SBI PO

📌 Overview

SBI PO is the recruitment exam for Probationary Officers in the State Bank of India – India’s largest public sector bank. SBI does not participate in IBPS CRP; it publishes its own advertisement on the bank careers portal and conducts a slightly more demanding process.

The usual stages are Preliminary Examination, Main Examination (objective + descriptive), Psychometric Test / Group Exercise and Personal Interview. Final merit uses Mains and Interview / GE scores as per that year’s notice. SBI PO is considered a premium banking job because of brand, allowances, faster promotions in many batches and nationwide exposure.

📋 Eligibility

• Age: Typically 21 to 30 years as on the specified date. Category relaxations as per Government of India norms (OBC 3 years, SC/ST 5 years, PwBD 10 years, etc.).
• Education: Graduation in any discipline from a recognised university or equivalent. Final-year students may apply subject to producing proof by the date in the advertisement.
• Nationality: As specified (Indian citizens and other eligible categories listed in the notice).
• Number of chances: SBI often caps the number of attempts (for example 4 for General, more for reserved categories). Confirm the live advertisement.

📝 Exam Pattern (typical recent structure)

Phase I – Prelims

• English Language – 30 Q / 30 marks / 20 min
• Quantitative Aptitude – 35 Q / 35 marks / 20 min
• Reasoning Ability – 35 Q / 35 marks / 20 min
• Total 100 marks, 1 hour, sectional timing, 0.25 negative marking

Prelims is qualifying. Roughly 10 times the vacancies (category-wise) are called for Mains.

Phase II – Mains

• Objective test (~200 marks, ~3 hours) with sections: Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Data Analysis & Interpretation, General / Economy / Banking Awareness, English Language – each with its own time limit
• Descriptive test: letter and essay on computer (~50 marks, 30 minutes)

Negative marking applies to objective questions. Sectional cut-offs may apply. Exact question counts change; download the current notice and information handout.

Phase III – Psychometric Test, Group Exercise & Interview

• Psychometric / personality assessment (as notified; may be qualifying)
• Group Exercise and Personal Interview (combined marks as notified, often 50)

Final merit typically combines Mains and Phase III in a prescribed ratio (for example 75:25). Medical fitness and document verification follow.

📚 Syllabus

Topics match other bank PO exams but at a higher difficulty, especially DI, puzzles and banking awareness.

• Quant / DI: Arithmetic plus high-level DI (caselets, missing, graphs, data sufficiency)
• Reasoning: High-level puzzles, input-output, critical reasoning, coded inequalities, computer aptitude
• English: Dense RCs, advanced grammar, precise vocabulary, descriptive writing
• GA: Banking & financial awareness, RBI, union budget, reports (IMF, WB, WEF selectively), current affairs

📅 Dates

SBI PO dates are announced with each advertisement on the careers page. They do not always align with the IBPS calendar. Watch bank.sbi careers and employment newspapers.

💼 Salary & Perks

SBI PO official pay scale is revised periodically. In-hand salary in a metro, including DA, HRA / lease rental, CCA and other allowances, is commonly quoted in the ₹70,000–₹90,000 band depending on posting and current DA. Additional benefits include medical facilities, concessional loans, leave travel and a structured promotion policy. Bond / service agreement, if any, is mentioned in the advertisement.

🔗 Official Resources

• SBI Careers Portal
• SBI Corporate Website
• Advertisement PDF, corrigenda, handout and scorecards are published only on the careers portal.

💡 Preparation Tips

• Treat SBI Mains DI and puzzles as a step above IBPS. Use recent SBI PO memory-based papers.
• Descriptive English can change ranks. Practise 200–250 word essays with facts on the economy.
• For interview / GE: read SBI’s latest annual report highlights, digital initiatives (YONO and successors) and current monetary policy.
• Do not ignore computer aptitude mixed inside the reasoning section.
• Apply only if you accept nationwide posting, including rural assignments during probation.

🗂️ How to build your personal syllabus sheet

1. Download the official syllabus / information handout PDF tonight.
2. Copy every heading into a notebook page or spreadsheet.
3. Against each heading write: Book chapter / NCERT unit / YouTube playlist name / last PYQ year you solved.
4. Mark High / Medium / Low after you solve 3 years of PYQs — not before.
5. Revise High topics four times, Medium twice, Low once, all with PYQs.

