Banking Exams 2026-27: IBPS, SBI, RBI and NABARD Compared, with Pattern, Calendar and Preparation

Banking exams at a glance

Four bodies run the banking exams on GK24, each through its own advertisements. The facts here are as per each recruiter's latest advertisement: IBPS 2026 (vacancies of 2027-28), SBI 2026-27, RBI Grade B Panel Year 2026 and Assistant Panel Year 2025, and NABARD Grade A 2025 and Development Assistant 2026.

SBI, the RBI and NABARD do not recruit through IBPS. A candidate applies to each separately.

Percentages are for general candidates and are relaxed for SC, ST and PwBD. Age is reckoned on each advertisement's own date. The upper limit is relaxed by 5 years for SC and ST, 3 for OBC and at least 10 for PwBD in all of them.

Which banking exam should you take?

Officer or clerk

The officer exams are IBPS PO, SBI PO, IBPS RRB Officer Scale-I, RBI Grade B and NABARD Grade A. Each adds an interview, and all but RRB Officer Scale-I add a descriptive paper. The clerical exams are IBPS Clerk, SBI Clerk, RRB Office Assistant, RBI Assistant and NABARD Development Assistant. They have no interview, and the local language is tested.

A PO of IBPS or SBI, and an RBI Grade B or NABARD Grade A officer, can be posted anywhere in India. IBPS and SBI recruit clerks State/UT-wise: a candidate applies for one State or UT and competes only for its vacancies.

Regional Rural Banks and the local language

IBPS RRB fills Office Assistant and Officer posts in 28 Regional Rural Banks, one per State or UT. It asks for graduation and the local language the RRB prescribes. Its minimum age of 18 is the lowest in this family. Its Prelims has only two tests, Reasoning and Numerical Ability or Quantitative Aptitude. Its Mains offers the language test in English or Hindi. For Officer Scale-I, degrees in agriculture and allied fields, IT, management, law, economics or accountancy get preference.

Every clerical exam here has a qualifying test in the State's language. A candidate who studied the language in school is exempt in IBPS, SBI and NABARD. The RBI exempts nobody.

The regulator and the development bank

RBI Grade B and NABARD Grade A suit a candidate with an economics bent. Both have a paper on Economic and Social Issues (ESI). NABARD adds Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD); the RBI adds General Finance and Management. Both ask general candidates for 60% at graduation or 55% at post-graduation. Most of their second stage is descriptive, typed on a keyboard. Vacancies are few: 40 and 91 in the latest advertisements. RBI Grade B's starting basic pay is the highest in this family.

Attempts are limited in two exams. SBI PO allows general and EWS candidates 6 chances, counting each Main appearance. RBI Grade B bars general and EWS candidates who have sat Phase-I six times.

GK24 guidance: reasoning, quantitative aptitude and English overlap closely across these exams, so one preparation serves several. Awareness is where they differ.

How banking exams are structured

• Prelims, then Mains. Every exam in the table opens with an online Prelims or Phase-I that only screens. Its marks are not added to the final merit.
• Prelims tests. Most Prelims test English, numerical ability and reasoning, 100 questions in 60 minutes. RRB sets 80 questions in 45 minutes. RBI Grade B and NABARD Grade A set 200 in 120 minutes, awareness included.
• Sectional timing. Each test has its own timer, so time cannot move between tests. NABARD Grade A Prelims is the exception: 120 minutes for all eight tests.
• Negative marking. One-fourth of the question's marks is deducted for each wrong answer, in every objective test of every exam here. A blank costs nothing.
• Cut-offs. IBPS sets one in every Prelims test. SBI's Prelims have none by section. SBI PO Mains has one for every test, the descriptive paper included.

The English test is set in English only; the rest are in English and Hindi. IBPS Clerk, SBI Clerk and RBI Assistant also offer the State's language. RBI and NABARD accept typed Hindi answers in their economics papers.

