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IBPS SO (Specialist Officer)

Evidence status: 🟡 secondary. Every number below is from the CRP SPL-XVI detailed notification (published 01.07.2026, PDF dated 30.06.2026, vacancies of 2027-28) plus the official corrigenda listed under Official sources, re-checked on 2026-09-30. Direct fetches of www.ibps.in are blocked from the hive (0 bytes this run as well), so per the evidence rules the page stays secondary, not official. Always read the current notice before you apply or pay a fee.

IBPS SO recruits specialist officers for the participating public sector banks in six posts: IT Officer, Agricultural Field Officer, Rajbhasha Adhikari, Law Officer, HR/Personnel Officer and Marketing Officer (all Scale I). Selection is Prelims → Mains → interview, and only Mains marks count with the interview for the final merit.

At a glance
Conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS)
Cycle CRP SPL-XVI, vacancies of 2027-28
Posts IT Officer, Agricultural Field Officer, Rajbhasha Adhikari, Law Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, Marketing Officer (all Scale I)
Stages Prelims (online, shortlisting only) → Mains (online) → interview
Age (as on 01.07.2026) 20–30 years (born 02.07.1996–01.07.2006, both dates inclusive)
Application fee Rs 175 (SC/ST/PwBD) · Rs 850 (all others), inclusive of GST, online only
Registration (CRP SPL-XVI) 01.07.2026–26.07.2026 (extended from 21.07.2026 per corrigendum dated 21.07.2026); edit window 29.07.2026–30.07.2026
Schedule (tentative) Prelims August 2026 (result September/October 2026) → Mains November 2026 → interview November/December 2026 → provisional allotment January 2027
Qualification Degree in the relevant field as on 21.07.2026 (see the notification); apply for only one post
Final merit Mains + interview in the ratio 80:20 (Prelims marks are not counted)

Official sources

Exam pattern

Prelims: 100 questions, 125 marks, 80 minutes, with 20 minutes per section. Two variants:

Section (IT / AFO / HR / Marketing) Questions Marks Time
English Language 25 25 20 min
Reasoning 25 25 20 min
Quantitative Aptitude 25 25 20 min
Professional Knowledge 25 50 20 min
Total 100 125 80 min

For Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari, Quantitative Aptitude is replaced by General Awareness with special reference to the Banking Industry (25 questions, 25 marks, 20 min); the other three sections are identical. Candidates must clear the cut-off in each of the four tests to be shortlisted for the Mains.

Mains: 150 objective questions (200 marks, 125 min) plus a 2-question paper worth 25 marks in 30 minutes — 225 marks in 155 minutes in total. All Mains tests except Professional Knowledge are qualifying; merit for interview shortlisting is on Professional Knowledge scores. The descriptive paper is in English for IT/AFO/HR/Marketing/Law posts and in English and Hindi for Rajbhasha Adhikari.

Negative marking: 0.25 of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer in the objective tests (Prelims and Mains); blank answers carry no penalty.

Interview: 100 marks, minimum 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PwBD). Final selection combines Mains and interview scores in the ratio 80:20.

Syllabus

Prelims: the shared banking modules (English, reasoning, quantitative aptitude, or general awareness with special reference to banking for Law/Rajbhasha posts) plus professional knowledge of the post. Mains: the professional syllabus of the post (for example networking, databases and security for IT; agronomy and agri-finance for AFO; banking law for Law Officer), with the remaining Mains tests qualifying only.

Free resources

How to prepare (free, in order)

  1. Your mains subject is your degree subject: revise it from standard textbooks and NPTEL, since Mains merit rests on Professional Knowledge.
  2. Prelims marks do not count toward the final merit; focus on clearing the sectional cut-offs by practicing the shared modules: English Language, Reasoning, Quant Aptitude, and General Awareness.