- Numerical Ability / Quantitative Aptitude
- Simplification and approximation, number series, quadratic equations, data interpretation from tables and the standard graph types, and arithmetic across percentage, ratio and proportion, average, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time speed and distance, mixture and alligation, partnership, boats and streams, pipes and cisterns, permutation, combination and probability, and mensuration.
- Reasoning Ability
- Puzzles and seating arrangements, syllogism, inequality, blood relations, direction sense, order and ranking, coding-decoding, alphanumeric series, data sufficiency and statement-based reasoning. Combined with computer aptitude in the mains.
- English Language
- Reading comprehension, cloze test, para jumbles, error spotting, sentence improvement, phrase replacement, fill in the blanks, vocabulary in context and paragraph completion. SBI passages tend to ask a little more inference than the IBPS equivalent.
- General and Financial Awareness (mains only)
- Banking terminology and structure, Reserve Bank functions and monetary policy, financial markets and institutions, government schemes, budget and economic survey highlights, banking abbreviations, and current affairs of the preceding several months with a banking and economic emphasis.
- Computer Aptitude (mains only)
- Computer fundamentals, hardware and software, operating systems, MS Office, internet and networking, database basics, shortcut keys and abbreviations, and cyber security awareness.
Because the overlap with IBPS Clerk is so nearly complete, the sensible approach is one preparation covering both, with SBI-specific practice added in the final stretch to acclimatise to the framing rather than to the content.
Because the scope is so nearly identical to IBPS Clerk, the useful question is not what to study but where the two papers differ in practice. SBI tends to frame questions a little less predictably, sets slightly more varied data interpretation, and asks comprehension questions that lean marginally more on inference. None of that changes the syllabus; all of it changes how much of your practice should come from unfamiliar material rather than from a single publisher’s pattern.
