SBI Clerk key terms

A word that carries the same or nearly the same meaning as another word, such as 'begin' and 'start', tested in vocabulary questions.

A word that has the opposite meaning of another word, for example 'scarce' as the opposite of 'abundant'.

A fixed expression whose overall meaning cannot be worked out from the literal meanings of its individual words, such as 'break the ice'.

A verb combined with a preposition or adverb to form a new meaning, such as 'put off' meaning to postpone, often tested in fill-in-the-blank items.

A passage with certain words removed, where the candidate must pick the most suitable word for each numbered blank from the given options.

A set of sentences presented in scrambled order that must be rearranged into a coherent paragraph using clues such as pronouns, connectors and logical flow.

The grammatical rule that a verb must match its subject in number and person, so a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject a plural verb.

A fraction expressed out of one hundred; for instance 25% means 25 out of 100, and the idea is used throughout profit, discount and data interpretation sums.

A ratio compares two quantities of the same kind by division, while a proportion states that two ratios are equal, allowing unknown quantities to be found.

Interest calculated only on the original principal for the entire period, using the relation SI = Principal x Rate x Time divided by 100.

Interest calculated on the principal plus the interest already earned, so the amount grows faster than it would under simple interest.

The sum of a group of values divided by the number of values in that group; also called the arithmetic mean.

Calculations based on cost price and selling price, where profit arises when the selling price is above cost price and loss when it is below.

Problems linking the quantity of work done to the time taken and the rate of working, often combining several workers or filling and emptying pipes.

The skill of reading tables, bar graphs, pie charts or line graphs and computing values such as totals, averages, ratios and percentage change from them.

A reasoning question in which conclusions must be judged true, false or undetermined using only the given statements, without relying on outside knowledge.

Puzzles that describe family ties in coded or indirect language and ask the candidate to work out how two named people are related.

Questions in which words, letters or numbers are written in a pattern-based code, and the candidate must detect the rule to decode or encode another item.

A puzzle where people are placed in rows or around a circle or square according to given clues, and questions ask about positions and neighbours.

Problems that track a person's movement using north, south, east, west and turns, ending with a question on final direction or shortest distance from the start.

A sequence of numbers that follows a hidden rule, where the candidate must identify the missing term or the term that does not fit.

A question giving a statement followed by suggested assumptions, where the candidate decides which assumptions are implicit in what the statement says.

Questions that use symbols such as greater than, less than, greater than or equal to and less than or equal to to link elements, from which conclusions must be checked.

The interest rate at which the Reserve Bank of India lends short-term funds to commercial banks against the security of government bonds.

The rate at which the Reserve Bank of India absorbs surplus liquidity from banks by borrowing from them; it is normally lower than the repo rate.

Cash Reserve Ratio: the share of a bank's net demand and time liabilities that must be maintained as cash with the Reserve Bank of India, earning no interest.

Statutory Liquidity Ratio: the minimum percentage of net demand and time liabilities that a bank must hold in safe liquid assets such as cash, gold or government securities.

National Electronic Funds Transfer: a retail payment system in which fund transfer instructions are settled in batches at fixed intervals during the day.

Real Time Gross Settlement: a payment system for high-value transfers where each transaction is settled individually and immediately rather than in batches.

Know Your Customer: the mandatory process by which a bank verifies a customer's identity and address before opening an account or allowing certain transactions.

Non-Performing Asset: a loan or advance on which interest or principal has remained overdue for more than ninety days, requiring the bank to make provisions.

Central Processing Unit: the part of a computer that fetches and executes instructions and performs arithmetic and logical operations, often called the brain of the computer.

Random Access Memory: volatile working memory that holds the programs and data currently in use and loses its contents when the power is switched off.

System software that manages hardware, files and running programs and provides a user interface; examples include Windows, Linux, macOS and Android.

Uniform Resource Locator: the address that identifies the location of a resource such as a web page on the internet, for example a site's home page address.

Hardware or software that monitors and filters incoming and outgoing network traffic according to set security rules, helping block unauthorised access.

Malicious software such as viruses, worms and trojans designed to damage, disrupt or gain unauthorised access to a computer system or its data.