SBI PO Mains mock tests

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

About the exam

State Bank of India recruits Probationary Officers through advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 (18 June 2026). The 2026 notice listed 1,500 vacancies. Applicants must be Indian citizens, graduates in any discipline (the degree must be passed on or before 30 September 2026), and at least 21 and not above 30 on 1 April 2026, with the usual relaxations. The application fee is ₹750 for Unreserved, EWS and OBC candidates and nil for SC, ST and PwBD candidates. A corrigendum of 1 July 2026 removed the CIBIL clause; the rest of the advertisement was left unchanged.

Phase I, the preliminary examination, is an online objective test of 100 marks and one hour, in three sections with a separate timer for each: English Language (40 questions, 20 minutes), Quantitative Aptitude (30 questions, 20 minutes) and Reasoning Ability (30 questions, 20 minutes). The notice prints one combined maximum of 100 marks for these 100 questions. Every question has five options and one correct answer. For a wrong answer, one fourth of the marks assigned to that question is deducted; a question left blank costs nothing. There is no sectional cut-off. A category-wise merit list is drawn from the aggregate, and about ten times the vacancies in each category are shortlisted for the main examination. Questions other than English Language are set in English and Hindi.

Phase II, the main examination, is online. The objective part lasts 3 hours and has four separately timed sections, 170 questions and 200 marks: Reasoning and Computer Aptitude (40 questions, 60 marks, 50 minutes), Data Analysis and Interpretation (30 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes), General Awareness / Economy / Banking Knowledge (60 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes) and English Language (40 questions, 20 marks, 40 minutes). The same one-fourth penalty applies to wrong answers in the objective tests. A descriptive paper on communication skills follows at once: three questions, 30 marks, 30 minutes, typed on the computer (an email, a situation analysis, and either a report or a précis, each chosen from two options). Each objective section and the descriptive paper has a minimum qualifying score fixed by the Bank, and about three times the category-wise vacancies are called for Phase III.

Phase III is a psychometric test for personality profiling, a group exercise (20 marks) and an interview (30 marks). Preliminary marks are not added to the final merit list. Main-examination marks (230) and Phase III marks (50) are converted to 75 and 25 respectively, and the final list is made from that total of 100. Selected candidates join as Probationary Officers in Junior Management Grade Scale-I, on probation of about two years, and execute a bond of ₹2 lakh to serve the Bank for at least three years.

Exam pattern

Form

Phase II: Main examination · since 2026-06-18

How it is taken

Online, at an examination centre; the descriptive answers are typed on the computer

Timing

A separate timer for each objective section (50, 45, 45 and 40 minutes) and then 30 minutes for the descriptive paper, which starts as soon as the objective test ends

Adaptive

None

There is no practice test on this site for the main examination. The practice test follows the preliminary examination only.

The Bank decides the sectional cut-offs and the minimum aggregate after the examination. They are not given in the advertisement.

Topics in the exam

• English: error spotting
• English: sentence completion
• English: synonyms
• English: antonyms
• English: reading comprehension
• English: cloze
• Quantitative Aptitude: simplification
• Quantitative Aptitude: percentage
• Quantitative Aptitude: profit, loss and discount
• Quantitative Aptitude: time and work
• Quantitative Aptitude: time, speed and distance
• Quantitative Aptitude: data interpretation
• Reasoning: seating puzzle
• Reasoning: syllogism
• Reasoning: inequalities
• Reasoning: coding-decoding
• Reasoning: blood relations
• Reasoning: series and odd one out
• Reasoning: direction sense

How it is scored

The objective test is out of 200 and the descriptive paper out of 30, so the main examination is out of 230. For a wrong objective answer, one fourth of the marks assigned to that question is deducted; a blank scores nothing. The lows on the four objective scales are what those sections reach if every question is wrong and the section's marks are shared equally among its questions (1.5, 2, 1 and 0.5 marks a question). The descriptive paper is marked out of 30 with no negative marking stated. Each objective section and the descriptive paper has a minimum qualifying score, and there is a minimum aggregate, both decided by the Bank and not printed in the advertisement. These marks, after conversion to 75, are added to Phase III (converted to 25) for the final merit list. This site describes the main examination and does not set a practice test for it.

Tips to clear SBI PO

1. English: error spotting

   Read the sentence once for sense, then check agreement, tense and the small words (since/for, than/when, to/than). The verb agrees with the real subject, not with a noun that merely sits next to it.

2. English: sentence completion

   Try the word in the whole sentence, not just the blank. Prepositions travel with their verbs: comply with, aim at, senior to. If two words look close, the one that makes a natural phrase is the answer.

3. English: synonyms

   Put the given word and each option into the same short sentence. The option that does not change the meaning is the synonym; a word from the same topic is often only a neighbour, not a match.

4. English: antonyms

   Name the opposite in your own word before you look hard at the options, then match. Reject a word that is only negative-sounding if it is not the opposite of this particular word.

5. English: reading comprehension

   Answer from the passage only. Underline the sentence that contains the fact, and do not use what you know from outside if the passage does not say it.

6. English: cloze

   Read the whole paragraph before filling any blank. A blank is often fixed by the word just after it, such as 'between … and' or 'reduced the waiting time'.

