Banking · Government Exams

SBI PO Exam Pattern

Every figure here is from the SBI PO 2026 advertisement and the preliminary and main examination handouts — what each phase asks, how the timers run, what a wrong answer costs and how the final merit is computed.

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SBI PO · 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

SBI PO: the facts that matter now

01
Advertisement 18 June 2026; registration 18 June – 8 July; prelims late July–August; mains 12 September 2026; Phase III to follow
2026 cycle
02
State Bank of India, Central Recruitment and Promotion Department — advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09
Conducted by
03
Probationary Officer, Junior Management Grade Scale I, postable anywhere in India
Post
04
1,500 — 1,446 regular and 54 backlog (SC 234, ST 144, OBC 390, EWS 144, General 588)
Vacancies

Pattern

SBI PO — SBI PO exam pattern 2026: prelims, mains, descriptive test, group exercise and interview

SBI PO has three phases. Phase I is a one-hour preliminary paper that only shortlists; Phase II is a three-hour main paper plus a typed descriptive test, and carries three quarters of the final score; Phase III is a psychometric test, a group exercise and an interview carrying the remaining quarter. Every objective section is separately timed and deducts 0.25 marks per wrong answer.

SBI PO Phase I — preliminary examination 2026. Objective, five options; sections separately timed; no sectional cut-off; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Section	Questions	Marks	Medium	Time
English Language	40	40	English	20 minutes
Quantitative Aptitude	30	30	English and Hindi	20 minutes
Reasoning Ability	30	30	English and Hindi	20 minutes
Total	100	100		60 minutes

There is no sectional cut-off in the preliminary examination. A category-wise merit list is drawn on aggregate marks and candidates numbering about ten times the vacancies in each category are shortlisted for the main examination from the top; preliminary marks are then discarded. Because English is 40 of the 100 marks and there is no sectional gate, a strong English score can carry a weaker quantitative section — the reverse of IBPS PO.

SBI PO Phase II — main examination 2026, objective. Sections separately timed; sectional cut-off in every test; on-screen calculator in Data Analysis and Interpretation; 0.25 marks deducted per wrong answer.
Test	Questions	Marks	Medium	Time
I — Reasoning and Computer Aptitude	40	60	English and Hindi	50 minutes
II — Data Analysis and Interpretation	30	60	English and Hindi	45 minutes
III — General Awareness, Economy and Banking Knowledge	60	60	English and Hindi	45 minutes
IV — English Language	40	20	English	40 minutes
Total	170	200		3 hours

SBI PO Phase II — descriptive test, immediately after the objective paper.
Item	Detail
Marks and time	30 marks, 30 minutes, typed on the computer
Language	English only
Tasks	Typically a letter and an essay
Cut-off	A minimum score in the descriptive test is required, like each objective test

How Phase II is scored

Marks per question differ by test — Reasoning 1.5, Data Analysis 2, General Awareness 1, English 0.5 — so a wrong Data Analysis answer costs 0.5 and a wrong English answer 0.125.
Sectional cut-offs in all five tests — Including the descriptive test, set by category according to vacancies; failing one test ends the attempt.
Shortlist for Phase III — About three times the category-wise vacancies from the top of the Phase II merit list, subject to the minimum aggregate.

SBI PO Phase III and the final merit.
Stage	Detail
Psychometric test	Online personality profiling for Phase III candidates; part of the process, used at the interview
Group exercise and interview	50 marks in total, at circle centres
Normalisation	Phase II 250 marks → 75; Phase III 50 marks → 25
Final merit	Total out of 100 by category; selection from the top of each list

What the pattern means for how you attempt the paper

Prelims: no sectional cut-off, so play to strength — Score heavily in English and attempt the sure questions in the other two; never guess across five options.
Mains DI: 30 questions for 60 marks — The highest-value section in any bank examination; the calculator removes arithmetic, leaving reading and method. Accuracy is everything at 0.5 off per error.
Mains General Awareness: 60 questions in 45 minutes — Recall; the section that rewards a daily reading habit most.
Descriptive and Phase III: a quarter of the outcome — Type practice essays weekly and rehearse group discussion; candidates who treat these as formalities lose to those who do not.

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