Interview experience
SBI interview experiences covering Prelims (PO/Clerk), Mains (PO/Clerk), Group Exercise (PO), Personal Interview (PO), +1 more. Round-wise notes, common questions, and what candidates report clears each stage.
SBI Interview Questions and Answers (2026)
State Bank of India is India's largest public sector bank, headquartered in Mumbai. It recruits probationary officers and specialist officers through competitive exams and campus drives. SBI offers stable careers in core banking, technology, and digital transformation across its nationwide branch network.
Explore: Interview experience · HR interview questions · Overview · Placement papers · Preparation guide
Overview
SBI runs two structurally different hiring pipelines: a large-scale, exam-based route for PO (Prelims, Mains, Group Exercise, Interview) and Clerk (Prelims, Mains) roles, and a much shorter, interview-only route for Specialist Cadre Officer (SCO) roles - including most IT positions - where the written exam is skipped entirely.
HR interview questions
SBI HR interview questions with sample answer frameworks - motivation, relocation, STAR stories, and culture-fit prompts.
SBI interview process at a glance
| Round | Duration | What they test |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims (PO/Clerk) | 1 hour | English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning - qualifying only |
| Mains (PO/Clerk) | 3 hours 30 minutes including the descriptive paper (PO), 2 hours 40 minutes (Clerk) | Objective sections for both; a 30-mark Descriptive Test of communication skills for PO only |
| Psychometric Test (PO only) | Varies | Personality profiling before the GE and interview; no marks |
| Group Exercise (PO only) | 20-30 min | Group discussion/exercise, teamwork and communication |
| Personal Interview (PO only) | 15-20 min | Banking awareness, motivation, background |
| Interview only (Specialist Cadre Officer / IT roles) | 30-45 min | Domain knowledge (networking, programming, cybersecurity, cloud) - no written exam |
SBI PO and Clerk exam: quick answers
These answers are checked against SBI’s 2026 PO advertisement (CRPD/PO/2026-27/09, 18 June 2026) and 2026 Junior Associate advertisement (CRPD/CR/2026-27/17). The advertisement on SBI’s careers page for your year is the final word.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many questions and how long is Prelims? | 100 questions in 60 minutes, in three separately timed 20-minute sections. PO 2026: English 40, Quantitative Aptitude 30, Reasoning 30. Clerk 2026: English 30, Numerical Ability 35, Reasoning 35. It is qualifying only. |
| How long is Mains? | PO: 170 objective questions (200 marks) in 3 hours, then a 30-minute, 30-mark descriptive paper. Clerk: 190 questions (200 marks) in 2 hours 40 minutes, with no descriptive paper. |
| Does it have negative marking? | Yes. 1/4 of the question’s marks is deducted per wrong answer in every objective test, Prelims and Mains, for PO and Clerk (2026 advertisements). |
| Is there a sectional cutoff? | Not in Prelims, for PO or Clerk. PO Mains does have one: the 2026 advertisement requires a minimum score in each of the four objective tests and in the descriptive paper. Clerk Mains has only an aggregate minimum, with no subject-wise cutoff. Every section is separately timed. |
| How much is the cutoff? | It changes every year and by category. SBI publishes category-wise cutoffs on its careers page after each phase’s result. |
| Is there an interview? | For PO, yes: a Group Exercise (20 marks) and Interview (30 marks). For Clerk (Junior Associate), no - selection is on Mains marks after a local language test. |
| How is the PO final merit calculated? | Mains (objective plus descriptive) is converted to 75 and the GE/interview to 25, per the 2026 advertisement. Prelims marks are not counted. |
| What is the eligibility? | Graduation in any discipline. The PO age band for 2026 is 21-30, with category relaxations. |
| Is there a bond? | For PO, yes: the 2026 advertisement requires a Rs 2 lakh bond to serve at least 3 years. |
SBI interview questions by role
These are questions candidates report for SBI’s interview stages; they show the level, not a fixed list.
| Role | Reported questions and topics |
|---|---|
| Probationary Officer (PO) | Tell me about yourself and why banking. A recent RBI policy decision you followed. Repo rate, CRR vs SLR, NPAs, CASA, NEFT vs RTGS vs UPI. Handling a dissatisfied customer. Questions on your hometown, hobbies and degree. GE topics such as digital payments, financial inclusion and AI in banking. |
| Clerk (Junior Associate) | No interview. Preparation ends at Mains (general and financial awareness, English, quantitative aptitude, reasoning and computer aptitude) and the local language test. |
| Specialist Cadre Officer (IT) | Networking and cybersecurity fundamentals, TCP vs UDP, symmetric vs asymmetric encryption, Java, Python and SQL basics, cloud concepts, and a deep walk through your past projects for the exact post. |
Asked across every interview: why SBI rather than a private bank, your background and any gap, and willingness to be posted anywhere in India, including rural branches.
