Exam Pattern
IBPS SO Exam Pattern
Institute of Banking Personnel Selection: Specialist Officer, Scale I (IT Officer / Agriculture Field Officer / HR-Personnel Officer / Marketing Officer)
The IBPS SO exam pattern below is checked stage by stage, so one stage cannot inherit another stage's scoring rules.
Prelims
Official CRP SPL-XV pattern| Questions | 150 |
| Total marks | 125 |
| Duration | 120 minutes |
| Negative marking | 0.25 per wrong answer |
| Sections | English Language, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude |
| Test | Qs | Marks | Min |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | 50 | 25 | 40 |
| Reasoning | 50 | 50 | 40 |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 50 | 50 | 40 |
Timing: Each of the three sections has its own separately timed 40-minute window: sectional lock, no shifting unused time between sections. English Language questions carry 0.5 marks each (25 marks across 50 questions); Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude questions carry 1 mark each..
This mock covers the Prelims pattern shared by the IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer (Scale I) posts. The Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari track substitutes General Awareness for Quantitative Aptitude instead. Candidates must qualify each of the three separately timed sections; Prelims marks are not carried forward to the final merit list. Shortlisted candidates appear for the Main Examination, which tests post-specific Professional Knowledge (60 questions/60 marks/45 minutes) instead of these general sections.
Official source · checked 6 August 2026The IBPS SO Prelims exam pattern is 150 questions carrying 125 marks, to be answered in 120 minutes. That works out to about 48 seconds per question on average, before any time spent reading instructions or revisiting marked answers. The 3 sections are English Language, Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude. All 3 sections are separately timed, so time saved in one cannot be carried into another. You cannot bank minutes by rushing an easy section.
IBPS SO Prelims marking scheme
- Each correct answer is worth 0.83 marks.
- A wrong answer deducts 0.25 marks; an unattempted question scores zero.
- A guess therefore breaks even at 23.1% accuracy: above that it gains you marks on average, below it loses them. A blind guess between four options is right 25% of the time, which is already above that line, so an educated guess is clearly worth making rather than leaving the question blank.
- Worked example: attempt 120 of the 150 questions and get 90 right and 30 wrong, and you score 67.2 out of 125.
Practising against the same clock is the point of a mock test: at 48 seconds a question, the difference between a good score and an average one is usually pacing rather than knowledge. Attempt a free IBPS SO mock test to see where your time actually goes.
Mains
Review pendingCurrent secondary sources consistently confirm that the Main Examination (for the IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer posts) tests English Language, Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, and post-specific Professional Knowledge as objective sections, plus a separate non-objective Descriptive paper, but disagree with each other on the exact question count and marks weighting for Professional Knowledge (25 questions/50 marks in some sources, 50 questions/100 marks in others) and on the total objective question count (100 in some sources, 150 in others). Status is marked review-pending for that reason. This site's content covers the IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer specializations' Professional Knowledge, alongside the shared English Language, Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude sections, at a flat 1 mark per correct answer as a platform-defined scheme, since the official differential marks weighting is not independently confirmed; the Law Officer/Rajbhasha Adhikari track (which substitutes General Awareness for Quantitative Aptitude) is not covered. The separately timed, non-objective Descriptive paper is excluded, since it cannot be auto-graded as multiple-choice.
IBPS SO exam pattern: frequently asked questions
Is there negative marking in IBPS SO?
IBPS SO deducts 0.25 marks for a wrong answer. An unattempted question always scores zero, so the choice is only ever between guessing and leaving it blank.
How many questions are there in IBPS SO?
IBPS SO has 150 questions. That leaves about 48 seconds per question in IBPS SO.
What are the total marks in IBPS SO?
IBPS SO is out of 125 marks.
How long is the IBPS SO exam?
IBPS SO runs for 120 minutes.
Does IBPS SO have a sectional time limit?
Yes. IBPS SO times its sections separately, so time left over in one section cannot be spent on another. Plan a per-section budget before you sit it.