SBI PO and SBI Clerk 2026: Exam Pattern, Syllabus, Eligibility, Dates and Preparation

SBI exams at a glance

State Bank of India recruits through its Central Recruitment and Promotion Department (CRPD), Corporate Centre, Mumbai, and not through IBPS. The facts on this page are as per the Probationary Officers advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 of 18 June 2026 and its corrigendum of 1 July 2026, the Junior Associates (Customer Support & Sales) advertisement CRPD/CR/2026-27/17 (registration 11 to 31 August 2026), the Bank's "Acquaint Yourself" booklets for these exams and the notices on the SBI careers site.

Selection process

SBI PO (Probationary Officers)

1. Online registration on the SBI careers site, with the fee, from 18 June to 8 July 2026. A photograph, signature, left thumb impression and a handwritten declaration are uploaded. Pre-examination training for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD candidates was scheduled online for July 2026.
2. Phase-I: Preliminary Examination. An online objective test of 100 marks in 1 hour with three separately timed sections. There is no sectional cut-off. A category-wise merit list is drawn on aggregate marks, and about 10 times the vacancies in each category are shortlisted for the Main Examination. Prelims marks are not used after that.
3. Phase-II: Main Examination. Four objective tests of 200 marks in 3 hours, followed at once by a descriptive test of 30 marks in 30 minutes typed on the computer. A candidate must score the minimum in each of Tests I to IV and in the descriptive paper (sectional cut-offs fixed by the Bank on the vacancies) and the minimum aggregate. About 3 times the category-wise vacancies are shortlisted for Phase-III on the Main aggregate.
4. Phase-III: Psychometric Test, Group Exercise and Interview. The psychometric test profiles personality; all its questions are mandatory, and its findings are placed before the interview panel. The Group Exercise carries 20 marks and the Interview 30, 50 in all, with minimum qualifying marks decided by the Bank.
5. Final selection. A candidate must qualify Phase-II and Phase-III separately. Main marks (230, objective plus descriptive) are normalised to 75 and Phase-III marks (50) to 25, and the final merit list is on the total out of 100. Prelims marks are not added. Candidates tied at the cut-off are ranked by age, the older first.
6. Joining. Selected candidates complete an online basic banking course before joining, execute a bond of ₹2 lakh to serve at least three years, and are on probation for two years with continuous assessment before confirmation in JMGS-I.

SBI Clerk (Junior Associates)

1. Online registration with the fee from 11 to 31 August 2026. A candidate applies for one State/UT only, opts for one specified local language of that State, and can appear only once under the recruitment.
2. Phase-I: Preliminary Examination. 100 marks in 1 hour, three separately timed sections. No minimum marks are prescribed for a section or the aggregate, and section-wise marks are not maintained. About 10 times the vacancies in each category are shortlisted for the Main Examination in descending order of aggregate marks.
3. Phase-II: Main Examination. Four objective tests, 190 questions, 200 marks, 2 hours 40 minutes. A minimum aggregate fixed by the Bank must be scored (5% relaxation for SC, ST, OBC, PwBD, XS and DXS); no sectional minimum is prescribed. The merit list is drawn State-wise and category-wise on Main marks alone. Trained apprentices of SBI who meet the advertisement's conditions get 5 bonus marks (2.5% of 200) added to their aggregate.
4. Phase-III: Local Language Proficiency Test (LLPT). Held after the Main result and before joining, at a centre in the State applied for, for provisionally selected candidates who did not study the opted local language in Class 10 or 12. Those who produce a Class 10 or 12 mark sheet or certificate showing the language are exempt. A candidate who fails the test is not offered appointment.
5. Joining. Junior Associates are on probation for at least six months and must complete the Bank's e-lessons to be confirmed. There is no inter-circle or inter-State transfer before five years of service.

Exam pattern

SBI PO Prelims (Phase-I)

The advertisement gives a total of 100 marks for the three tests and does not give test-wise marks. Every question has five options. One-fourth of the marks of the question is deducted for a wrong answer; a blank costs nothing. There is no sectional cut-off in Prelims.