Banking exam calendar 2026-27

IBPS exam dates are from its Tentative Calendar of Online CRP for PSBs and RRBs (2026-2027), dated 16 January 2026; the IBPS PO Mains date was also confirmed by its Main Information Handout of 24 September 2026. Months marked tentative are from the advertisements. The rest are from the notices of SBI, the RBI and NABARD, as on 4 November 2026. IBPS may change dates for administrative reasons, court orders or government advisories. The call letter gives each candidate's final date.

Coming up

Already held in the latest cycles

The IBPS calendar also lists Specialist Officers (CRP SPL-XVI): Prelims 29 August, Mains 1 November 2026. The RBI has finished its Grade 'B' (DR) General Cadre Panel Year 2026 recruitment, whose final result the RBI Services Board declared on 15 October 2026, and neither the RBI nor NABARD has announced its next advertisement. NABARD's Grade A Prelims has fallen in October 2023, September 2024 and December 2025, so its month is not fixed.

General, Economy and Banking Awareness

No advertisement prints a topic list for General Awareness. Each names the test and gives its size.

Only RBI Grade B and NABARD Grade A ask awareness in the first stage. Elsewhere it comes only in the Mains.

SBI's PO booklet samples ask which institution introduced Know Your Customer norms and what monetary policy deals with. NABARD's Development Assistant handout samples ask about GST, rural employment schemes and the New Development Bank. GK24 guidance, not an official syllabus: the same areas return across these exams.

• Banking: the RBI, the repo rate, CRR and SLR, types of banks, NPAs, KYC, UPI, NEFT and RTGS, RBI circulars.
• Economy: the Union Budget, the Economic Survey, GDP, inflation, fiscal and monetary policy.
• Institutions and schemes: SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, SIDBI, NPCI, the IMF and World Bank; financial inclusion, insurance and pension schemes.
• Current affairs of about six months: appointments, awards, summits, reports, sports and important days.
• Static GK, in a smaller share: headquarters, heads, currencies and capitals.

ESI and ARD in the RBI and NABARD papers

RBI Grade B Paper-I, Economic and Social Issues, carries 100 marks, half objective and half descriptive. Its syllabus has four areas: growth and development, the Indian economy, globalisation, and social structure in India. Its reading list includes the Economic Survey, the RBI Annual Report and the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India.

NABARD Grade A tests ESI and ARD in the Prelims merit section and again in Main Paper II. Its ESI list names rural credit, population policy and rural banking. Its ARD list runs from agronomy, irrigation, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries to climate change, agricultural marketing, Panchayati Raj, MGNREGA and NRLM.

On GK24 (guidance): daily current affairs, with daily, weekly and monthly quizzes, cover events, RBI decisions and schemes. The Indian Economy notes cover banking and the economy; Polity covers Panchayati Raj; Geography and Environment cover soils, irrigation and climate change; Computer notes cover Computer Knowledge.

The banks do not release their question papers. IBPS, SBI, the RBI and NABARD publish no papers after an exam, so there is no official source for verified previous-year questions. That is why GK24's banking pages hold no previous-year questions yet; the subject-wise previous-year banks, built from other exams' published papers, cover the same economy, banking and static topics. The closest official guide to the style is the sample questions in SBI's and NABARD's booklets.

How to prepare for banking exams with GK24

GK24 guidance, not a recruiter's instruction. Give awareness about an hour a day, beside daily practice in reasoning, quantitative aptitude and English, which decide most Prelims.

1. Close each month with the monthly quiz, and keep six months of running sheets before your Mains.
2. Practise at your exam's pace: about 30 seconds a question in IBPS Clerk, 45 in SBI PO, under 19 in RBI Grade B Phase-I.
3. Leave what you do not know. A wrong answer costs a quarter of its marks.
4. Do not wait for Prelims to end. The gap to Mains is short: about six weeks for IBPS PO and eleven for IBPS Clerk in 2026-27.
5. Open your exam's own guide for its full pattern, eligibility, dates and pay.