Prelims (PO/Clerk)
A 1-hour, 100-mark qualifying test covering English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, and Reasoning Ability. It’s a filter only - marks don’t carry forward to the merit list.
Common questions
- Reading comprehension, cloze test, error spotting (English)
- Simplification, data interpretation, percentages (Quantitative Aptitude)
- Puzzles, seating arrangement, syllogism (Reasoning)
Mains (PO/Clerk)
For PO, a 3-hour objective test of 170 questions (Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Data Analysis & Interpretation, General/Economy/Banking Knowledge, English) followed by a 30-minute Descriptive Test of communication skills: an email, a situation analysis, and a report or precis. The 2026 advertisement sets a minimum score in each test, including the descriptive paper. The Psychometric Test is no longer part of Mains; it comes in Phase III. Clerk Mains is an objective test only (190 questions on general and financial awareness, English, quantitative aptitude, reasoning and computer aptitude, in 2 hours 40 minutes), with no descriptive paper.
Common questions
- Email, situation-analysis and report or precis writing (PO descriptive paper)
- Banking and financial awareness - RBI policies, banking terms, recent developments
- Data interpretation and computer aptitude MCQs
Group Exercise (PO only)
A 20-mark group discussion or case-study exercise run alongside the Personal Interview on the same day, assessing communication, decision-making, and how you engage with a group under time pressure. The 2026 PO advertisement describes Phase III as a Psychometric Test (no marks) + Group Exercise (20 marks) + Personal Interview (30 marks); qualifying minimums on the combined 50 marks vary by category - read your call letter rather than assuming a fixed cut-off from an older cycle.
Common questions
- Case-study or scenario-based group discussion topics on banking/economy
- Current-affairs discussion prompts tied to the financial sector (digital payments, financial inclusion, AI in banking, Budget themes reported in recent drives)
- Evaluators score listening and whether you build on others’ points - not loudest voice wins
Personal Interview (PO only)
A 30-mark, one-on-one interview covering personal background, academics, banking awareness, current affairs, and situational questions - carrying most of the weight in the final 50-mark interview stage.
Common questions
- Tell me about yourself?
- Why do you want to join SBI, and why banking?
- What recent RBI policy or banking-sector development have you followed?
- How would you handle a situation where a bank customer is dissatisfied with a service or process?
- Questions on your hobbies, academics, and local/regional awareness
Interview (Specialist Cadre Officer / IT roles)
For many SCO/IT posts the entire selection rests on shortlisting and a single interview carrying 100 marks, with no written exam - SBI’s 2026 advertisement CRPD/SCO/2026-27/12 is one example. Each SCO advertisement lists its own selection procedure per post, so check yours. Shortlisting happens on qualification and experience, so the interview itself goes deep on your stated specialization, alongside physical document verification.
Common questions
- Core networking concepts and cybersecurity fundamentals
- Programming basics relevant to your role (Java, Python, SQL)
- Cloud fundamentals and infrastructure concepts
- Detailed walkthrough of your past projects or work experience
- Domain-specific questions tied to the exact SCO/IT posting (e.g. security operations, application development, infrastructure)
Sample answer frameworks for the interview stage are on the SBI HR interview questions page.
PO/Clerk exam route vs SCO/IT interview-only route
SBI’s two hiring pipelines look nothing alike. PO and Clerk hiring runs through Prelims and Mains exams; PO then adds a Group Exercise and Personal Interview, while Clerk selection ends at Mains and a local language test - it’s non-technical, high-volume, and tests aptitude, reasoning, English, and banking awareness. Specialist Cadre Officer roles, a separate track SBI opens periodically for specific IT/technical postings (usually requiring several years of relevant experience, so most freshers won’t be eligible), skip the written exam entirely: candidates are shortlisted on qualification and experience, then selected purely on a single 100-mark interview that probes real technical depth (networking, programming, cybersecurity, cloud). If you’re prepping for an SBI “interview,” check which route your posting falls under first - the prep looks completely different.
Common technical interview questions and answers
Q: What are the repo rate and reverse repo rate, and who decides them?