SBI PO Mains (Phase-II)

Each objective test has its own timer. An in-built calculator is provided on screen for Data Analysis & Interpretation. The descriptive test begins immediately after the objective test, is typed on the computer, and carries 10 marks for each of its three answers. Each test, including the descriptive paper, has a sectional cut-off, and one-fourth of the question's marks is deducted for each wrong answer in the objective tests.

SBI Clerk Prelims (Phase-I)

SBI Clerk Mains (Phase-II)

The regional medium depends on the State applied for: Assamese and Bengali in Assam, Konkani in Goa, Gujarati in Gujarat, Urdu in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Kannada in Karnataka, Marathi in Maharashtra, Manipuri in Manipur, Odia in Odisha, Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Telugu and Urdu in Telangana, Bengali in Tripura and West Bengal, and Urdu in Uttar Pradesh; the other States and UTs get English and Hindi only. The Local Language Proficiency Test has a non-verbal test in two parts, objective and subjective, of 15 marks each, and a verbal test of 20 marks, with a minimum score in each fixed by the Bank.

General, Economy and Banking Awareness syllabus

The advertisements name the test and its weight but print no topic list. In SBI PO Mains it is Test III, General Awareness/ Economy/ Banking Knowledge: 60 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes, the largest test by questions and 30% of the objective marks. In SBI Clerk Mains it is Test 1, General/ Financial Awareness: 50 questions, 50 marks, 35 minutes, a quarter of the paper. The PO Main "Acquaint Yourself" booklet describes the test as an index of your awareness of people and events, past and present, in different walks of life; its sample questions ask which institution introduced Know Your Customer norms, which sector drives State incomes, which State has the most people below the poverty line, who led Operation Flood, and what monetary policy is concerned with.

The areas below are GK24's guidance, built from those samples and the areas banking papers usually draw on; they are not a syllabus printed by the Bank.

• Banking awareness: the RBI and its functions, monetary policy tools (repo rate, reverse repo, CRR, SLR), types of banks and accounts, NPAs and recovery, KYC and anti-money-laundering rules, priority sector lending, payment systems (UPI, NEFT, RTGS, IMPS), banking terms and abbreviations, and recent RBI circulars and guidelines.
• Economy: the Union Budget and the Economic Survey, GDP and inflation, national income, fiscal and monetary policy, financial institutions and regulators (SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, NABARD, SIDBI, NPCI), international bodies (IMF, World Bank, BIS, ADB) and government schemes for financial inclusion, insurance and pensions.
• Current affairs of the six months before the exam: appointments, awards, summits and their venues, reports and indices, sports, defence, science and space, days and themes, State and international news, and news about SBI and other banks.
• Static GK in small measure: headquarters and heads of banks and regulators, currencies and capitals, dams and national parks, and dates in banking history such as the founding of the RBI and SBI and bank nationalisation.
• Financial awareness in Clerk Mains: the same banking and economy topics at a lighter level, with more weight on schemes, terms and the current affairs of finance.

On GK24 the banking and economy part is covered by the GK notes for banking exams, the current affairs part by the daily current affairs written for banking exams, and both by the quizzes and the SBI previous-year questions on this site.

Eligibility and age limit

Nationality

Both advertisements invite applications from Indian citizens.

Educational qualification

The date of passing is the date on the mark sheet or provisional certificate. Clerk candidates must also be proficient in reading, writing, speaking and understanding the specified local language of the State/UT they apply for.

Age limit (as on 1 April 2026)

Upper age relaxation common to both: 3 years for OBC (non-creamy layer), 5 years for SC and ST, 10 years for PwBD (UR/EWS), 13 for PwBD (OBC) and 15 for PwBD (SC/ST). For PO, Ex-servicemen and Commissioned Officers (ECOs/SSCOs) with 5 years' military service get 5 years. For Clerk, Ex-servicemen get the actual period of defence service plus 3 years (8 years for disabled Ex-servicemen of SC/ST), up to 50 years of age; widows, divorced women and judicially separated women who have not remarried get 7 years, up to 35 years for General/EWS, 38 for OBC and 40 for SC/ST; and trained apprentices of SBI get 1 year (General/EWS), 4 (OBC), 6 (SC/ST) or 11, 14 and 16 years (PwBD). Relaxations are not cumulative.

