IBPS RRB PO 2026 Syllabus: Prelims, Mains, 80:20 Interview

Prelims are 80 marks in 45 minutes. Mains is 200 marks. The interview is 100 marks. Final weight is 80:20 mains to interview. Vacancies and Table A languages are on the Officer Scale-I recruitment page. Tables are from clauses D and J of the CRP RRBs XV notification.

Prelims sit on 21 and 22 November 2026. Mains sits on 20 December 2026.

IBPS does not print a chapter-wise book list. Prepare the tests in the tables. Treat Scale-I arithmetic as a step harder than the Office Assistant paper.

Preliminary examination

Online, objective, 45 minutes, separately timed.

You must qualify both tests. The clerk prelims paper uses the name Numerical Ability; this paper uses Quantitative Aptitude.

The medium of the paper is the version you locked. English prevails if a translation differs. You cannot change it now.

Main examination

Online, objective, 120 minutes, separately timed.

Choose 4a English or 4b Hindi, not both. Negative marking: one-fourth of that question's marks, on every objective paper.

Scale-II and Scale-III skip this prelims and sit a single 200-mark paper (or 240 questions, 200 marks for specialists) on the same December date. Those papers add Financial Awareness and, for specialists, Professional Knowledge. They are not this page.

What to study

Reasoning. Puzzles and seating (linear, circular, floor, box), inequalities, syllogisms, blood relations, direction, order and ranking, coding, input-output, and data sufficiency on mains. Scale-I puzzles run longer than the clerk paper. If a set needs a second reading to start, drop it.

Quantitative Aptitude. Simplification, number series, quadratic equations, and then the officer-level row: data interpretation (table, bar, line, caselet), data sufficiency, and arithmetic (percentage, ratio, average, profit and loss, SI-CI, time and work, time and distance, mensuration). Twenty minutes in prelims will not hold two DI sets. Thirty minutes in mains will hold one hard set and a mixed arithmetic bunch if you have already decided which set to skip.

Computer Knowledge. Hardware, software, MS Office, networking, internet, memory, and security. Fifteen minutes, 20 marks. Learn it in October, not in the week of 20 December.

General Awareness. RBI and NABARD, government schemes that run through RRBs, priority-sector lending, financial inclusion, and the last six months of banking news. A rural officer is asked Kisan Credit Card, SHG-Bank Linkage and gold loan more often than a capital-markets question.

English or Hindi. Comprehension, cloze, errors, para jumbles, fillers. Pick one and stay with it.

Local language. Table A of the notice, desired language by RRB:

Class 8 or a certificate, or six months after joining, not beyond probation.

Interview and merit

Shortlist: not more than three times the declared vacancies in each State, subject to availability.

You must qualify both the main examination and the interview, and sit high enough in the combined list for allotment in your State.

A reserve list is drawn. It is not an offer. Extra rounds happen only if RRBs report more Scale-I vacancies within one year of the first allotment. You cannot demand a different RRB. Allotted officers may be posted anywhere in that bank.

Documents at interview (clause J), originals and self-attested copies:

1. Interview call letter.
2. System-generated print of the CRP RRBs XV form.
3. Date of birth: birth certificate or class 10.
4. Photo ID as in clause L.
5. Degree mark sheets, with a document that the result was declared on or before 21 September 2026.
6. Caste, EWS or PwBD papers in the Government of India format. OBC (NCL) should be issued on or after 1 April 2026.
7. Local-language proof if you have it.
8. Experience certificates only where a specialist row asked for them.

Missing a paper debar you. IBPS and the nodal RRB will not collect a certificate sent separately by post. A later upload link will be hosted on ibps.in.

Exam day

Download the call letter from ibps.in. Prelims are 21 and 22 November. The prelims call letter is stamped, not collected. Keep it with the stamped ID copy for mains on 20 December. Bring one extra photograph, the same as the call-letter photo. Scribe forms are collected at prelims.

IBPS can send you to a centre other than the one you chose, including a centre outside the State you applied for. You travel at your own cost.

Clause O lists what you cannot take in: phones, watches, calculators, notes. The information handout with the call letter is the list that applies on the day.

How to prepare

Prelims are about five weeks away.

Until 21 November. Morning: two reasoning sets (puzzles and seating) and a miscellaneous bunch. Evening: simplification, number series, quadratic equations, and one DI set in 20 minutes. If DI routinely overruns, skip the three-chart set in the real paper.

Between prelims and 20 December. Shift to 50-mark reasoning and 50-mark quant. Add computer and general awareness that a rural officer is asked. Fifteen minutes a paper is not enough to read a newspaper on the day.

Interview, after mains. A two-minute account of who you are, the RRB of your State, and one credit product you can explain. Keep originals ready in the clause J order.

On the interview day. The centre, address and time come on the interview call letter, not in this notice. Download that letter from ibps.in. Take originals and self-attested copies in the printed order. The nodal RRB, with NABARD and IBPS, runs the board. The floor is 40 percent, or 35 percent for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD. Fail the floor and mains marks do not save you. Mains marks are not shown to you before the interview is over, so do not walk in asking the board for your score.

If a paper is missing, you may not be allowed to sit. IBPS will not accept a certificate you post later. A later upload link on ibps.in is for scans, not a substitute for the originals in the room.

Questions that come up on rural-officer boards: the State you chose and why, one scheme the RRB actually runs, Kisan Credit Card, SHG linkage, gold loan, and whether you will serve in a branch that is not a district town. Answer with one product you can explain. Do not recite a list of five schemes you cannot unpack. Pre-examination training, if you ticked it, is online and limited. Attending it does not create a right to selection. The Officer Scale-I form is already closed. You cannot add Scale-II or Scale-III now. Keep the stamped prelims letter and the stamped ID copy for mains on 20 December 2026. Missing either set keeps you out.

Ten questions on dates, 80:20 and the one-officer-post rule are on the practice page. The clerk paper, which has no interview, is on the Office Assistant syllabus page.