7. Quantitative Aptitude: simplification

   Do division and multiplication from left to right before addition and subtraction. For a root, find the whole number whose square is given, and write that step down before you add.

8. Quantitative Aptitude: percentage

   Turn 'x is what percent of y' into x/y × 100. For a rise followed by a fall of the same percent, the net change is a fall, and the base of the second change is the new price, not the old one.

9. Quantitative Aptitude: profit, loss and discount

   Profit and loss percent are always on cost price unless the question says otherwise. Apply two discounts one after the other on the reduced price; do not add the percents.

10. Quantitative Aptitude: time and work

    Write one day's work as a fraction first. Add the fractions for people working together, and when the number of workers changes use men × days = constant, if their rates are equal.

11. Quantitative Aptitude: time, speed and distance

    Convert km/h to m/s by multiplying by 5/18 before you divide a length in metres. A train passes a pole in the time it takes to cover its own length, and a platform in the time it takes to cover its length plus the platform.

12. Quantitative Aptitude: data interpretation

    Read the unit and the heading of the table before any sum. For a percent, name the numerator and the denominator from the cells, and do not mix a row total with a column total.

13. Reasoning: seating puzzle

    Draw the row and mark left and right from the person's point of view before you place anyone. Use the clue that fixes an end or the middle first, then hang the other clues on it.

14. Reasoning: syllogism

    Draw two or three circles and shade only what the statements force. 'All A are B' puts A inside B; 'some' is an overlap; 'no' is two circles that do not meet. A conclusion that needs an extra overlap does not follow.

15. Reasoning: inequalities

    Write the chain in one line and combine only signs that face the same way. A '>' can cross a '=' , but a '≥' on one side and a '≤' on the other does not give a definite comparison.

16. Reasoning: coding-decoding

    Write the alphabet positions under the letters and look for +1, −1 or a reversal before you invent a harder rule. In a sentence code, the word common to two sentences has the code common to those two codes.

17. Reasoning: blood relations

    Draw a small family tree and mark gender as soon as a word such as son, daughter, brother or sister fixes it. Do not guess a gender the statement does not give.

18. Reasoning: series and odd one out

    Check squares, cubes and a steady gap or a steady multiplier before mixed rules. For an odd one out, say what rule the other four share, in one sentence, and confirm the fifth breaks it.

19. Reasoning: direction sense

    Use a sketch with north at the top. A right turn goes east if you were facing north, south if you were facing east. For a final distance, finish the east-west shift and the north-south shift, then use Pythagoras.

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, Junior Management Grade Scale-I

Candidates who clear Phase II and Phase III join State Bank of India as Probationary Officers. On joining they are on probation for two years and are confirmed in Junior Management Grade Scale-I if they meet the Bank's standards. The 2026 notice gives a starting basic pay of ₹48,480 (with four advance increments) in the scale 48480-2000/7-62480-2340/2-67160-2680/7-85920, and a bond of ₹2 lakh to serve the Bank for at least three years. Officers may be posted anywhere in India. Official page

Official links and sources

• Current openings, SBI careers (sbi.co.in, which opens the Bank's careers page)
• Advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09, detailed advertisement dated 18.06.2026 (PDF)
• Acquaint yourself booklet for the online preliminary examination, CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 (PDF)
• Corrigendum dated 01.07.2026 removing the CIBIL clause (PDF)

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.

• Detailed advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 dated 18.06.2026: eligibility, vacancies, selection procedure (Phase I table, Phase II objective and descriptive tables, penalty for wrong answers, Phase III and final merit), pay and bond (2026-10-16)
• Acquaint yourself booklet for the online preliminary examination, CRPD/PO/2026-27/09: section table, five options, bilingual papers except English Language, separate section timers, and the illustrative task types for English, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning (2026-10-16)
• Corrigendum to CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 dated 01.07.2026: the CIBIL clause is removed; other terms stay as in the advertisement (2026-10-16)
• SBI careers, current openings, listing advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09 (2026-10-16)

Still to be confirmed

• The preliminary marks column is one merged cell reading 'Total Maximum Marks 100'. The notice does not print 40, 30 and 30 as separate section marks. This site treats each of the 100 questions as 1 mark, so the section maxima are 40, 30 and 30 and a wrong answer costs 0.25.
• In the main examination the notice gives marks for a section, not for each question. The per-question marks and penalties above assume the section's marks are shared equally. If the Bank assigns unequal marks inside a section, the penalty of one fourth follows whatever mark that question carries.
• The descriptive paper is 3 questions for 30 marks together. The notice does not give the marks of the email, the situation analysis and the report or précis separately, and it does not say whether those marks can be fractional.
• Sectional qualifying scores and the minimum aggregate in the main examination are decided by the Bank. They are not in the advertisement.
• The acquaint-yourself booklet says its sample task types are illustrative and that the examination also uses types not listed there. The mix of questions in the practice test follows those headings and the usual objective types that can be shown in text; it is not a published blueprint.
• Compensatory time is 20 minutes for every hour for eligible candidates. The practice test uses the ordinary timings only.