Current affairs — one method for every exam on this site

• Read (do not only watch): one newspaper or PIB daily digest.
• Make 5–10 lines per important scheme, report, judgment, RBI decision or science mission.
• Revise a 30-day file every Sunday and a 6-month file before Prelims / Mains.
• Link every CA note to a static syllabus heading (polity, economy, environment, banking, defence).

PYQ rule

• If a topic has not appeared in 8–10 years and is tiny in the official syllabus, keep it low priority.
• If a topic appears every year (polity articles, percentage, RC, banking rates, NCERT biology lines), it is High regardless of coaching “new pattern” videos.

📊 Exam Trend & Highest-Weightage Areas

Commissions do not publish an official chapter-wise weightage table. The points below come from public previous-year papers and widely used coaching analyses. Use them to decide revision order, not to skip a listed syllabus topic.

SBI PO trends

• One notch harder than IBPS PO in DI and puzzles.
• Descriptive English and GA depth matter more.
• GE + Interview test clarity on SBI products, economy and your bio-data.

📚 What Content You Should Actually Follow

1. Official syllabus PDF of the current year — print it and tick topics.
2. Official previous year papers (last 8–10 years) from the commission / NTA / IBPS / SSC website.
3. One primary book per subject (listed below). Do not collect 10 PDFs of the same chapter.
4. NCERT Class 6–12 where the exam is GS / science / maths based — free on ncert.nic.in.
5. Current affairs only from a newspaper + one monthly compilation + the official PIB / ministry sites.
6. Mocks that copy the live interface (sectional timer, NAT, descriptive box).

📖 Standard Books (widely used by serious aspirants)

• Polity: Indian Polity — M. Laxmikanth; NCERT Class 11 Indian Constitution at Work
• Modern History: Spectrum (Rajiv Ahir); NCERT Themes in Indian History Part III
• Geography: NCERT Class 11–12; Certificate Physical and Human Geography — G.C. Leong (selective)
• Economy: NCERT Class 11–12; Indian Economy — Ramesh Singh or Sanjiv Verma (selective); Economic Survey highlights; Union Budget summary
• Environment: NCERT biology ecology units; Shankar IAS Environment (selective)
• Science (SSC / RRB / GD): Lucent GK science + NCERT 6–10
• Quant / Maths (SSC): SSC previous papers + Rakesh Yadav / Kiran PYQ or equivalent type-wise book; NCERT 8–10 for basics
• Quant (Bank / CAT): Arun Sharma or Sarvesh Verma selectively; daily DI sets
• English grammar: Wren & Martin (selective) + Neetu Singh (KD Campus) Plinth to Paramount / SP Bakshi Objective General English
• Reasoning: R.S. Aggarwal (foundation) + exam-specific PYQ book (Kiran / Adda / Oliveboard)
• Static GK: Lucent General Knowledge; one atlas (Oxford / Orient Blackswan)
• JEE / NEET Physics: H.C. Verma; D.C. Pandey or Physics Galaxy; NCERT exemplar
• JEE / NEET Chemistry: NCERT first; N. Awasthi / M.S. Chauhan / V.K. Jaiswal as level demands
• JEE Maths: Cengage or Arihant series + previous JEE Main / Advanced papers
• NEET Biology: NCERT Class 11–12 line by line; MTG / All-in-one only after NCERT
• CAT VARC: past CAT RCs; a good newspaper editorial habit
• GATE: standard UG textbooks of the branch + made-easy / ACE previous paper books + official GATE papers on the organising IIT site

Buy the latest edition. Second-hand previous-year paper books are enough for practice. Coaching photocopies are optional.

🌐 Official & Open / Free Content (use these first)

• NCERT textbooks (free PDF)
• ePathshala
• NPTEL — free engineering / science lectures by IIT faculty
• DIKSHA
• Press Information Bureau — authentic government news
• Union Budget & Economic Survey
• RBI — monetary policy, bulletin (banking / RBI / NABARD / SEBI)
• UPSC previous papers and cut-offs
• SSC notices and some paper archives
• IBPS information handouts
• NTA — JEE, NEET, CUET, UGC NET, CSIR NET mocks and keys
• SWAYAM — free university courses
• Khan Academy (free world-class maths / science videos mapped to school level)
• Official mock / practice portals of NTA, IBPS (when opened) and JoSAA / MCC counselling brochures

Prefer a government PDF over a random Telegram file. Fake “memory-based papers” with wrong keys waste months.

