IBPS PO Syllabus & Exam Pattern

IBPS PO (Probationary Officer / Management Trainee) runs across three stages. Here’s the stable shape of it, with a link to the official IBPS page for this cycle’s exact marks and timing.

The stages

Preliminary exam
A screening-stage computer-based test across Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude and English — clearing it is what gets you to the Main exam.
Main exam
A more in-depth computer-based test covering Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Quantitative Aptitude, English, and General/Banking/Economy Awareness.
Interview
Candidates who clear the Main exam are called for an interview before the final merit list and bank allotment.

What’s tested

Reasoning (& Computer Aptitude in Mains)
Puzzles, seating arrangement, syllogism, coding-decoding, inequalities, and basic computer-aptitude topics at the Mains stage.
Quantitative Aptitude
Number series, simplification, quadratic equations, data interpretation, and arithmetic word problems.
English Language
Reading comprehension, cloze test, error spotting, sentence rearrangement, and vocabulary.
General / Banking / Economy Awareness
Banking terms and regulations, financial and economic current affairs, and general static GK relevant to the sector.

Exact number of questions, marks per question, section-wise timing and the negative-marking fraction are set by each cycle’s own official notification and can change between cycles. Treat the subjects above as the stable shape to study toward, and check IBPS’s own PO/MT page.

Who IBPS PO recruits for

IBPS PO recruits Probationary Officers / Management Trainees across a group of participating public sector banks — you don’t know which bank until allotment. See our IBPS PO vs SBI PO comparison for how that actually differs from SBI’s own process.

What Pariksha Saathi offers for IBPS PO

Topic-wise lessons and practice across Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude and English, sectional tests by subject, full-length mock tests in the real pattern with negative marking, a Mistake Notebook that tracks your weak topics automatically, and dated current-affairs capsules for Banking Awareness — all free, with no paywalled content.

Official source & latest updates

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