State Bank of India (SBI) will conduct SBI PO 2022 exam to select candidates for the post of Probationary Officers (PO) in its different branches. Banking aspirants dream for a job in SBI due to its handsome salary package, job security and career growth. 

Download Notification/Result	Previous year Question Paper
Download Syllabus	Latest Update

Examination Pattern and details

The State Bank of India conducts recruitment annually, and aspirants are now looking forward to the SBI notification for SO, PO and Clerk for the year 2021. Being the largest public sector bank in India, State Bank of India recruits new resources through the following SBI bank exams every year:

1. SBI PO Exam

It is also known as the SBI Probationary Officer (PO) Exam. The SBI PO exam mainly selects candidates for the management cadre of the Bank. The selected candidates are deputed to the role of Probationary Officers during the training phase. Later, they move on to management roles on completion of their training.

For detailed information on the Bank PO exam, check the linked article.

The SBI PO exam is categorised into three stages:

• SBI PO Preliminary Exam: The SBI PO Prelims usually skims the candidates from a huge lot for the next stage of the exam. It retains about 2.8% of the total number of applicants for the SBI Mains examination.
• SBI PO Main Exam: In the SBI PO Mains section, the performance of the candidates is assessed in such a way which helps in determining whether they are eligible to make it to the next stage of the exam. The SBI PO exam paper comprises of two sections:
  • Objective test: In this section, the focus is mainly on core knowledge areas which are required in the modern workplace. The SBI PO exam syllabus consists of Data Analysis & Interpretation, General Knowledge, Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Economy, Banking Awareness and English.
  • Descriptive test: This test primarily measures the candidates’ ability to use written English language skills in a business setting.
• SBI PO Group Discussion and SBI PO Interview: Candidates who clear the SBI PO Mains exam are put through group discussion and interview, which is the final stage of selection before a merit list of final selected candidates is listed.

To explore the SBI PO Recruitment at length, check at the linked article.

2. SBI Clerk Exam

The SBI Clerk Exam mainly recruits new employees in the position of Junior Associates for the clerical cadre of the Bank. There are two different stages in this SBI exam:

• SBI Clerk Preliminary Exam: This exam is also called as SBI Clerk Prelims. This exam is the initial stage of the clerical cadre of the banking giant which filters out candidates for the next level.
• SBI Clerk Mains Exam: This SBI exam is commonly referred to as the SBI Clerk Mains. In this stage, the marks that candidates secure usually determines the selection status of candidates as clerks in the State Bank.
• SBI Interview: There is no interview in this stage, and the SBI exam results are announced in a couple of months from the SBI Clerk Mains exam, and the final selected candidates are deputed on merit-basis.

To explore the SBI Recruitment at length, check at the linked article.

3. SBI SO Exam

The SBI SO exam aims to recruit Specialist Officers(SO) for the Bank. SBI Specialist Officer aspirants have to mandatorily fulfil the minimum SBI SO eligibility requirements to appear in the SBI Selection Process set by State Bank of India. The selection process of this exam primarily consists of an interview which emphasises on the work experience and specialisation of the candidates.

SBI PO Exam Selection Process

State Bank of India Probationary Officer Exam Pattern Details.

SBI PO Exam Pattern is of Three Phases – 1. Phase I, 2. Phase II, 3. Phase III.

A. Phase I: 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 test	No. of Questions	Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	20 minutes
2.	Quantitative Aptitude	35	35	20 minutes
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35	20 minutes
	Total	100	100	1 hour

B. Phase- II: Main Examination (250 marks) consisting of Objective Tests and Descriptive Test.

(i). Objective Tests (200 marks):  The objective test of 3 hours duration consist of 4 Sections for total 200 marks. The objective test will have separate timing for every section as follows:

Sl	Name of test	No. of Questions	Marks	Duration
1.	Reasoning & Computer Aptitude	45	60	60 minutes
2.	Data Analysis & Interpretation	35	60	45 minutes
3.	General/Economy/Banking Awareness	40	40	35 minutes
4.	English Language	35	40	40 minutes
5.	Total	155	200	3 hours

The candidates are required to qualify in the Objective Tests by securing passing marks, in each of the tests, to be decided by the Bank on the basis of the performance of all the competing candidates taken together in each test to a minimum required level for each category.

(ii). Descriptive Test (50 marks): The Descriptive Test of 30 minutes duration with two questions for 50 marks will be a Test of English Language (Letter Writing & Essay).

Objective Test:

• SBI PO 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.

• Immediately after completion of Objective Test, Descriptive Test will be administered.

• The objective test will be for 3-hour duration consisting of 4 sections – Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Data Analysis & Interpretation, General Economy/Banking Awareness, English Language of total 200 marks.

