SBI PO Exam Pattern 2025 for Prelims & Mains

Before beginning with the SBI PO preparation, candidates must go through SBI PO exam pattern. To clear all the stages of SBI PO 2025, candidates must be well-versed with the SBI PO exam pattern. As the competition is high, it is not a cup of tea to clear the exam unless candidates have prepared for it well. Thus, prior knowledge of SBI PO exam pattern is essential as it gives candidates a platform to start their preparation efficiently. Last year, SBI revised the exam pattern of SBI PO.

SBI PO Exam Pattern Highlights

Candidates can check below some of the important highlights of SBI PO.

Changes in SBI PO Exam

SBI PO is a national-level exam, and every year, a lot of aspirants fill out the application form. It is seen that only a handful of them can qualify for the final selection. Candidates must get familiar with the SBI PO exam pattern before beginning with the preparation. This year, SBI has announced changes in the SBI PO exam pattern. The revised exam pattern of SBI PO is given below:

• SBI will conduct a Psychometric Test in Phase III of the SBI PO exam 
• The Psychometric Test will be conducted for personality profiling of candidates shortlisted for the Phase 3 exam
• The performance of candidates will be provided to the interview panel 
• There are no marks allotted to the Psychometric Test
• The interview and group exercise will be conducted in a face-to-face manner

SBI PO Prelims Exam Pattern 2025

SBI PO exam pattern for prelims comprises 100 objective questions of 100 marks. The duration of SBI PO exam is one hour. The test comprises three sections with separate timings for each section. The marks obtained by candidates in the prelims exam will not be counted for the final merit list. For the correct answers, candidates will score one mark while 0.25 marks will be deducted for wrong answers. On the basis of SBI PO result of the prelims exam, candidates 10 times the number of vacancies will be selected for the mains exam. Candidates can check the structure of the SBI PO prelims exam pattern.

Also Read: SBI PO cutoff marks

SBI PO Mains Exam Pattern 2025

SBI PO exam pattern for the mains exam is such that the paper contains both objective and subjective questions for a total of 250 marks. The test paper will have a total of 170 questions. Candidates need to complete the paper within 3.5 hours. The objective tests consist of four sections and have separate timings for every section. The Descriptive Test is a test of English Language where candidates will be asked to write a Letter Writing & Essay. According to the official website, "The descriptive paper of only those candidates will be evaluated who have scored the minimum marks required to qualify the objective test and are placed sufficiently high as per total marks in the objective test." The marks obtained in the mains exam will be considered for the final merit list. Candidates upto three times the category-wise number of vacancies will be shortlisted for the Phase 3 exam. The structure of the SBI PO exam pattern for mains is given below:

SBI PO Exam Pattern 2025 for Phase III

Candidates who clear both the prelims and mains exams of SBI PO are called for the Phase III, which comprises a psychometric test, interview and Group Exercises. The bank may conduct a psychometric test for personality profiling of those candidates who will be shortlisted for Phase 3 exam. Findings of the test may be placed before the Interview panel for a thorough perspective on the candidates. In interview and group exercises, candidates are required to face a panel where they are asked questions on their past work experiences (If any), educational background, and questions related to General Knowledge related to the banking sector. The total marks allotted to interview are 50. The interview carries 30 marks while group exercises comprise 20 marks. Candidates are required to score a minimum qualifying mark in Phase III to be considered for final selection. The weightage of marks given to Interview and Group Exercises & Interview is given below.

SBI PO normalised scores are calculated based on the following process:

1. The raw scores of all candidates are calculated based on the number of questions answered correctly in each section of the exam
2. The raw scores are then converted to scaled scores using a statistical process called equating. This ensures that the difficulty level of the exam remains consistent across different test administrations
3. The scaled scores are used to determine the final scores of the candidates, which are used for selection and ranking purposes

SBI PO Marking Scheme

Candidates can check below the SBI PO marking scheme:

• There is SBI PO negative marking for wrong answers, one-fourth marks assigned to a particular question in the objective test are deducted as penalty to arrive at the corrected scores
• There is no SBI PO negative marking for the subjective part of the mains exam
• If a question is left blank, there will be no penalty for that question
• For correct answers, candidates score one mark

SBI PO Exam Duration

SBI PO exam duration for the prelims exam is 60 minutes. The exam duration for the mains exam is 3.5 hours. There are also sectional timings for SBI PO exam. 

SBI PO Paper Duration for Prelims 

SBI PO Paper Duration for Mains

SBI PO syllabus highlights the topics and subtopics that candidates need to prepare for the exam. SBI PO prelims syllabus comprises topics from Reasoning Ability, English Language and Quantitative Aptitude. SBI PO Mains syllabus comprises topics from Reasoning Ability, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, General Awareness and Computer Aptitude. The important topics for SBI PO exam are given below:

• Reasoning Ability: Logical Reasoning, Data Sufficiency, Seating Arrangement, Puzzles, Syllogism, Coding-Decoding, Input-Output and many more.
• English Language: Reading Comprehension, Cloze Test, Para Jumbles, Fill in the blanks, Multiple Meaning /Error Spotting, etc.
• Quantitative Aptitude: Simplification, Simple Interest & Compound Interest & Surds & Indices, Time & Distance, Work & Time, Ratio & Proportion, Percentage, Data Interpretation, Number Systems, etc.
• General Awareness: Financial Awareness, Current Affairs, General Knowledge, Static Awareness, Banking and Financial Awareness
• Computer Aptitude: Internet, Memory, Keyboard Shortcuts, Computer Abbreviation, Microsoft Office, Computer Hardware, Computer Fundamentals /Terminologies, Networking, Operating System, Basic of Logic Gates, etc. 

Candidates can check below SBI PO exam pattern 2025 FAQs.