SBI PO Recruitment Selection Process & Exam Pattern
The selection of Probationary Officers will be done in three phases i.e. Preliminary examination, Main examination, and Group Exercise & Interview.
Phase I – Preliminary Examination
Phase II – Mains Examination & Descriptive Test
Phase III – Group Exercise & Interview
The candidates who are shortlisted after Preliminary examination of the SBI PO Recruitment will have to appear for the Main examination. The candidates successfully completing the main examination will be subsequently called for a Group Exercises & Interview.
SBI PO Recruitment - Prelims Exam Pattern
Preliminary Examination consisting of Objective Tests for 100 marks will be conducted online. This test would be of 1 hour duration consisting of 3 Sections as follows:
S. No. | Name of the Test | No. of Questions | Sectional Time | Marks |
1. | English Language | 30 | 20 minutes | Total Maximum Marks 100 |
2. | Reasoning Ability | 35 | 20 minutes | |
3. | Quantitative Aptitude | 35 | 20 minutes | |
Total | 100 | 1 hour |
Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing passing marks to be decided by the Bank.
Selection criteria for the Main Examination: Category wise merit list will be drawn on the basis of the aggregate marks scored in the Preliminary Examination. Adequate number of candidates (approximately 10-20 times the numbers of vacancies) in each category will be shortlisted for the Main Examination from the top of the merit list.
SBI PO Recruitment - Mains Exam Pattern
Main Examination will consist of Objective Tests for 200 marks and Descriptive Test for 50 marks. Both the Objective and Descriptive Tests will be online. Candidates will have to answer Descriptive test by typing on the computer. Descriptive Test will be administered immediately after completion of the Objective Test.
Objective Test: The objective test of 3 hours duration consists of 4 Sections for total 200 marks. The objective test will have separate timing for every
Test | Name of the test | No. of Qs. | Duration |
I | Reasoning & Computer Aptitude | 45 | 60 minutes |
II | Data Analysis & Interpretation | 35 | 45 minutes |
III | General/ Economy/ Banking Awareness | 40 | 35 minutes |
IV | English Language | 35 | 40 minutes |
Total | 155 | 3 hours |
Descriptive Test: The Descriptive Test of 30 minutes duration with two questions for 50 marks will be a Test of English Language (Letter Writing & Essay).
Penalty for Wrong Answers - SBI PO Recruitment
Applicable to both – SBI PO Preliminary and Main Examinations
There will be a penalty for wrong answers marked in the Objective Tests. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one-fourth of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score. If a question is left blank, i.e. if no answer is marked by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.
Phase – III: Group Discussion (20 marks) & Interview (30 marks)
The aggregate marks of candidates qualifying in both the Objective Tests and Descriptive Test will be arranged in descending order in each category. The adequate number of candidates in each category, as decided by the Bank will be called for Group Discussion and Interview. The qualifying marks in Group Discussion & Interview will be as decided by the Bank.
Candidates qualifying for GD & Interview under the ‘OBC’ category would be required to submit an OBC certificate containing the ‘Non-Creamy layer’ clause. Candidates not submitting the OBC certificate containing the ‘Non Creamy layer’ clause and requesting to be interviewed under the General category will not be entertained.
SBI PO Recruitment - Final Selection
The marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination (Phase-I) will not be added for the selection. Only the marks obtained in Main Examination (Phase-II) will be added to the marks obtained in GD & Interview (Phase-III) for preparation of the final merit list.
Marks secured by the candidates in the Main Examination (out of 250 marks) are converted to out of 75 and marks secured in Group Exercises & Interview (out of 50 marks) are converted to out of 25.
The final merit list is arrived at after aggregating converted marks of Main Examination and Group Exercises & Interview out of 100. The selection will be made from the top merit ranked candidates in each category.
Results of the candidates who qualify for Main Examination and Group Exercise & Interview as well as the final select list will be made available on the Bank’s website.