Number of chances (SBI PO)

Appearing in the Main Examination counts as a chance; appearing in the Preliminary Examination does not. Candidates who have used the maximum chances cannot apply. The Clerk advertisement sets no limit on chances.

Other conditions

Candidates working in SBI's clerical cadre, and those who resigned from it, cannot apply for Junior Associates. For PO, the corrigendum of 1 July 2026 removed the CIBIL clause that had asked candidates with an adverse credit history to regularise their dues before joining. OBC candidates need a non-creamy-layer certificate issued on or after 1 April 2026, and EWS candidates an Income and Asset Certificate for the financial year 2025-26.

Important dates

SBI PO 2026-27 (CRPD/PO/2026-27/09)

SBI Clerk 2026-27 (CRPD/CR/2026-27/17)

The advertisement had given the Preliminary Examination as tentatively in September 2026; the Bank's later notice named 26 and 27 September, and the notice gave way to the call-letter link once call letters were issued. The date, shift and venue on each candidate's call letter are final. As on 4 November 2026, the PO Main Examination result of 12 September has been announced on the careers site, with the roll numbers shortlisted for the Phase-III Psychometric Test, and the Psychometric Test that the Bank's notice of 27 October 2026 had fixed was held on 31 October 2026, online in remote proctored mode from anywhere, with the test starting at 1 PM. Appearing in the Psychometric Test was mandatory, and only those who appeared are allowed to go on to the Group Exercise and Personal Interview. The Group Exercise and Interviews remain tentatively from 18 November 2026 onwards as per the Bank's notice of tentative Phase-III dates, with call letters carrying the exact date and time to follow. The Clerk Preliminary Examination was held on 26 and 27 September 2026 and its result has not been declared, and no date has been announced for the Clerk Main Examination. The Bank has also run a Special Recruitment Drive for SC, ST and OBC backlog vacancies of Junior Associates (CRPD/CR/SPLDRIVE/2026-27/16), whose Preliminary Examination was held on 16 September 2026; its Preliminary result is out and its Main Examination was held on 29 October 2026, as the Bank's notice on the careers site had scheduled, with the Main call letter and the "Acquaint Yourself" booklet of 19 October 2026 on the site. Call letters are downloaded from the careers site with the registration number and date of birth. The Preliminary call letter is stamped at the centre and must be brought again, with the stamped copy of the ID proof, to the Main Examination.

How to prepare General and Banking Awareness for SBI

Awareness is the only Mains test with no calculation and the least time per question: 45 seconds in PO and 42 seconds in Clerk. It carries 60 marks in PO Mains, with a sectional cut-off, and 50 marks in Clerk Mains. It is where a prepared candidate gains the most in the least time.

1. Read GK24's daily current affairs for banking exams every day, in English or Hindi, and keep a monthly revision note. Cover the six months before your Main date, with special care for RBI decisions, government schemes, appointments, awards, reports, summits and sports.
2. Learn banking and economy from the GK notes. Read the GK24 GK notes on the RBI, monetary policy, banking terms, financial institutions, the Budget and the Economic Survey, and revise each twice before the Main.
3. Solve SBI previous-year questions. The SBI PO and Clerk PYQs on GK24 show the house style: one line, five options, a fact tied to a recent event or a banking rule, and the same regulators, schemes and terms returning with new options.
4. Take timed quizzes. Practise 50-question sets in 35 minutes and 60-question sets in 45 minutes on GK24, and skip what you do not know: a wrong answer costs a quarter of the question's marks, a blank costs nothing.
5. Do not stop at Prelims. Prelims has no awareness test and its marks are not counted. The Main Examination, where awareness sits, decides the whole merit for Clerk and 75% of it for PO.

Posts and pay

A Probationary Officer executes a bond of ₹2 lakh to serve three years, is on probation for two years, may be posted to any circle or office in India or deputed to a subsidiary, and is confirmed in JMGS-I after assessment. A Junior Associate is on probation for at least six months, is posted in the State applied for, and gets no inter-State transfer for five years, after which the Bank may consider one only on extreme compassionate or spouse grounds. Outstation PO candidates called for interview are reimbursed AC-III rail fare by the shortest route.