The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities; the reverse repo rate is what the RBI pays banks for parking surplus funds with it. Raising the repo rate makes bank borrowing costlier, which pushes up lending rates, cools credit demand and helps contain inflation - cutting it does the opposite to support growth. Rates are set by the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (three RBI members including the Governor, who has a casting vote, and three members appointed by the central government), which meets bi-monthly against a CPI inflation target of 4 percent with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2 percent. Since 2022 the RBI has used the Standing Deposit Facility rate rather than the reverse repo as the effective floor of the corridor.
Q: What is the difference between CRR and SLR?
Both are reserve requirements, but they work differently. The Cash Reserve Ratio is the share of a bank’s net demand and time liabilities it must keep as cash with the RBI, and it earns no interest. The Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the share it must hold in its own books as cash, gold, or approved securities - mainly government bonds - which does earn a return. So CRR directly drains lendable money from the system and is the sharper liquidity tool, while SLR is a solvency-and-liquidity cushion that also creates a captive market for government debt. In recent years CRR has sat in the region of 4 percent and SLR around 18 percent of NDTL.
Q: What is an NPA, and how are NPAs classified?
A loan becomes a Non-Performing Asset when the borrower has not paid interest or principal for more than 90 days (different norms apply to agricultural loans, tied to crop seasons). NPAs are then classified by how long they have stayed bad: a substandard asset has been an NPA for up to 12 months, a doubtful asset for more than 12 months, and a loss asset is one identified as uncollectible where recovery is not expected. Banks must set aside provisions from profit that rise with each category, so a growing NPA book directly hits profitability. Gross NPA is the total bad-loan value; net NPA is gross NPA minus provisions already made.
Q: What is the CASA ratio, and why do banks care about it?
CASA stands for Current Account and Savings Account. The CASA ratio is the share of a bank’s total deposits held in current and savings accounts rather than in term deposits. It matters because current accounts pay no interest and savings accounts pay very little, while fixed deposits pay much more - so a high CASA ratio means a cheaper deposit base, a lower cost of funds, and a wider net interest margin. SBI’s very large branch and salary-account base is exactly why its CASA ratio is a headline number in its results, and it is a fair question to expect in a PO interview.
Q: What is the difference between NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and UPI?
RTGS settles each transaction individually and in real time, is meant for large values with a minimum of Rs 2 lakh and no upper limit, and is available 24x7. NEFT has no minimum or maximum and also runs 24x7, but settles in half-hourly batches rather than one by one. IMPS is an NPCI service giving instant round-the-clock transfers, typically up to Rs 5 lakh, using account number and IFSC or an MMID. UPI, also from NPCI, layers a mobile-first interface over the same instant rails, letting you pay with a VPA or QR code without sharing account details, with a standard per-transaction cap of Rs 1 lakh that is higher for certain categories.
Q: What is Priority Sector Lending?
Priority Sector Lending is an RBI mandate requiring domestic scheduled commercial banks to lend a set share of their Adjusted Net Bank Credit - 40 percent - to sectors the economy needs served but that markets underserve. Eligible categories include agriculture, micro/small and medium enterprises, export credit, education, housing, social infrastructure, renewable energy, and lending to weaker sections. There are sub-targets on top of the overall figure, notably 18 percent for agriculture and 10 percent for weaker sections. Banks that fall short must place the shortfall in funds such as the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, or buy Priority Sector Lending Certificates from banks that have exceeded their target.
Q: What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?
Symmetric encryption uses one shared secret key for both encryption and decryption - AES is the standard example. It is fast and suited to bulk data, but both parties must somehow exchange the key securely first. Asymmetric encryption uses a mathematically linked key pair: the public key encrypts and only the matching private key decrypts, as in RSA or elliptic-curve schemes. It solves key distribution and enables digital signatures, but it is far slower. Real systems combine them, which is what HTTPS does: an asymmetric handshake authenticates the server and agrees a session key, then all traffic is encrypted symmetrically with that key.
Q: What is the difference between TCP and UDP, and where does each sit in the OSI model?
Both are transport-layer protocols - layer 4 of the OSI model. TCP is connection-oriented: it sets up a session with a three-way handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK), numbers its segments, retransmits lost ones, and applies flow and congestion control, so data arrives complete and in order. That reliability costs latency and header overhead. UDP is connectionless and fire-and-forget - no handshake, no retransmission, no ordering guarantee - which makes it lighter and better for voice, video and DNS, where a late packet is worse than a missing one. Banking traffic such as web and core-banking sessions rides on TCP, since correctness matters more than a few milliseconds.
