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SBI PO (Probationary Officer)

Evidence status: 🟡 secondary. Every number below is from SBI's official Probationary Officers 2026 advertisement (CRPD/PO/2026-27/09, 1,500 vacancies), re-verified on 2026-10-01. Kept at secondary because SBI now serves careers and recruitment notifications from sbi.bank.in (migrated from sbi.co.in), which redirects from sbi.co.in and is pending addition to the repository's official domain allow-list. Always confirm on the SBI careers portal before applying or paying any fee.

SBI PO recruits probationary officers (Junior Management Grade Scale-I) for the State Bank of India. It is one of India's most sought-after banking exams. Selection runs in three phases: prelims (qualifying), mains, then a psychometric test, group exercise and interview.

At a glance
Conducted by State Bank of India (Central Recruitment & Promotion Department)
Advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09; online applications 18.06.2026–08.07.2026
Vacancies 1,500 (UR 588, OBC 390, SC 234, ST 144, EWS 144; PwBD reservations horizontal)
Stages Phase I prelims (qualifying, marks not counted) → Phase II mains → Phase III (psychometric test, group exercise, interview)
Qualification Graduation in any discipline (final-year students may apply provisionally; proof of passing by 30.09.2026)
Age 21–30 years as on 01.04.2026 (relaxation: OBC 3, SC/ST 5, PwBD 10–15 years; see notification)
Application fee ₹750 for UR/EWS/OBC; nil for SC/ST/PwBD

Official sources

Exam pattern

Prelims (Phase I): online objective test, 100 marks, 1 hour, separate timing per section. No sectional cut-off; about 10 times the vacancies per category are shortlisted for mains on aggregate prelims marks.

Section Questions Time
English Language 40 20 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude 30 20 minutes
Reasoning Ability 30 20 minutes
Total 100 1 hour

Mains (Phase II): online objective test for 200 marks plus a descriptive test for 30 marks (typed on the computer right after the objective test). Grand total 230 marks, 3 hours 30 minutes. Each candidate must score the minimum qualifying marks in every section including the descriptive paper; about 3 times the category-wise vacancies are shortlisted for Phase III on aggregate mains marks.

Test Questions Marks Time
Reasoning & Computer Aptitude 40 60 50 minutes
Data Analysis & Interpretation 30 60 45 minutes
General Awareness / Economy / Banking Knowledge 60 60 45 minutes
English Language 40 20 40 minutes
Objective total 170 200 3 hours
Descriptive: Communication Skills (email; situation analysis; report or precis writing) 3 tasks 30 30 minutes

Negative marking (prelims and mains objective): 1/4th of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer; no penalty for unattempted questions.

Phase III: psychometric test (personality profiling shared with the interview panel) plus Group Exercise (20 marks) and Personal Interview (30 marks), total 50 marks.

Final merit: prelims marks are not counted. Mains (230) and Phase III (50) are normalized to 75 and 25 respectively, out of 100; selection is from the top of the category-wise merit list.

Syllabus

The notification specifies test areas, not a detailed topic-wise syllabus:

  • Prelims: English Language; Quantitative Aptitude; Reasoning Ability.
  • Mains objective: Reasoning & Computer Aptitude; Data Analysis & Interpretation; General / Economy / Banking Awareness; English Language.
  • Mains descriptive: communication skills — email, situation analysis, and report or precis writing.
  • Phase III: personality profiling (psychometric), group exercise and interview.

For topic-level depth (puzzles, seating, syllogism, reading comprehension, banking awareness and the rest), use the shared modules below; the notification itself is the final word on what each phase tests.

How to prepare (free, in order)

  1. Clear each mains section's minimum qualifying score, not just the aggregate: bank exams time and score sections separately.
  2. Practise puzzles, seating arrangement and data interpretation daily. They decide most reasoning and quant marks.
  3. Build banking, economy and general awareness for mains from RBI and PIB releases.
  4. Practise the descriptive tasks weekly: one email, one situation analysis, and one report or precis.

Free resources