Banking · Government Exams

IBPS RRB Exam Pattern

Every figure here is from the CRP RRBs-XV notification of 1 September 2026 — what each paper asks, how the timers run, what a wrong answer costs and how the officer interview is weighted.

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IBPS RRB · 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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21Sep 2026

Next deadline

IBPS RRB: the facts that matter now

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Notification 1 September 2026; registration 1–21 September; prelims November–December 2026; mains and single examinations December 2026 – February…
2026 cycle
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Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) for 28 Regional Rural Banks — CRP RRBs-XV
Conducted by
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Office Assistant (Multipurpose), the RRB clerk; Officer Scale I (Assistant Manager), the RRB PO; Officer Scale II (generalist and specialist) and…
Posts
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13,745 indicative as updated on 9 and again on 15 September 2026 — Office Assistant 8,222, Officer Scale I 4,256, Scale II 1,047, Scale III 220…
Vacancies

Pattern

IBPS RRB — IBPS RRB exam pattern 2026: PO and Clerk prelims, mains, single examination and interview

The RRB process recruits two cadres through two structures. Office Assistant (the RRB clerk) and Officer Scale I (the RRB PO) share a 45-minute preliminary paper of two sections and a two-hour main paper of five; Scale I adds an interview. Officer Scale II and III sit a single examination and an interview. Every paper runs on separate section timers with a 0.25 deduction per wrong answer.

IBPS RRB preliminary examination 2026 — Office Assistant (Multipurpose) and Officer Scale I. Objective; sectional cut-offs in both tests; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks	Time
Reasoning	40	40	25 minutes
Numerical Ability (OA) / Quantitative Aptitude (Scale I)	40	40	20 minutes
Total	80	80	45 minutes

Both cadres must qualify in both tests at the cut-off IBPS decides; an adequate number per category is shortlisted for the main examination and the preliminary marks are then discarded. The tests are set in English, Hindi and the regional language listed for the state. The preliminary call letter is stamped at the venue and must be brought to the main examination.

IBPS RRB main examination 2026 — Office Assistant (Multipurpose) and Officer Scale I. Sections separately timed; sectional and total cut-offs; candidates opt for English or Hindi in the language test; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks	Time
Reasoning	40	50	30 minutes
Computer Knowledge	40	20	15 minutes
General Awareness	40	40	15 minutes
English Language or Hindi Language	40	40	30 minutes
Numerical Ability (OA) / Quantitative Aptitude (Scale I)	40	50	30 minutes
Total	200	200	120 minutes

How the main examination is scored

Marks per question differ by section — Reasoning and the numerical section are 1.25 marks a question, General Awareness and the language test 1, Computer Knowledge 0.5 — so a wrong Reasoning answer costs 0.3125 and a wrong Computer answer 0.125.
Office Assistant: mains marks are the result — No interview; provisional allotment to the state’s RRB is by main examination marks and category against the vacancies reported.
Officer Scale I: mains marks shortlist for interview and carry 80 per cent — The final score is main examination 80 : interview 20.
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.

Officer Scale II and III — single online examination and interview.
Item	Detail
Single examination	200 marks in 2 hours; the sections for the General Banking Officer and for each specialist post (IT, CA, Law, Treasury, Marketing, Agriculture) and for Scale III are listed in the notification; sectional and total cut-offs
Shortlist for interview	Up to three times the declared vacancies per category, subject to availability
Interview	100 marks; minimum 40 per cent (35 for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD); common interview coordinated by the nodal RRBs with NABARD and IBPS
Final score	Examination 80 : interview 20

What the pattern means for how you attempt the paper

Prelims: two sprints — Twenty-five minutes for 40 reasoning questions and 20 for 40 numerical questions; a cut-off in each. Attempt what you can finish in half a minute; never guess across five options.
Mains: the 15-minute sections are pure recall — General Awareness and Computer Knowledge give 22 seconds a question; know it or move on.
Mains Reasoning and Numerical: 100 marks in an hour — The differentiating sections; clean sets beat rushed ones at 0.3125 off per error.

IBPS RRB syllabus for Office Assistant and Officer Scale I Free IBPS RRB mock tests on the 2026 pattern IBPS RRB previous year papers

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