▶️ YouTube Channels & Teachers (free classes — pick ONE per subject)

These are well-known public education channels. They are not official partners of this website. Watch playlists, not 10 live classes a day. Pause and solve; do not only listen.

School / JEE / NEET foundation

• Physics Wallah (Alakh Pandey) — Physics and complete JEE / NEET boards-to-entrance path; also Defence / SSC verticals under PW
• Khan Academy India — calm concept videos for Maths and Science
• ExamFear / LearnoHub — chapter-wise school Science and Maths
• Physics Galaxy (Ashish Arora) — JEE Physics depth
• Mohit Tyagi — JEE Mathematics (long but thorough playlists)
• Unacademy JEE / NEET and Vedantu JEE — free live plus recorded batches

UPSC / State PSC

• Mrunal Patel — Economy, Budget, Economic Survey (also useful for RBI / NABARD)
• Drishti IAS — Hindi + English current affairs and GS
• StudyIQ IAS — daily CA and subject crash courses
• Vision IAS — current affairs and strategy videos
• ForumIAS / OnlyIAS / Sleepy Classes — optional and GS answer writing samples
• Unacademy UPSC — free editorial and GS sessions

SSC / Railway

• Gagan Pratap Maths — type-wise SSC Maths
• Rankers Gurukul (Aditya Ranjan) — arithmetic for beginners
• English with Rani Ma’am and KD Live (Neetu Singh Ma’am) — SSC English
• Parmar SSC — exam-oriented GA / GS
• Adda247 SSC, Wifistudy, Testbook SSC — live practice

Banking / Insurance / RBI / SEBI / NABARD

• Adda247 Bankers — full IBPS / SBI path, daily CA
• Banking Wallah (Physics Wallah) — puzzles and bank syllabus classes
• Oliveboard and Guidely — mock discussion and mains DI / puzzles
• AffairsCloud / BankersAdda written CA — monthly PDFs (website + YT recap)
• Mrunal again for RBI Grade B ESI / economy

CAT / Management

• Rodha — CAT Quant
• 2IIM CAT — VARC and strategy
• Anastasis Academy / Elites Grid — DILR sets (use free videos + official CAT papers)

GATE / ESE / CSIR

• NPTEL — first choice (IIT faculty, free)
• GATE Academy / Made Easy / ACE YouTube — previous paper discussions
• Unacademy GATE — free plus structured batches

Law / CUET / NET

• LegalEdge / LawSikho free CLAT sets and consortium sample papers
• CUET Adda / PW CUET — domain NCERT walk-throughs
• Let’s Crack UGC NET / Unacademy NTA-UGC — Paper 1 playlists

How to watch: one teacher per subject, 1.25× speed, notebook open, 30-minute video + 30-minute self-practice. Unfollow extra channels.

🗓️ A Simple Content Routine (works for almost every exam on this site)

• Morning (60–90 min): newspaper or PIB + 10 MCQs of yesterday’s CA
• Mid-day (2–3 hrs): one static / core subject from the official syllabus with a standard book
• Evening (90 min): PYQs of that chapter + error log
• Night (45 min): weak-area drill (CSAT / English / formulae)
• Weekly: one full mock in exam conditions + 2-hour analysis
• Monthly: revise the error log, not the whole bookshelf

✅ Open-source & low-cost practice platforms

• Official PYQ PDFs (UPSC, NTA keys, IBPS memory-based after official handout)
• NTA Abhyas / practice tests when the exam window opens
• Free weekly mocks: Oliveboard, Testbook, Adda247, Gradeup/BYJU’S Exam Prep (limited free tier)
• Anki / any free flashcard app for formulae and polity articles
• Google Arts & Culture / Survey of India maps for geography outline practice

⚠️ How to treat coaching names on this page

Book names and YouTube teachers are listed because lakhs of students already use them in public. This site does not sell their courses and does not guarantee a rank if you watch them. Always cross-check facts with the official syllabus and previous papers. If a video contradicts the official notification, trust the notification.

⚠️ Disclaimer

SBI revises phases (psychometric test, GE weightage, attempt limits) more often than some other boards. Always open the latest official PDF on the SBI careers website.