Banking · Government Exams

IBPS Clerk Exam Pattern

Every figure here is from the CRP CSA-XVI notification of 1 August 2026 — what each paper asks, how the sectional timers run, what a wrong answer costs and how the merit list is built without an interview.

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IBPS Clerk · checked 19 September 2026

The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.

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19September 2026

Checked 19 September 2026

IBPS Clerk: the facts that matter now

01
Notification 1 August 2026; registration 1–21 August; prelims October (10–11 October in the calendar), mains December 2026; allotment March 2027
2026 cycle
02
Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) — CRP CSA-XVI for the 2027-28 vacancies of 11 public sector banks
Conducted by
03
Customer Service Associate (the clerical cadre, called Clerk until the 2024 process), state-wise
Post
04
11,403 indicative across 37 states and UTs — Uttar Pradesh 1,731, Karnataka 1,414, Maharashtra 1,051, West Bengal 946, Gujarat 698, Tamil Nadu 675
Vacancies

Pattern

IBPS Clerk — IBPS Clerk exam pattern 2026: prelims, mains, sectional timing and negative marking

IBPS Clerk has two online papers and no interview. The preliminary examination qualifies candidates for the main examination and is then discarded; the main examination alone builds the merit list, and provisional allotment to a bank in the state applied for follows from it. Both papers run on separate section timers with a 0.25 deduction per wrong answer.

IBPS Clerk preliminary examination 2026. Objective; sections separately timed; sectional cut-offs; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks	Medium	Time
English Language	30	30	English	20 minutes
Numerical Ability	35	35	English, Hindi and the regional languages listed for the state	20 minutes
Reasoning Ability	35	35	English, Hindi and the regional languages listed for the state	20 minutes
Total	100	100		60 minutes

Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing the cut-off IBPS decides, and an adequate number per category — set by requirement — is shortlisted for the main examination. Preliminary marks are not carried forward. The objective tests other than English are offered in the regional languages listed against each state as well as English and Hindi, chosen at registration.

IBPS Clerk main examination 2026. Sections not in this sequence on the day; each separately timed; sectional and total cut-offs; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks	Medium	Time
General and Financial Awareness	40	50	English, Hindi and regional languages	20 minutes
General English	40	40	English	35 minutes
Reasoning Ability	40	60	English, Hindi and regional languages	35 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude	40	50	English, Hindi and regional languages	35 minutes
Total	160	200		125 minutes

How the main examination is scored

Marks per question differ by section — Reasoning 1.5, General and Financial Awareness 1.25, Quantitative Aptitude 1.25, English 1 — so a wrong Reasoning answer costs 0.375, a wrong English answer 0.25.
Sectional and total cut-offs — Both are set by IBPS by category according to the vacancies in each state; failing one section ends the attempt regardless of the total.
Merit is state-wise — You compete only with candidates who applied for the same state or UT, against that state’s vacancies.
Normalisation — Where a paper is held in more than one session, scores are normalised by the equi-percentile method and carried to two decimal places before cut-offs and merit are worked out.

After the main examination.
Stage	Detail
Provisional allotment	By main examination marks, category and bank preference within the state, against the vacancies reported; valid for one year
Local language proficiency test	Conducted by the allotted bank before joining for candidates without a class 10 or 12 certificate in the state’s specified language; failure forfeits the appointment
Interview	None

What the pattern means for how you attempt the paper

Prelims: three separate sprints — Twenty minutes each with a sectional cut-off. Attempt what you can finish in under 40 seconds, leave the rest, never guess across five options.
Mains Reasoning: accuracy first — Forty questions for 60 marks in 35 minutes; two clean puzzle sets and the singles beat four rushed sets with errors.
Mains General and Financial Awareness: 20 minutes for 40 questions — Thirty seconds a question — recall only. Six months of daily banking news is the preparation.
Do not neglect English — Forty mains marks and a prelims gate; cloze and comprehension respond to daily reading.

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