Banking & Insurance
SBI PO preparation
Probationary Officers for the State Bank of India.
24 free guides·Conducted by State Bank of IndiaOfficial website
About the SBI PO exam
SBI PO is the State Bank of India’s own recruitment exam for Probationary Officers, separate from IBPS. It suits graduates who want an officer’s career at SBI and are ready for a demanding three-phase selection. The 2026 notification put the starting basic pay at ₹56,480. Only a mains appearance counts as an attempt, so a prelims that goes wrong does not use one up.
Phase I is a one-hour prelims in English, quant and reasoning. Candidates are shortlisted on aggregate marks, with no sectional cut-off. Phase II, the mains, is a three-hour objective test followed by a 30-mark typed descriptive paper. The mains has a cut-off in every section, including the descriptive paper. Phase III brings a psychometric test, a group exercise and an interview. Your final rank combines the mains, scaled to 75, with Phase III, scaled to 25. The prelims only opens the door.
Begin with the Start here guides: the pattern, eligibility and syllabus, then the prelims and mains strategies, a six-month plan and how the final merit is worked out. Then go subject by subject. English and data analysis reward daily practice from the first week. Banking awareness and descriptive writing are tested only in the mains, but they take months to build, so don’t leave them until after the prelims.
| Stages | Prelims → Mains (objective + descriptive) → Psychometric test, group exercise and interview |
|---|---|
| Prelims | English 40, Quant 30, Reasoning 30 = 100 marks in 1 hour; no sectional cut-off |
| Mains | Objective 200 marks in 3 hours + typed descriptive 30 marks; sectional cut-offs |
| Phase III | Group exercise 20 + interview 30; psychometric test not scored |
| Final merit | Mains scaled to 75 + Phase III scaled to 25 |
| Negative marking | ¼ of the question’s marks in objective tests |
Patterns change. Confirm details in the latest notification on the official website.
Start here
New to SBI PO? Read these first, in this order.
- 1The SBI PO exam pattern explainedThree phases, a 30-mark descriptive test, a psychometric test and a final merit that blends the mains with the group exercise and interview. The SBI PO pattern explained stage by stage, with sections, marks, timers, cut-offs and negative marking, and what each detail means for how you prepare.
- 2SBI PO eligibility: age, education and attemptsA degree in any subject, an age between 21 and 30 (with relaxations) and a limit on how many times you can sit the mains. SBI PO eligibility explained, including the details that most often cause trouble at document verification.
- 3The SBI PO syllabus, analysedThe notification lists section names; the real syllabus is the set of question types inside them. English, quant and reasoning for the prelims; DI, reasoning with computers, awareness, English and three descriptive tasks for the mains, with priorities, sample questions and a topic tracker.
- 4SBI PO prelims strategyOne hour, three sections, three 20-minute timers, and English carries 40 of the 100 questions. The SBI PO prelims rewards clean question selection and high accuracy in each section. Section-by-section plans, the arithmetic of attempts and accuracy, and a four-week run-up.
- 5SBI PO mains strategy: three hours, four sectionsThe SBI PO mains is a three-hour objective paper with four sectional timers, followed at once by a 30-minute typed descriptive test, and every part has its own cut-off. Section-by-section approaches, the arithmetic of marks per question, and a plan for the weeks after the prelims.
- 6A six-month SBI PO planSix months is a realistic window to prepare seriously for SBI PO. A month-by-month plan (foundations, speed, mains depth, mocks) with an hours budget, daily and weekly structures, measurable checkpoints and what to do when the plan slips.
- 7How the SBI PO final merit is calculatedThe prelims does not count, the mains counts for three-quarters and the group exercise and interview for a quarter. How SBI turns your marks into a final score out of 100, what one mark is worth at each stage, the minimums you must clear, and what it means for preparation.
Subject by subject
Strategy
Guides on the three phases, eligibility and attempts, study plans, mocks, SBI PO versus IBPS PO and how the final merit is scaled. They also cover preparing alongside a job and the first years of training and probation.
All 16 Strategy guidesQuantitative Aptitude
In the prelims it is 30 questions on simplification, number series, quadratic comparisons and arithmetic. In the mains it becomes Data Analysis & Interpretation: 30 questions for 60 marks on tables, charts, caselets and data sufficiency, the highest marks per question in the paper.
All 8 Quantitative Aptitude guides