Bank of India PO

Bank of India PO is the recruitment of Probationary Officers (JMGS-I) in Bank of India, a public sector bank. In the current 2026 cycle, Bank of India is one of the participating banks in the IBPS Common Recruitment Process for Probationary Officers and Management Trainees (CRP PO/MT-XVI). You apply once through IBPS, and allotment to a participating bank follows the IBPS merit list and the preferences you give.

This page explains where the 2026 cycle stands, who can apply, the new Mains pattern, the selection stages and how to prepare. It also clears up a common confusion: Bank of India once ran its own PO exam with a post-selection banking diploma, which is a different route from the one in use now. Figures marked indicative or tentative should be checked on the official websites before you act on them.

Table of Contents

• Bank of India PO 2026 at a glance

• How Bank of India PO recruitment works

• Important dates

• Vacancy details

• Eligibility

• Application fee and how to apply

• Exam pattern

• Syllabus summary

• Selection process

• Salary and career growth

• How to prepare

• Previous cut-off reference

Bank of India PO 2026 at a glance

How Bank of India PO recruitment works

In recent cycles, Bank of India has filled PO and Management Trainee posts through the IBPS common process. The bank's own recruitment results page lists IBPS CRP provisionally selected lists and reserve lists for PO/MT. IBPS conducts the exams, and the bank takes up the candidates allotted to it.

The earlier route was different. In its 2022-23 cycle (Project 2022-23/3), Bank of India invited applications for 500 Probationary Officer posts in JMGS-I for candidates who would complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Banking and Finance (PGDBF). That cycle had its own online exam on 19 March 2023, followed by a group discussion and interview, and its waiting list referred to the PGDBF at Manipal School of Banking, Bengaluru. We have not found any later PGDBF-based PO notice on the bank's careers pages, and we could not verify a role for Nitte in that cycle, so do not assume it applies this year.

Bank of India also publishes separate notices for experienced officers in higher scales, such as Credit Officers in MMGS-II and above. Those are lateral recruitments, not PO. Older pages that mix them up with PO should be ignored.

Bank of India PO 2026: important dates

Tentative dates come from the notification schedule and can change. Track the official IBPS site and your registered email for call letters and result notices.

Bank of India PO vacancy details

The 500 posts below are indicative. They come from the bank-wise annexure to the IBPS notification as reported by exam-news sites, and the overall IBPS total has been revised upward more than once as banks reported their numbers. Treat the figure as provisional until IBPS or the bank confirms the final count.

Posts for persons with benchmark disabilities (HI, OC, VI and ID) are reported as 5 each, and these sit within the totals above. The exact split is not confirmed here.

Eligibility

Qualification

You need a graduation degree in any discipline from a recognised university. No minimum percentage is reported for the IBPS PO process. The result deadline is reported as 21 July 2026 for this cycle, so confirm the exact wording in the notification.

Age limit

The age limit is 20 to 30 years as on 1 July 2026, which means a date of birth between 2 July 1996 and 1 July 2006, both days included. Reserved categories get relaxation on the upper limit.

Other conditions

Indian citizens can apply, and certain other categories such as subjects of Nepal or Bhutan and some Tibetan refugees need an eligibility certificate from the Government of India. There is no fixed limit on attempts, so your age is the practical limit. For a full walk-through, read our Bank of India PO eligibility guide.

Application fee and how to apply

The fee is not refundable, and bank transaction charges are paid by the candidate. Registration for the 2026 cycle has closed. For the next cycle, the steps are:

1. Register on the IBPS website: Use an email ID and mobile number that will stay active for the whole process. The official portal is ibps.in.

2. Fill in your details: Enter your personal, educational and category details exactly as in your certificates.

3. Upload the required files: Photograph, signature, left thumb impression and handwritten declaration, in the sizes and formats given in the notification.

4. Pay the fee and submit: Save the final printout or the acknowledgement for later stages.

Common reasons for rejection are a blurred or wrongly sized upload, a declaration not written in your own hand, and a category claim without a valid certificate.

Bank of India PO exam pattern

The 2026 cycle brought a larger Mains paper and a new Personality Test. Prelims is only a qualifying round, and its marks are not added to final merit.

Prelims

Mains

Each wrong answer in the objective tests costs one-fourth of the marks for that question, and unattempted questions carry no penalty. The pattern above is taken from summaries of the CRP PO/MT-XVI notification, and a few sites still name the first Mains section differently, so check the section names in the official notification. Older pages may still show the earlier 145-question Mains with a Letter and Essay paper, so follow the current notification.

What this means for you:

• Awareness matters more: General awareness now carries 60 marks, the same as Reasoning and Data Analysis, so daily reading cannot be skipped.

• English is a smaller share: It is 20 marks in Mains, but it is still a sectional hurdle in Prelims.

• Time is tight in DI and Reasoning: Each has 40 questions in 45 minutes, so selection of questions is a skill to practise.

A detailed breakdown is on the Bank of India PO exam pattern page.

Bank of India PO syllabus summary

IBPS names the tests but does not publish a topic-wise syllabus. The table below is a working checklist built from the test names and from the kind of questions asked in earlier IBPS PO papers. It is not an official list.

The full topic list is on the Bank of India PO syllabus page.

Selection process

1. Prelims: Online, 100 marks, qualifying only. You must clear the sectional and overall cut-offs set by IBPS.

2. Mains: 200 marks objective plus 25 marks descriptive. These marks count in final merit.

3. Personality Test: A new online self-report test that is mandatory before the interview. It is reported as non-qualifying, and its profile goes to the interview panel.

4. Interview: 100 marks. The minimum qualifying score is reported as 40 percent, or 35 percent for reserved categories.

5. Final merit and allotment: Mains and Interview are combined in an 80:20 ratio, and IBPS allots selected candidates to participating banks.

Bank of India then verifies documents and medical fitness before joining, as per its service rules.

Salary and career growth

The IBPS notification gives the JMGS-I basic pay scale as Rs. 48,480 - 2,000 (7) - 62,480 - 2,340 (2) - 67,160 - 2,680 (7) - 85,920. The starting basic pay is therefore Rs. 48,480, and dearness allowance, house rent allowance and other benefits are added as per bank rules. Your take-home pay is not an official figure and varies with the city of posting, so do not rely on estimates from third-party pages.

A Probationary Officer begins in a branch role and moves up through the officer scales on the bank's promotion policy. The exact probation, training and promotion terms are set by the bank, so read them in the joining documents.

How to prepare for Bank of India PO

• Prelims phase: Build speed in simplification, number series and puzzles, and keep English reading daily.

• Mains phase: Add Data Analysis sets, banking and economy notes, and one essay a week.

• Interview phase: Revise your graduation subjects, your hometown and state, current banking news and your reasons for choosing banking.

Previous cut-off reference

IBPS has reported these Prelims cut-offs out of 100 for the common process, as listed on exam-news sites. The General category cut-off was 49.21 in the 2025 cycle and 48.50 in the 2024 cycle.

Cut-offs change every year with difficulty, vacancies and the number of applicants. Treat last year's figures as a benchmark only, and aim for a clear margin rather than a bare pass. More years and stages are on the Bank of India PO cut off page.