IBPS RRB Office Assistant 2026 Syllabus: 80+200, No Interview

Prelims are 80 marks in 45 minutes. Mains is 200 marks in 120 minutes. There is no interview. Vacancies, State seats and Table A languages are on the Office Assistant recruitment page. The tables below are from clause D of the CRP RRBs XV notification dated 1 September 2026.

Prelims sit on 6, 12 and 13 December 2026. Mains sits on 30 January 2027.

IBPS does not print a chapter-wise book list. Prepare the tests in the tables.

Preliminary examination

Online, objective, 45 minutes, separately timed.

You must qualify both tests. An adequate number in each category, as IBPS decides, go to mains. The medium is the version you chose for your State. English prevails if a translation differs.

Main examination

Online, objective, 120 minutes, separately timed.

Choose 4a English or 4b Hindi, not both. Computer and General Awareness are high marks per minute. Reasoning and Numerical Ability carry 50 marks each, so a weak arithmetic paper is hard to repair.

Negative marking: one-fourth of that question's marks, prelims and mains. IBPS can change the structure on ibps.in. The information handout with the call letter is the paper you sit.

What to study

IBPS names the tests, not the chapters. The working list below is the set that those tests use in this CRP. It is not a printed annexure.

Reasoning (prelims 40 in 25 minutes, mains 50 marks in 30 minutes). Puzzles and seating, inequalities, syllogisms, blood relations, direction, order and ranking, coding-decoding, alphanumeric series, input-output on mains, and a few odd-one-out items. If a four-variable puzzle will not close in four minutes, drop it. Forty questions in 25 minutes will not wait.

Numerical Ability (prelims 40 in 20 minutes, mains 50 marks in 30 minutes). Simplification and approximation, number series, quadratic equations, percentage, ratio, average, profit and loss, simple and compound interest, time and work, time and distance, and one or two data-interpretation sets. Twenty minutes is not enough for two full DI sets. If the first set is three charts, skip it and take the quadratic row.

Computer Knowledge (mains 20 marks in 15 minutes). Hardware and software, MS Office, internet, email, memory, shortcuts, operating systems, and basic security (phishing, malware, OTP). This paper is 15 minutes. You cannot learn it in the last week.

General Awareness (mains 40 marks in 15 minutes). Banking and rural current affairs: RBI and NABARD, government schemes that run through RRBs, priority-sector lending, and the last six months of national news. Static banking (types of accounts, negotiable instruments, KYC) still appears. Fifteen minutes is reading time, not research time.

English or Hindi (mains 40 marks in 30 minutes). Reading comprehension, cloze, error spotting, fillers, para jumbles, and vocabulary. Pick one language now and stay with it.

Local language. Table A of the notice:

Class 8 or a certificate counts. If you do not have it, the bank can give six months from joining, not beyond probation.

Allotment

There is no interview. You need a minimum score in each mains test, and a high enough total, to be shortlisted for provisional allotment against the vacancies of the State you chose. Scores across shifts use the equi-percentile method. Cut-offs are State- and category-wise.

IBPS can send you to a centre outside that State for the exam itself. Allotment still follows the State on the form.

A reserve list is drawn in each category. It does not guarantee a job. Extra allotment rounds happen only if RRBs report more vacancies within one year of the first list. If they do not, the reserve list expires. Candidates who are neither allotted nor on that list are out of CRP RRBs XV. You cannot demand a different bank. Allotted staff may be posted anywhere in that RRB.

Exam day

The call letter is downloaded from ibps.in. IBPS will not post it. Prelims call letters are expected in November or December 2026.

The prelims call letter is stamped, not collected. Keep it with the stamped copy of your ID. You need both at mains on 30 January 2027. Bring one extra photograph, the same as the call-letter photo. Candidates without that photograph are not allowed in. Keep about eight copies of the same photo.

If you opted for a scribe, fill the online scribe form when IBPS hosts it, upload the scribe's class 10 or equivalent certificate, and bring the printed declaration. The scribe brings the original. The scribe form is collected at prelims.

Photo ID at the centre must be the same as the one you used on the form, or another listed original: passport, PAN, driving licence, voter ID, Aadhaar (with photo), or an identity card with a photograph issued by a government office. The call letter and the information handout name the exact list. A mismatch on name or photograph is how people are turned away.

Items not allowed inside the centre are listed in clause O: mobile phones, watches, calculators, notes, and the rest of the usual IBPS list. The information handout with the call letter is the list that applies on the day.

How to prepare

You have about seven weeks to the December prelims.

Prelims first. The paper is only reasoning and numerical ability, 45 minutes. Spend 25 minutes on puzzles, inequalities, syllogisms, blood relations and direction. Spend 20 minutes on simplification, number series, quadratic equations and data interpretation. If 40 arithmetic questions do not finish in 20 minutes, drop the longest DI set.

Mains in parallel, lightly. Fifteen minutes a day on computer basics and 15 minutes on banking and rural current affairs. Those two papers are 15 minutes each on the day.

Language. Pick English or Hindi now and stay with it. Switching after a month wastes the 30-minute paper.

Local language. If you do not already have Class 8 in the RRB's language, start the certificate or the class. A certificate in hand removes a joining risk.

After prelims. Shift to 50-mark reasoning and 50-mark numerical ability. Computer and GA cannot be crammed in the week of 30 January.

A four-week sketch if you start now. Week 1: two 45-minute prelims sits, no phone, and a list of the three puzzle types you cannot finish. Week 2: the same sits plus 15 minutes of computer and 15 minutes of RRB news. Week 3: one full 120-minute mains sit on a Sunday, English or Hindi only, and a decision on which DI set you will skip. Week 4: call-letter photograph copies, the stamped-ID habit, and one more 45-minute prelims sit at the same hour as your likely shift. This is a habit, not a promise of a cut-off. IBPS can still change the structure. The information handout with the call letter is the paper you sit. Keep the stamped prelims letter and the stamped ID copy for 30 January 2027. Missing that set keeps you out of mains. Watch ibps.in for the December call letter.

Ten questions on dates, the no-interview rule and the State option are on the practice page. The matching officer exam is on the Scale-I syllabus page.