State Bank of India (SBI) is one of the most prestigious government banks in India. It has 190 foreign offices in 36 countries. Moreover, SBI has the highest number of overseas branches across all domestic banks and time zones. It offers over 1000 different roles or jobs across different businesses. This diversity of work ensures constant learning throughout the employee’s career. Job rotation every 2-3 years based on the experience, is helpful in providing a wide exposure to a wide range of industries and business functions. An SBI employee may have a stint in SME lending as a Relationship Manager for a few years, lead a Retail Branch in your next role, and become a Dealer in Treasury thereafter. One can also get the opportunity to explore different financial services like insurance, investment banking, asset management, credit cards by working in one of the subsidiaries of the Bank.

Candidates can join SBI as Probationary Officers (PO), Junior Associates (JA), Circle Based Officers (CBO), Specialist Officers (SO), and Management Trainees (MT). Other than this, the bank does lateral hiring too. The two major exams conducted by the bank are-

1. SBI PO

2. SBI Clerk

SBI PO Overview 

Eligibility

All Indian Citizens are eligible to apply.

Essential Education

Graduate degree in any discipline from a recognised University or any equivalent qualification recognised as such by the Central Government. Those who are in the Final year/Semester of their Graduation may also apply provisionally subject to the condition that, if called for interview, they will have to produce proof of having passed the graduation examination on or before eligibility date as given in related advertisement.

Age Limit

Not below 21 years and not above 30 years as on eligibility date as given in related advertisement. The Relaxation of Upper age allowed for various categories are as under:

NOTE: cumulative age relaxation will not be available either under the above items or in combination with any other items.

Number of Chances

1. Preliminary Exam 

Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing passing marks to be decided by the Bank. Adequate number of candidates in each category as decided by the Bank (approximately 20 times the numbers of vacancies subject to availability) will be short listed for the Main Examination.

2. Mains Exam

Descriptive Test:

The Descriptive Test of 30 minutes duration with 50 marks will be a Test of English Language (Letter Writing & Essay). The candidates are required to qualify in the Descriptive Test by securing passing marks, to be decided by the Bank.

Descriptive Test paper of only those candidates will be evaluated who have scored qualifying marks in the Objective Tests and are placed adequately high as per total marks in objective test.

Penalty for Wrong Answers (Applicable to both – Preliminary and Main examination)

There will be penalty for wrong answers marked in the Objective Tests. For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one fourth of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score. If a question is left blank, i.e. no answer is marked by the candidate, there will be no penalty for that question.

3. Group Discussion and Interview-

The aggregate marks of candidates qualifying in both the Objective Tests and Descriptive Test will be arranged in descending order in each category. Adequate number of candidates in each category, as decided by the Bank will be called for Group Discussion and Interview. The qualifying marks in Group Discussion &Interview will be as decided by the Bank.

Final Selection

Final merit list of selection is prepared using the following scheme –

• The marks obtained in the Preliminary Examination (Phase-I) are not added for the selection.
• Only the marks obtained in Main Examination (Phase-II), both in Objective Test and Descriptive Test, are added to the marks obtained in GD & Interview (Phase-III) for preparation of the final merit list.
• The candidates will have to qualify both in Phase-II and Phase-III separately.
• Marks secured by the candidates in the Written Test (out of 225 marks) are converted to out of 75 and marks secured in Group Discussion & Interview (out of 50 marks) are converted to out of 25.
• The final merit list is arrived at after aggregating converted marks of Written Test and Group Discussion & Interview out of 100 for each category.

SBI PO Prelims Exam Syllabus

SBI PO Syllabus for Main Exam