside its clock.
In Quantitative Aptitude, one Data Interpretation set well chosen is worth four arithmetic questions badly chosen. Scanning all sets for thirty seconds before starting the first one is cheap and routinely saves five minutes.
Reasoning rewards the same discipline in a harder form, because a puzzle that will not open has no partial credit. Deciding within ninety seconds whether a set is solvable is the skill that separates a 16 attempt section from a 6 attempt one.
Browse the available SBI PO practice papers to see where the twenty minutes actually go.
Common mistakes
- Preparing on the IBPS PO section split, which gives English ten fewer questions than SBI does
- Treating Prelims as a scoring paper, when the marks do not reach the merit list
- Planning to carry unused English time into Quantitative Aptitude, which the section lock does not allow
- Chasing a sectional cut-off at Prelims that SBI does not publish
- Starting a Data Interpretation set without scanning the others first
- Guessing blind across five options at minus 0.25
- Leaving the descriptive paper unpractised, when it sits inside the scored stage
- Ignoring the psychometric test on the assumption that it carries no weight, when its output feeds the interview
- Overlooking the attempt limit, which SBI counts from appearing rather than from applying
SBI PO against IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk
All three are graduate level banking recruitments with a qualifying Prelims and a scored Mains. They differ in the Prelims composition, the number of stages and what the final list is built from.
| Feature | SBI PO | IBPS PO | IBPS Clerk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conducting body | State Bank of India | IBPS, for participating banks | IBPS, for participating banks |
| Prelims English | 40 questions | 30 questions | 30 questions |
| Prelims Quantitative Aptitude | 30 questions | 35 questions | 35 questions |
| Prelims Reasoning | 30 questions | 35 questions | 35 questions |
| Prelims duration | 60 minutes, 20 per section | 60 minutes, 20 per section | 60 minutes, 20 per section |
| Stages | Three | Two plus interview | Two |
| Descriptive paper | Yes | Yes | No |
| Interview | Yes, inside Phase III | Yes | No |
| Group exercise | Yes | No | No |
| Merit built from | Mains and Phase III | Mains and interview | Mains only |
SBI PO is the only one of the three with a group exercise and a psychometric test, and the only one whose Prelims leans toward English. IBPS Clerk is the only one with no interview at all, which makes its Mains score the entire selection.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions are in SBI PO Prelims?
One hundred, carrying 100 marks, in sixty minutes. English Language has 40, Quantitative Aptitude 30 and Reasoning Ability 30.
Is there sectional timing in SBI PO Prelims?
Yes. Each of the three sections is locked to 20 minutes, and time left in one section cannot be used in another.
Do SBI PO Prelims marks count in the final merit list?
No. Prelims is qualifying. The merit list is built from the Mains score and the Phase III score.
Is there a sectional cut-off in SBI PO Prelims?
No. SBI applies an overall cut-off at Prelims. Sectional cut-offs appear at later stages, as stated in the advertisement.
What is the negative marking in SBI PO?
One fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for a wrong answer, which is 0.25 marks per question at Prelims.
Is the SBI PO syllabus the same as IBPS PO?
The topic coverage overlaps heavily, but the Prelims paper is not the same shape. SBI gives English 40 questions where IBPS gives 30, and takes five questions each from Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning to pay for it.
Is SBI PO Prelims available in Hindi?
Yes, for Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability. The English Language section is in English only.
How many candidates are shortlisted for Mains?
SBI shortlists in a multiple of the vacancies, generally around ten times, with the exact figure given in that year's advertisement.
Is there a limit on SBI PO attempts?
Yes. The number of permitted attempts is capped and differs by category. An attempt is counted from appearing at Prelims, not from applying.
What happens in Phase III?
A psychometric test, a group exercise and an interview. The psychometric test carries no marks of its own and is used as an input to the interview.
Is General Awareness asked in SBI PO Prelims?
No. General Awareness, with its banking and economy focus, appears only in the Mains paper.
What is the minimum age for SBI PO?
Generally 21 years, with an upper limit of 30 years as on the date stated in the advertisement, plus the usual category relaxations.
Related syllabus pages
SBI PO syllabus guides