Q: What is KYC, and how does CKYC fit in?
Know Your Customer is the RBI-mandated process banks use to verify identity and address before opening accounts or offering high-risk products. It reduces money laundering and fraud by ensuring the bank knows who owns the account. Central KYC (CKYC) is a registry where, once a customer completes KYC with one institution, a 14-digit KYC identifier can be reused by other regulated entities instead of repeating full documentation every time. In a PO interview, link KYC to branch duty - collecting valid ID, spotting suspicious account-opening patterns, and never bypassing verification under customer pressure.
Q: What is the role of a Probationary Officer (PO) at SBI?
A PO is a management trainee who rotates through branch and administrative assignments during probation - customer service, loan processing support, operations, and compliance tasks under senior officers. The job is people-facing and process-heavy: targets, documentation, and explaining banking products (including digital channels like YONO) to varied customers. Panels look for calm communication, basic banking awareness, and willingness to relocate - not deep coding.
Q: How would you handle a customer complaint about a failed digital transaction?
First listen without interrupting and acknowledge the stress. Pull up the account and transaction status in the core or channel system, explain what the record shows (success, pending, timeout, reversal in progress), and give the correct next step - dispute form, reference number, or escalation per bank policy. Do not promise instant refund before verification. If the issue is outside teller authority, involve the branch manager while keeping the customer informed on timeline - customer trust matters as much as the technical fix.
Frequently asked questions about SBI interviews
Does the SBI PO or Clerk exam have negative marking?
Yes - SBI deducts 0.25 of the marks assigned to a question for each wrong answer in the objective tests of both Prelims and Mains, for PO and for Clerk, as both the 2026 PO and 2026 Junior Associate advertisements state. Unanswered questions carry no penalty, and the descriptive test is not negatively marked.
Is there an interview for the SBI Clerk (Junior Associate) post?
No - SBI Clerk selection has no Group Exercise or interview; the 2026 Junior Associate advertisement lists only Prelims, Mains and a local language test. The final list is made on Mains marks, after a test of the local language for candidates who did not study it at school. The Group Exercise and interview apply to SBI PO.
What is the SBI recruitment process for PO and Clerk roles?
PO has 3 phases and Clerk has 2: 1. Prelims (1 hour, 100 marks, qualifying) - English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning. 2. Mains - objective sections (PO: 170 questions, 200 marks, 3 hours; Clerk: 190 questions, 200 marks, 2 hours 40 minutes) plus, for PO only, a 30-mark Descriptive Test of communication skills (an email, a situation analysis, and a report or precis). 3. For PO only, a Psychometric Test (no marks; findings go to the interview panel), a Group Exercise (20 marks) and a Personal Interview (30 marks); the PO final merit list converts Mains marks to 75 and GE/interview marks to 25. Clerk (Junior Associate) has no interview - selection is on Mains marks after a local language test. The full PO cycle typically spans several months.
Is there a written exam for all SBI roles?
No. PO and Clerk require Prelims and Mains (and, for PO, an interview stage after that). But for Specialist Cadre Officer (SCO) roles, including many IT positions, SBI often skips the written exam entirely - candidates are shortlisted directly on qualification and experience, then selected purely on interview performance (100 marks).
How many rounds are there in the SBI interview process?
For PO: Prelims, Mains, and a final stage of Psychometric Test, Group Exercise and Personal Interview. For Clerk: Prelims and Mains only, plus a local language test, with no interview. For Specialist Cadre Officer/IT roles: typically just a profile-based shortlist followed by a single Interview round, with no written test.
How should I prepare for the SBI interview?
For the PO interview and group exercise, stay current on banking and financial awareness (RBI policies, banking terms, recent developments) since interviewers probe this heavily alongside your background and motivation for banking. For SCO/IT interviews, be ready to go deep on networking, programming basics (Java/Python/SQL), cybersecurity, and cloud fundamentals since the interview itself carries the full selection weight.
What questions are asked in the SBI SCO/IT interview?
SBI Specialist Cadre Officer IT interviews are interview-only (100 marks, no written test) and go deep on the candidate’s stated specialization - core networking and cybersecurity concepts, programming fundamentals (Java/Python/SQL), cloud basics, and a detailed walkthrough of past project or work experience, since shortlisting itself is based on qualification and experience rather than a screening test.
What does SBI’s Group Exercise round involve?
The Group Exercise (20 marks, PO route only) is a group discussion or case-study exercise assessing communication, decision-making, and how you engage with a group under time pressure - distinct from the one-on-one Personal Interview (30 marks) that follows it on the same day.
