Bank exams are most awaited by the banking aspirants who wish to make a career in public sector banks in India. Every year, most of the public sector banks release vacancies for Probationary Officer (PO), Clerk and Specialist officers. Mainly, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) conducts these exams. However, some banks and financial institutions such as SBI, NABARD, LIC, and RBI conduct their exams separately.
Apart from being highly reputed and prestigious, the banking sector jobs in India are highly lucrative. It comes with a good salary package, job security, and other monetary benefits in the form of various allowances. Owing to this, lakhs of students apply for the annual bank exams to realize their dream of becoming a banking professional.
Now, it is important to note that there are various banking exams that are conducted in a year. Hence, a knowledge of all the exams, their timeline, exam syllabus, and the exam pattern is extremely crucial to ensure selection in the bank exams. In this article, we have covered most major exams that are conducted in India.
Conducting Body |
Exam Name |
Description |
IBPS |
IBPS PO |
This exam is conducted by IBPS for recruitment into the post of Probationary Officer (PO) for various Public Sector Banks in India. |
Conducted by IBPS, this exam is for recruitment into the clerical staff in various Public Sector Banks of India. |
||
IBPS SO |
Specialist Officer (SO) exam is held for recruitment into various roles such as IT Officer, Agricultural Field Officer, Rajbhasha Adhikari, Law Officer, HR/Personnel Officer and Marketing Officer in the public sector banks of India. |
|
The IBPS Regional Rural Bank (RRB) exam is conducted for various roles namely Office Assistant and Officer Scale- I, II, and III. |
||
SBI |
SBI PO |
SBI conducts this exam for recruitment into the post of Probationary Officer (PO). The perks and benefits for SBI PO is slightly higher than that of IBPS PO. |
SBI conducts this exam for recruitment into the clerical staff in their organization. |
||
SBI SO |
The SBI specialist officer (SO) exam is held for various roles namely Assistant Manager, Deputy Manager, IT/Security Expert, Project Manager, Technical Lead. |
|
SBI CBO |
SBI Circle Based Officer Exam (CBO) is the exam conducted by SBI. CBO is a Junior Management- Grade 1 level Officer. |
|
SBI Apprentice Exam |
SBI Apprentice Exam is conducted by SBI to recruit apprentices in its organization for a period of three years. It is not a permanent job. The selected candidates are paid a fixed stipend during the tenure of their employment. |
|
RBI |
RBI conducts this exam for the recruitment of Grade-B officers in its organization. |
|
RBI Assistants |
Conducted by RBI, this exam recruits the assistants in the Reserve Bank of India. |
|
LIC |
LIC AAO |
LIC Assistant Administrative Officer(AAO) exam is conducted by LIC to recruit Assistant Administrative Officer for its organization. |
LIC Assistant Manager |
LIC conducts this exam for the recruitment of Assistant Managers. |
|
LIC Housing Finance |
Various Post |
LIC Housing Finance conducts an exam for recruitment into various posts namely Management Trainee, Information Security Engineer, Security Officer, Graphic Designer, and Assistant Manager. |
India Post Payment Bank |
IPPB Exam - Various Posts |
India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) conducts recruitment exam for various posts namely Officers in Scale II, III, IV, and V, Territory Manager, Strategy positions |
NABARD |
NABARD Exam- Various Posts |
NABARD conducts the exam for recruitment into various posts of Assistant Manager level in different verticals namely Legal, Finance, IT, Human Resource, Environmental Engineering and more |
General Insurance Corporation of India |
GIC Assistant Manager Exam |
General Insurance Corporation of India conducts the Assistant Manager Exam for recruitment into various fields. |
Employees Provident Fund Organization |
EPFO Assistant & SSA Exam |
EPFO conducts the Assistant and SSA exam annually for recruitment into the post of Assistant and Social Security Assistant (SSA). |
Various Banks- IDBI, J&K, Canara Bank, PNB, Nainital Bank |
Specialist Officer (SO Exam) |
Specialist Officer (SO) exam is conducted by various banks for recruitment into specialist roles. |
EXIM Bank |
EXIM Bank Exam Various Posts |
EXIM bank conducts exams for recruitment into the post of Management Trainee in various verticals. |
National Housing Board (NHB) |
NHB Exam - Various Posts |
NHB conducts this exam for recruitment into the post of Assistant Manager in various verticals. |
While the exact eligibility for the specific exam is mentioned in the notification, majorly the below-mentioned parameters need to be fulfilled to be eligible for any bank exam in India.
Parameter |
Bank Exam Eligibility Condition |
Nationality |
A candidate must be a citizen of India or a subject of Nepal/Bhutan, Tibetan Refugee, a person of Indian origin migrated from Pakistan/Burma/Sri Lanka/East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia and Vietnam with the intention of permanently settling in India. |
Age Limit |
The age of the candidate must not less than 20 years and more than 30 years as on the date prescribed in the notification. |
Educational Qualification |
The candidate should have a graduation degree from any recognized university in India. |
Most of the banking exams conducted by IBPS, SBI, and RBI are three-level exams consisting of:
Phase-I is a screening round. Hence, it is qualifying in nature for most of the banking exams unless stated otherwise. The score of Mains and Interview is taken into consideration for the final selection of the candidates. It is also important to note that apart from an overall cutoff, the bank exams in India also have a minimum sectional-cutoff. If a candidate does not pass the qualifying cutoff for all the sections, he will not be eligible to appear for the next round.
