IBPS PO Mains mock tests

No test for this form yet

This page covers the IBPS PO Mains pattern and marking. The practice tests on this site are for the other forms listed above.

About the exam

IBPS conducts the Common Recruitment Process (CRP PO/MT) for Probationary Officer / Management Trainee posts in participating public sector banks. The detailed notification for CRP PO/MT-XVI, dated 30 June 2026, is for vacancies of 2027-28. The participating banks named in that notice are Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India.

The selection has an online Preliminary examination, an online Main examination (objective tests and a descriptive paper), a mandatory but non-qualifying Personality Test, and a common interview. A graduate in any discipline, with the result declared on or before 21 July 2026, may apply. Age is 20 to 30 years as on 1 July 2026, with the relaxations the notice lists. The basic pay scale in the notice is ₹48480-2000/7-62480-2340/2-67160-2680/7-85920, plus allowances as per the bank.

Prelims is an objective test of 100 questions and 100 marks in 60 minutes, in three separately timed tests of 20 minutes each: English Language (30 questions, 30 marks, English only), Quantitative Aptitude (35 questions, 30 marks, English and Hindi) and Reasoning Ability (35 questions, 40 marks, English and Hindi). A candidate must clear a cut-off in each test. The cut-offs are decided by IBPS.

For a wrong answer, one fourth of the marks assigned to that question is deducted. A question left blank scores nothing. IBPS normalises scores across sessions by the equi-percentile method and takes scores up to two decimal places. Only Main examination marks are used to shortlist for the Personality Test and the interview, and for the final merit list. The interview is of 100 marks, with a minimum of 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PwBD). Main and interview are weighted 80:20.

Mains, as the same notice sets it, is not in a fixed order on screen. The objective tests are separately timed: Reasoning (40 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes), General/Economy/Banking Awareness and Digital/Financial Awareness including RBI circulars (50 questions, 60 marks, 35 minutes), English Language (40 questions, 20 marks, 35 minutes) and Data Analysis and Interpretation (40 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes). That is 170 questions and 200 marks in 160 minutes. A descriptive paper of Essay and Comprehension follows: 2 questions, 25 marks, 30 minutes, in English. The whole Main examination is 3 hours 10 minutes. There is no Main practice test here yet.

Exam pattern

Form

Main examination · since 2026-06-30

How it is taken

Online examination at a centre. Objective tests are in English and Hindi except English Language, which is in English. The descriptive paper is in English.

Timing

Four objective tests, separately timed and not in a fixed sequence (160 minutes), then a descriptive paper of 30 minutes

Adaptive

None

The notice says the objective tests are not by sequence. The 3 hours 10 minutes is the 160 minutes of objective tests plus the 30 minutes of the descriptive paper.

There is no practice test for the Main examination on this site yet. The Prelims practice test is the one to sit.

The descriptive paper may be scored by an automated mechanism. This site does not reproduce that mechanism.

Topics in the exam

• English: reading comprehension
• English: cloze test
• English: error spotting
• English: fill in the blanks
• English: sentence rearrangement
• English: vocabulary
• Quantitative Aptitude: simplification
• Quantitative Aptitude: number series
• Quantitative Aptitude: data interpretation
• Quantitative Aptitude: percentage and profit
• Quantitative Aptitude: time and work, time and distance
• Quantitative Aptitude: ratio, average and interest
• Reasoning: seating and arrangement
• Reasoning: syllogism
• Reasoning: inequality
• Reasoning: coding-decoding
• Reasoning: blood relation, direction and ranking

How it is scored

The four objective tests total 200 marks. The notice gives the maximum for each test, not the mark of each question. A wrong objective answer costs one fourth of the marks assigned to that question, so a test answered entirely wrongly scores minus one fourth of its maximum (−15, −15, −5 and −15) when the marks inside a test are shared equally. A blank scores 0. The descriptive paper is 25 marks for two questions, with no negative marking stated. The notice lists it apart from the 200 and does not say that its marks are added into the merit total, so this calculator reports it beside the objective total and does not add it. Only Main marks are used for the interview shortlist and the final merit, with Main and interview weighted 80:20. Cut-offs are a minimum in each test and a minimum total, both decided by IBPS. Scores are normalised across sessions. This calculator adds raw objective marks, in hundredths.

Tips to clear IBPS PO

1. English: reading comprehension

   Answer from the lines of the passage. Reject an option that adds a fact the passage never states, even if it sounds likely.

2. English: cloze test

   Read the whole passage once before filling any blank. The word must fit the grammar and the meaning on both sides of the blank.

3. English: error spotting

   Find the subject of the verb first. 'Each', 'one of' and 'news' are singular. 'Senior' takes 'to', and a period of time after the present perfect takes 'for', not 'since'.