What SBI interview panels score
Probationary Officer and specialist-cadre processes follow official IBPS/SBI notifications, not product-company OA scripts. Panels score:
- Phase performance per the ad (prelims/mains or specialist papers as notified).
- Banking awareness and situational judgment in interviews/GD where used.
- Integrity and posting readiness - rural/semi-urban willingness when the cadre requires it.
Soft fail modes: preparing only coding puzzles for a PO interview, or refusing posting norms stated in the notification.
What does the SBI PO interview actually test?
After mains, the interview (and related GD/psychometric stages when notified) scores communication, banking awareness, why SBI, posting flexibility, and situational judgment - not product-company DSA. Prepare concise answers on rural/transfer willingness, recent banking news, and SBI’s role, then use Situation-Action-Result for leadership and pressure examples.
How to prepare for SBI interviews
- Loop map: Prelims (PO/Clerk); Mains (PO/Clerk); Group Exercise (PO only); Personal Interview (PO only). Confirm timings from the drive mail.
- Technical depth: Drill the Q&A section until answers are spoken, not read. Know every resume project cold.
- Experiences: Study round-wise notes on the interview experience page - real prompts beat generic lists.
- HR: Three STAR stories + a specific “Why SBI?” on the HR page.
A practical SBI prep plan
Use this as a default four-week loop before a SBI drive. Adjust to your invite timeline.
- Week 1: Timed aptitude + one easy coding problem a day, plus a one-page cs fundamentals sheet. Open the SBI previous-year sets on this site and mark which sections ate your time. Write the timing on a sticky note. That number is more useful than a 200-problem LeetCode streak you never timed.
- Week 2: Most SBI drives fail people on the first timed paper or OA. Do three timed sits this week. After each one, log every miss in a two-column note: topic and why (slow, wrong formula, bad edge case, panic). The next sit should only add problems from that log.
- Week 3: Technical interviews at SBI usually want a clean project story, one or two CS fundamentals, and (if the process has it) a behavioral or values round. Write STAR stories on paper, not in your head. Practise “Why SBI?” with one concrete product, lab, or business line - not a slogan.
- Week 4: Two full mocks, then only error-log topics - no new patterns. If you still have energy, redo only the questions you failed in week 2.
10-day crash version (PO): Days 1-3 banking GA + last 30 days current affairs, days 4-5 HR/PI mocks, days 6-7 group-exercise practice with friends, days 8-9 full PI simulations, day 10 document check and travel. SCO/IT: swap days 1-4 for revision of networking, DBMS, and one project narrative mapped to banking impact.
Who usually fits and who struggles
Good fit (PO): You read financial news weekly, speak clearly under pressure, accept pan-India posting, and can explain why banking fits your background without sounding rehearsed. Mock group exercises show you listen, not dominate.
Good fit (SCO/IT): You can walk through production incidents or academic projects with honest depth, connect tech choices to security/uptime, and answer “why SBI IT” with domain specifics (payments, core banking, SOC) - not only CTC comparison.
Harder path: Treating PI as a formality after Mains; bluffing RBI rates or SBI leadership names; inconsistent biodata versus spoken answers; zero preparation for Group Exercise on the PO route.
Compensation and bond notes
PO packages are notification-based - recent SBI PO advertisements cite roughly ₹21.97 L cost to company at Mumbai centre (components vary by posting city). Many PO cycles also cite a ₹2 lakh service bond for three years - confirm the active notification PDF. SCO/IT and AM System pay bands differ by scale and experience; believe your appointment letter, not aggregated forum posts.
Sources
Interview process details and sample questions on this site are editorially organized from public candidate reports and hiring write-ups, with round structure, prep notes, and company-specific framing added by our team. For round-by-round stories, see the SBI interview experience page. For OA papers and coding drills, use SBI on placementpapers.app. Exam quick answers and role-wise questions draw on SBI’s 2026 Probationary Officer advertisement (CRPD/PO/2026-27/09), 2026 Junior Associate advertisement (CRPD/CR/2026-27/17) and Specialist Cadre Officer advertisement CRPD/SCO/2026-27/12, all from SBI’s careers site, plus Careers360’s and Edutap’s SBI PO pattern pages and the candidate reports compiled on our SBI interview experience page.
Also prepare for
Guides often searched alongside this page: hdfc-bank interview questions · icici-bank interview questions · axis-bank interview questions · bank-of-baroda interview questions · canara-bank interview questions · bank-of-america interview questions.