• The objective test will have separate timing for every section.

• The candidates are required to qualify in each of the tests by securing passing marks, to be decided by the Bank.

• For every correct response provided, the candidates would be awarded 1 mark and for every wrong response ¼ marks will get deducted. However, no mark will be deducted for any response.

Descriptive Section Pattern:

Along with the objective type question, the main exam will have questions in the descriptive format as well.

Following are the important points to ponder for the written examination :

• The descriptive test will be of 30 minutes duration comprising of 50 marks.

• The test will be of English Language (Letter Writing and Essay).

• The candidates are required to qualify in the descriptive test by securing passing marks, to be decided by the Bank.

• Descriptive test paper of only those candidates will be evaluated who have scored qualifying marks in the objective tests and are placed adequately high as per total marks in objective test.

• This test will judge the writing skills of the candidates.• The descriptive paper will be conducted for 30 minutes.

Phase 3: Group Exercises and Personal Interview

The candidates who clear the cutoff score for the Main Examination would then be called for a group exercise and personal Interview test where the candidates will have to face an Interview board. The Group Exercise will carry 20 marks and Interview will carry 30 marks. The aggregate marks of candidates qualifying in both the Objective Tests and the Descriptive Test will be arranged in descending order in each category.

An adequate number of candidates in each category, as decided by the Bank will be called for Group Exercises and Interview. The qualifying marks in Group Exercises and Interview will be decided by the Bank.

What is Group Exercises in SBI PO?

In the recent notification of SBI PO, it was noticed that, Group Discussion has been replaced by Group Exercises. Now, the candidates must be wondering, what is Group Exercises? Well, under group exercises, a group of candidates work together to perform an activity while being watched by assessors. The assessors will make notes and score the candidates based on their respective contributions to the exercise.

The group exercise can take a variety of forms. Some of those are listed below:

• Discuss a general topic or area of current affairs

• Debate a work-related problem before finding a solution and presenting it back to the assessors as a group

• Complete a task

SBI PO Syllabus details:

SBI PO Syllabus is of Three Phases 1. Preliminary Examination 2. Main Examination and 3. Group Exercises & Interview.

I. Preliminary Examination: This Exam is consisting of 3 Sections as follows…
1. English Language
2. Quantitative Aptitude
3. Reasoning Ability

II. Main Examination: This is consisting of 2 papers as
a. Objective paper: This paper consists of 4 sections such as
1. Test of Reasoning & Computer Aptitude.
2. Test of Data Analysis & Interpretation.
3. Test of General/ Economy/ Banking Awareness.
4. Test of English Language.

b. Descriptive Paper: This paper is consisting of Letter Writing and Essay.

Common Syllabus

1) English language – Out here, you have to focus specifically on four aspects: Vocabulary, grammar, English usage and reading. Reading comprehension and vocabulary are generally interlinked as synonyms and antonyms asked in the exam are from the passage itself.

2) Numerical ability/ quant aptitude – Within quant, the most important aspects are arithmetic and data interpretation. The questions based on simplification and numerical series also have significant weightage. Besides that, mensuration too accounts for a couple of questions.

3) Reasoning ability – Puzzle test, mathematical inequalities, syllogisms, seating arrangement, blood relations, coding-decoding and input-output are the key topics in this area.However, logical reasoning questions such as: Statement-assumption, statement-argument, statement-course of action and statement-conclusion must not be neglected as well.

4) Computer knowledge – To comprehensively cover all the questions from this area you should study (a) keyboard shortcuts (b) software packages and usage (c) cyber security and security tools (d) abbreviations and acronyms (e) networking fundamentals (f) history of computers and programming languages (g) internet knowledge and protocols (h) basic computer terminology (i) computer hardware.

5) General and banking/ financial awareness – The syllabus of this area generally seems vague to most candidates. However, preparing yourself to handle questions based on the following topics will be of maximum benefit.

General Awareness : (a) New appointments and who is who (b) prizes and awards (c) international summits /conferences (d) government welfare schemes and initiatives (e) sports tournaments (f) science and technology projects (g) books and authors (h) international organisations

Banking/financial awareness : (a) Fiscal and monetary policy announcements (b) macroeconomic indicators (c) Indian banking system (d) regulatory framework (e) banking and financial terms (f) financial market developments (g) banking operations

NOTE : Although SBI clerk preliminary exam (tier-I) will not include areas 4 and 5, yet you must work on them simultaneously with Quant, English and Reasoning. It is so because there will not be much of a time gap between the preliminary exam and the main exam. Moreover, if you have applied for NABARD vacancies, then note that all the five areas will be a part of the preliminary (tier-I) exam.