4. English: fill in the blanks

   Test the fixed pair first: 'no sooner ... than', 'hardly ... when', 'not only ... but also', 'insist on', 'agree to'. Then check the second blank.

5. English: sentence rearrangement

   The opening sentence names the subject and does not start with 'that', 'she added' or 'into it'. Then link each sentence to the one whose noun it refers to.

6. English: vocabulary

   Read whether the question asks for the same meaning or the opposite. A common trap is the opposite word sitting among the synonyms.

7. Quantitative Aptitude: simplification

   Turn a percent into a fraction before multiplying (48% is 12/25). Cancel a common factor in a product of fractions before you multiply the large numbers.

8. Quantitative Aptitude: number series

   Write the differences, then the differences of those differences. If the differences are not steady, test ×2, ×2 + 1 and ×1.5 before anything more elaborate.

9. Quantitative Aptitude: data interpretation

   Read the unit in the table title before any sum. For a percentage, divide by the base the question names, not by the row total, unless it asks for the row total.

10. Quantitative Aptitude: percentage and profit

    An increase of r% followed by a decrease of r% does not come back to the start: the result is a fall of (r/10)² percent. Profit percent is always on the cost price.

11. Quantitative Aptitude: time and work, time and distance

    Add rates, not days: together they do 1/a + 1/b of the work in one day. Convert km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18 before dividing a length by a speed.

12. Quantitative Aptitude: ratio, average and interest

    In a ratio, divide the total by the sum of the parts. Simple interest is principal × rate × years / 100, with the rate in percent per year.

13. Reasoning: seating and arrangement

    Fix the ends first. 'A sits second to the right of B' means one person sits between B and A, and A is on B's right. Draw the row before you read the questions.

14. Reasoning: syllogism

    A conclusion follows only when it is true in every possible diagram. 'All A are B' gives 'some B are A'. 'Some A are B' and 'some B are C' do not give 'some A are C'.

15. Reasoning: inequality

    Combine only symbols that face the same way. A ≥ B = C lets you say A ≥ C. A ≥ B and C ≥ B do not tell you how A and C compare.

16. Reasoning: coding-decoding

    Write the alphabet under the word and apply one rule at a time: shift, then reverse, or reverse, then shift. Check the rule on the example word before the question word.

17. Reasoning: blood relation, direction and ranking

    For blood relations, draw one generation per line and mark gender as soon as a word fixes it. From the other end of a row, the rank is total − rank + 1. A right turn from north faces east.

After the exam

For information only. Selection, allotment and admission follow the rules in the official notice of your year, which can change.

Probationary Officer / Management Trainee in a participating bank

A candidate who is provisionally allotted joins one of the participating public sector banks as a Probationary Officer / Management Trainee, on the pay scale in the notice, with allowances as per that bank. Allotment follows the Main examination, the Personality Test, the interview and the reported vacancies. It is not a promise of appointment. Official page

Official links and sources

• IBPS (ibps.in): notifications and the candidate portal
• CRP PO/MT-XVI detailed notification, 30 June 2026 (ibps.in)

Where this information comes from

Checked against these sources on 2026-10-16. Exams change their format and rules; the exam’s own site is always the final word.

• IBPS detailed notification for CRP PO/MT-XVI (PDF dated 30 June 2026, vacancies of 2027-28), sections on structure of examination, penalty, cut-off, scores and interview (2026-10-16)
• IBPS information handout for the online Main examination of CRP PO/MT-XIV (English), for the five-alternative objective format used in this recruitment (2026-10-16)
• Institute of Banking Personnel Selection home page (ibps.in) (2026-10-16)

Still to be confirmed

• The CRP PO/MT-XVI notice gives each Prelims test a maximum (English 30, Quantitative Aptitude 30, Reasoning 40) and says a wrong answer costs one fourth of the marks assigned to that question. It does not state the mark of each question. Equal sharing inside a test is assumed, which makes an all-wrong test minus one fourth of its maximum.
• The XVI notice does not state how many alternatives a question has. Five alternatives, one of them correct, are taken from the IBPS information handout for the CRP PO/MT-XIV Main examination on ibps.in. The XVI Prelims handout was not published when this was checked; call letters are scheduled for August 2026.
• The notice's Prelims table lists English Language, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability, each separately timed for 20 minutes. It does not say whether that is the on-screen order, or whether a candidate may submit a test before the 20 minutes end.
• For Mains, the notice does not say whether the 25 marks of the descriptive paper are added to the 200 objective marks before the 80:20 weight with the interview, or how the 25 marks are split between the two questions. The descriptive scale is kept out of the objective total for that reason.
• Mains per-question marks are also only section totals. The hundredth used as the step is the notice's 'scores up to two decimal points', not a published mark per question.
• Cut-offs are decided by IBPS. The notice gives no fixed qualifying percentage for Prelims or Mains, unlike the interview minimum of 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PwBD).