The SBI held the Probationary Officer (PO) preliminary exam on August 4 and 5, 2025, with four shifts per day. According to the students who attended the exam, the overall difficulty level of the SBI PO Prelims was moderate. There were minor differences in the difficulty level in different shifts.
Exam Pattern & Structure
- The exam had 100 questions with 100 marks.
- Three sections:
- English Language: 40 questions, 20 minutes
- Quantitative Aptitude: 30 questions, 20 minutes
- Reasoning Ability: 30 questions, 20 minutes
As the sectional cutoff is not a part of this exam, the negative marking takes the spot with: 0.25 marks deducted for each wrong answer.
Section Difficulty & Good Attempts
- English: It consists of an easy to moderate level of English. Mostly reading comprehension, error detection, para jumbles. This section is said to be easy compared to other sections, as it can be scored with just basic grammar and vocabulary.
- Reasoning: This section’s difficulty level is around moderate. It consists of seating arrangement puzzles, coding-decoding, syllogism, and direction sense accounted for most questions. Puzzles are said to take up more time but if students have practice, then it is solvable.
- Quantitative Aptitude: This consists of questions that range from moderate to Difficult. This section is mostly Data Interpretation (DI), arithmetic, and number series. DI questions are very time-consuming but help build average attempts.
Depending on the accuracy we can say that the students can safely attempt at least 60 to 70 questions. Section-wise good attempts roughly fall around 22–26 in English,20–25 in Reasoning, and 18–22 in Quant.
Shift Timings & Entry Guidelines
- Four shifts per day: 9:00–10:00,11:30–12:30,14:00–15:00, and16:30–17:30.
- Candidates had to report 15 minutes before reporting time, with biometric verification and photo-matching at entry.
- Wearing light clothing (no shoes) and carrying admit card, two photographs, and a valid ID proof were mandatory.
