Institute of Banking Personnel Selection SO

IBPS SO is the Specialist Officer recruitment exam conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) for Scale I officer posts in participating public sector banks. The current cycle is CRP SPL-XVI, for vacancies of 2027-28. It fills six posts: IT Officer, Agricultural Field Officer, Rajbhasha Adhikari, Law Officer, HR/Personnel Officer and Marketing Officer.

This page shows where the cycle stands today: applications are closed, the Preliminary exam has been scheduled and its result status is out on the IBPS site, and the Main exam is the next stage. It also covers vacancies, eligibility, pay, the selection process and how to prepare. The exam pattern changed a lot from the previous cycle, so older pages may still show a structure that no longer applies.

Table of Contents

• IBPS SO at a glance

• Important dates

• Vacancies

• Eligibility

• Application fee

• Exam pattern

• Syllabus

• Selection process

• Salary

• Cut-off

• How to prepare

IBPS SO at a glance

Important dates

Tentative dates come from the notification schedule and the IBPS calendar, and they can change. Track the official updates page on ibps.in and your registered email for the Main call letter and the exact date.

Vacancies

IBPS lists vacancies as indicative, because banks report their needs and actual numbers can differ at the allotment stage. The notification of 1 July 2026 carried 745 vacancies. A corrigendum dated 20 July 2026 updated the annexure to 1,035. Post-wise totals in the updated annexure add up as below.

These are not final figures. Category-wise and bank-wise splits are in Annexure I of the official notification, and some banks are marked as not reported for some posts.

Eligibility

Educational qualification

Each post has its own degree requirement, and the final result must have been declared on or before 21 July 2026. Only one post can be applied for.

• IT Officer: a 4-year Engineering or Technology degree in Computer Science, Computer Applications, Information Technology or Electronics streams, or a relevant postgraduate degree, or a graduate with DOEACC B level.

• Agricultural Field Officer: a 4-year degree in Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Science, Dairy, Fishery and allied subjects listed in the notification.

• Rajbhasha Adhikari: a postgraduate degree in Hindi with English at graduation level, or in Sanskrit with English and Hindi at graduation level.

• Law Officer: an LL.B degree and enrolment as an advocate with a Bar Council.

• HR/Personnel Officer: a graduate with a 2-year full-time postgraduate degree or diploma in Personnel Management, Industrial Relations, HR, HRD, Social Work or Labour Law.

• Marketing Officer: a graduate with a 2-year full-time MMS, MBA, PGDBA, PGDBM, PGPM or PGDM with Marketing specialisation.

Age limit

Candidates must be 20 to 30 years old as on 1 July 2026, that is, born between 2 July 1996 and 1 July 2006, both dates included.

Application fee

Bank transaction charges for online payment are paid by the candidate. The application window for this cycle has closed, but the fee structure helps you plan for the next one.

Exam pattern

The exam is held in two online phases, Preliminary and Main, followed by an interview. Both online phases carry a penalty of one fourth of the marks of a question for each wrong answer. Blank answers carry no penalty.

Online Preliminary

Each test has 25 questions and 20 minutes. Professional Knowledge carries 50 marks, so each of its questions is worth 2 marks. You must clear a cut-off in every test.

Online Main

The Main exam has an objective part of 150 questions for 200 marks in 125 minutes, plus a descriptive paper of 2 questions for 25 marks in 30 minutes. Professional Knowledge carries 100 of the 200 objective marks. Every Main test except Professional Knowledge is qualifying in nature, and merit is decided on the Professional Knowledge score.

What this means for you:

• Professional Knowledge is the deciding paper: It is 40 percent of Prelims marks and the only scoring test in Main, so your post-specific subject needs the most time.

• Sectional cut-offs matter: A strong Professional Knowledge score cannot save you if you miss the cut-off in English, Reasoning or the third section.

• Guessing has a cost: A wrong Professional Knowledge answer costs 0.5 marks, against a gain of 2.

Older pages may still show the previous cycle, in which Prelims had three tests and Main was a single 60-mark Professional Knowledge test, so follow the official notification.

Syllabus

IBPS names the tests in its notification but does not publish a topic-wise syllabus. The summary below is a working checklist built from the notification and the sample questions IBPS releases, not an official list.

Selection process

1. Online Preliminary: qualifying. Candidates must clear the cut-off in each of the four tests, and IBPS shortlists enough candidates for Main.

2. Online Main: candidates need minimum scores in each test and a high enough Professional Knowledge score to be called for interview.

3. Interview: 100 marks, conducted by the participating banks. The minimum qualifying mark is 40 percent, or 35 percent for SC/ST/OBC/PwBD candidates.

4. Final merit: Main and interview are weighted 80:20. Prelims marks are not added to the final score.

5. Provisional allotment: to a participating bank, based on merit, category and the actual vacancies the banks report.

Scores from different sessions are normalised using the equi-percentile method.

Salary

Specialist Officers join in Scale I. The notification gives the basic pay scale as Rs. 48,480 rising by Rs. 2,000 for 7 years, Rs. 2,340 for 2 years and Rs. 2,680 for 7 years, up to Rs. 85,920. Allowances and perquisites follow each bank's rules. Take-home pay is not an official figure, and it varies by bank and posting city.

Cut-off

IBPS does not publish a category-wise cut-off table on its website for this cycle. Preliminary and Main results and scores are shown to candidates after login. Cut-offs change every year with difficulty, vacancies and the number of applicants, so treat last year's figures as a benchmark only, and aim for a clear margin above them rather than a bare pass.

How to prepare

For Prelims-style tests

Build speed in the three general sections first, because each is only 25 questions in 20 minutes. Practise one puzzle set, one reading passage and one data interpretation set every day, and keep a log of the question types that take you longest.

For Professional Knowledge

Start from the sample questions in the IBPS handout for your post, then work through your degree-level subjects topic by topic. Because this test carries the most marks in both stages, finish a first round of your subject well before the Main date.

Read the full notification on the official IBPS website before you rely on any date, fee or rule.