While the detailed and exact syllabus is mentioned in the notification of each exam, most of the bank exams follow a similar syllabus. It is important to note that the complexity and difficulty level of each exam is different from each other. It is also different for each level namely Prelims and Mains (wherever applicable). For eg, the PO exam is a bit on the difficult side as compared to the Clerk exams. At the same time, the prelims exam will be comparatively simple than the Mains exam. Now, let’s see a brief overview of the bank exam syllabus:
Bank Exams: PO Prelims Syllabus |
|
Logical Reasoning |
Coding-Decoding Puzzles and Seating Arrangement Syllogism Input-Output Inequality Alphanumeric Questions Miscellaneous Questions |
Quantitative Aptitude |
Simplification/Approximation Data Interpretation Quadratic Equations Number Series Miscellaneous Questions |
English Language |
Reading Comprehension Spotting Errors Cloze Test Fillers Para Jumbles Sentence Improvement Vocabulary-based Questions |
Bank Exams: PO Mains Syllabus |
|
Logical Reasoning |
Puzzles and Seating Arrangement Inequality Syllogism Input-Output Coding-Decoding Logical Reasoning Data Sufficiency Miscellaneous Questions |
Quantitative Aptitude |
Data Interpretation Number Series Simplification/Approximation Arithmetic Problems Quadratic Equations Data Sufficiency Quantity Based Questions Miscellaneous Questions |
English Language |
Reading Comprehension Double Fillers Sentence Rearrangement Sentence Connectors Para jumbles Sentence Improvement Sentence/Paragraph Completion Spotting Errors |
General Awareness |
Current Affairs Financial Awareness Static GK Banking Awareness |
Bank Syllabus : Clerk Prelims Syllabus |
|
Logical Reasoning |
Syllogism Coding-Decoding Inequality Data Sufficiency Puzzles and Seating Arrangement Alphanumeric Questions Miscellaneous Questions |
Quantitative Aptitude |
Number Series Data Interpretation Quadratic Equations Quantity based questions Simplification/Approximation Miscellaneous Questions |
English Language |
Reading Comprehension Error correction Cloze Test Error detection Para jumbles Fillers Vocabulary-based Questions |
Bank Exams : Clerk Mains Syllabus |
|
Logical Reasoning |
Syllogism Inequality Circular Seating Arrangement Linear Seating Arrangement Puzzle Blood Relation Coding-Decoding Order and Ranking Direction Sense Data Sufficiency |
Quantitative Aptitude |
Data Interpretation Simplification Quadratic Equations Number Series Quantity Based Questions Data Sufficiency Miscellaneous |
English Language |
Reading Comprehension Vocabulary Cloze Test Fillers Odd One Out/ Theme-based questions Para Jumbles Sentence Improvement Sentence/Paragraph Completion Error Spotting |
General Awareness |
Current Affairs Financial Awareness Static GK Banking Awareness |
Posts |
Post-wise Salary |
SBI Clerk Salary |
The pay scale of a clerk is 11765-655/3-13730-815/3-16175-980/4-20095-1145/7-28110-2120/1-30230-1310/1-31450. |
SBI PO Salary |
Rs.27,620/- (with 4 advance increments) (in a scale of 23700-980/7-30560-1145/2-32850-1310/7-42020) |
SBI SO Salary |
|
IBPS PO Salary |
The pay scale is 23700 - (980 x 7) - 30560 - (1145 x 2) - 32850 - (1310 x 7) – 42020 |
IBPS Clerk Salary |
The clerk pay scale is of Rs. 11765-655/3-13730-815/3-16175-980/4-20095-1145/7-28110-2120/1-30230-1310/1-31540 |
IBPS SO Salary |
|
IBPS RRB Office Assistant Salary |
The pay scale is Rs. 7200-(400/3)-8400-(500/3)-9900-(600/4)-12300-(700/7)-17200-(1300/1)-18500-(800/1)-19300 |
IBPS RRB Officer Scale I Salary |
The gross salary of IBPS RRB Officer Scale I is around 23700 - (980 x 7) - 30560 - (1145 x 2) - 32850 - (1310 x 7) – 42020. |
RBI Assistant Salary |
The basic pay scale is of 13150-750 (3)-15400- 900(4) -19000-1200(6)-26200-1300 (2)-28800- 1480(3) – 33240 – 1750 (1)- 34990 (20 years). |
RBI Grade B Officer Salary |
The pay scale is of Rs. 35,600/- p.m. in the scale of Rs. 35150-17 50(9)-50900-EB-17 50(2)- 54400-2000(4)-62400. |
Exam Name |
Post Name |
Date of Exam |
|
Prelims |
Mains |
||
IBPS Public Sector Bank (PSB) |
IBPS PO |
09.10.2021 10.10.2021 16.10.2021 17.10.2021 |
27.11.2021 |
IBPS Clerk |
28.08.2021 29.08.2021 04.09.2021 05.09.2021 |
31.10.21 |
|
IBPS SO |
18.12.2021 26.12.2021 |
30.01.22 |
|
IBPS Regional Rural Banks (RRB) |
Office Assistant |
01.08.2021, 07.08.2021, 08.08.2021, 14.08.2021 and 21.08.2021 |
03.10.2021 |
Scale-I |
25.09.2021 |
||
Scale-II |
Single Examination: 25.09.2021 |
||
Scale-III |
|||
This was a comprehensive overview of most of the bank exams conducted in India. Keep following us to get detailed information about each of these exams. Career Launcher brings to you comprehensive courses for making your banking preparation seamless. Check out our course offerings here. Should you have any queries, feel free to get in touch with our course coordinators.