IBPS SO study guide
IBPS SO · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
IBPS SO refers to the Specialist Officer stream of the Common Recruitment Process run by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), an autonomous body that assists client organisations in selecting personnel at various levels through "proven systems and appropriately designed tools to objectively assess abilities and aptitude in tune with job requirements". The current cycle is labelled CRP-SPL-XVI; IBPS posted a result status of the online preliminary examination for CRP-SPL-XVI on 15 Oct, 2026. The recruitment is aimed at graduates and experienced professionals targeting specialist roles in participating banks rather than generalist officer posts. Preparation for this exam should be treated as two parallel tracks. The IBPS SO study guide has 4 sections and about 1,226 words.
01Reasoning
Reasoning in the IBPS SO prelims (for IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, Law Officer, HR/Personnel Officer and Marketing Officer) usually carries 50 questions; Rajbhasha Adhikari has a separate pattern. The paper tests structured deduction under time pressure: puzzles and seating arrangements, syllogism, inequality, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, alphanumeric series and input-output.
330 words, about 2 min02English Language
English Language in the IBPS SO prelims (25 questions for most posts) tests reading comprehension, grammar, usage and vocabulary. Typical items are reading comprehension, cloze test, error detection, sentence improvement, para jumbles, single and double fillers, word usage/swap and idioms.
301 words, about 2 min03Quantitative Aptitude
Quantitative Aptitude in the IBPS SO prelims (50 questions for most posts) tests numerical fluency and interpretation: arithmetic word problems, data interpretation (tabular, bar, pie, line and caselet), number series, quadratic equations, simplification/approximation, and basic probability and combinations. Memorise fraction-percentage equivalents: 1/8 = 12.5%, 1/16 = 6.25%, 1/6 = 16.66%.
286 words, about 1 min04Professional Knowledge
Professional Knowledge is the mains paper for the specialist post. For IT Officer it covers DBMS, networking, operating systems, data structures, programming, software engineering and information security; Law, HR, Marketing, Agriculture and Rajbhasha candidates answer in their own professional domain.
309 words, about 2 min