Banking | IBPS

IBPS SO 2026-27 cycle

Specialist officer recruitment for public sector banks across IT, agriculture, law, marketing, HR and Rajbhasha streams, with a Professional Knowledge paper deciding most of the merit.

Awaiting notification4 stagesSectional timing

Overview

Conducting body: IBPSwww.ibps.in
Age limit: 20 to 30 years
Application fee: ₹175 to ₹850
Vacancies: To be announced
First stage duration: 2 hr
Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

IBPS Common Recruitment Process for Specialist Officers is conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection. Selection runs through 4 stages: Preliminary Examination (IT, Agriculture, Marketing and HR posts), Preliminary Examination (Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari posts), Main Examination: Professional Knowledge, Interview.

Clear the Preliminary examination, which screens candidates and does not contribute to the merit list.
Qualify the Professional Knowledge paper in the Main examination, worth 60 marks.
Attend the interview, which carries 100 marks with a minimum qualifying score of 40% or 35% for reserved categories.
The final merit list combines the Main examination and interview scores in an 80:20 ratio.
Provisional allotment to a participating bank follows from the final merit and your submitted preferences.

Important dates

Important dates
Event	Date	Status
Notification release IBPS has published the Specialist Officer notification in the second half of the year in recent cycles.	To be announced	Not announced
Online registration window Usually open for about three weeks from the notification date.	To be announced	Not announced
Preliminary examination Usually held towards the end of the calendar year.	To be announced	Not announced
Main examination Usually held a few weeks after the Preliminary result.	To be announced	Not announced
Interview	To be announced	Not announced
Provisional allotment	To be announced	Not announced

Eligibility

Educational qualification

A stream-specific professional qualification rather than a general degree. IT Officer requires an engineering degree in computer science, IT, electronics or a related branch, or an equivalent postgraduate qualification. Agricultural Field Officer requires a degree in agriculture or an allied discipline. Law Officer requires a bachelor's degree in law with Bar Council enrolment. Rajbhasha Adhikari requires a postgraduate degree in Hindi with English at degree level, or an equivalent. HR and Marketing Officer require a postgraduate degree or diploma in the relevant specialisation.

The exact list of accepted degrees for each post is set out in the notification and is stricter than for generalist recruitment. Read the clause for your stream before paying the fee, because a near-equivalent qualification is often not accepted.

Age

20 to 30 years as on the cut-off date stated in the official notification.

Upper age relaxation

SC and ST+5 years
OBC (non-creamy layer)+3 years
Persons with Benchmark Disability+10 years
Ex-servicemen and commissioned officers+5 years
Persons affected by the 1984 riots+5 years

Nationality

A candidate must be one of the following:

A citizen of India
A subject of Nepal or Bhutan
A Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1 January 1962 intending to settle permanently
A person of Indian origin who has migrated from Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam intending to settle permanently in India

Application fee

Category	Fee
General, OBC and EWS Application fee including intimation charges, non-refundable.	₹850
SC, ST and PwBD Intimation charges only, non-refundable.	₹175

Fees have been stable across recent cycles but are the kind of detail a notification can revise. Confirm on the official notification before paying.

Exam pattern

Stage by stage structure with question counts, marks, timing and the marking scheme.

Stage 1: Preliminary Examination (IT, Agriculture, Marketing and HR posts)

Computer based testSectional timingQualifying only

Section	Questions	Marks	Time
English Language	50	25	40 min
Reasoning	50	50	40 min
Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	40 min
Total	150	125	2 hr

Duration: 2 hr|Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

150 questions for 125 marks in 120 minutes, with a separate 40-minute clock for each section.
Note the mark weighting: English carries 50 questions but only 25 marks, so each English question is worth half a Reasoning question.
Screening only. These marks do not enter the final merit list.

Stage 2: Preliminary Examination (Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari posts)

Computer based testSectional timingQualifying only

Section	Questions	Marks	Time
English Language	50	25	40 min
Reasoning	50	50	40 min
General Awareness with special reference to the Banking Industry	50	50	40 min
Total	150	125	2 hr

Duration: 2 hr|Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

150 questions for 125 marks in 120 minutes, with a separate 40-minute clock for each section.
These two posts replace Quantitative Aptitude with Banking Awareness, which is the only structural difference at this stage.

Stage 3: Main Examination: Professional Knowledge

Computer based test

Section	Questions	Marks
Professional Knowledge for the applied post	60	60
Total	60	60

Duration: 45 min|Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

A single 60-mark paper on your specialisation, taken in 45 minutes. This is the entire objective Main examination.
The Rajbhasha Adhikari paper is structured differently, combining an objective part with a descriptive part taken on the computer.
This stage carries 80% weight in the final merit list, which makes domain depth far more valuable than aptitude practice.

Stage 4: Interview

Interview

Duration: Varies|Negative marking: None

Carries 100 marks with a minimum qualifying score of 40%, relaxed to 35% for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD candidates.
Conducted by the participating banks under the coordination of the Nodal Bank.
Carries 20% weight in the final merit list.

Syllabus

English Language

Reading comprehension
Cloze test
Para jumbles
Error spotting and sentence correction
Fill in the blanks
Vocabulary and idioms

Quantitative Aptitude

Data interpretation: tables, bar, line, pie and caselets
Number series
Quadratic equations and inequalities
Simplification and approximation
Percentage, ratio and proportion
Profit, loss and discount
Simple and compound interest
Time, speed, distance and work
Mixture and alligation
Permutation, combination and probability
Data sufficiency

Reasoning Ability

Puzzles and seating arrangement
Syllogism
Inequality
Blood relations and direction sense
Order, ranking and comparison
Coding and decoding
Input and output
Data sufficiency
Statement, assumption and course of action

Banking Awareness

Reserve Bank of India: structure, functions and monetary policy
Banking regulation and Basel norms
Money market and capital market instruments
Financial institutions: NABARD, SIDBI, EXIM, NHB and SEBI
Priority sector lending and financial inclusion
Union Budget and Economic Survey highlights
Current affairs of the previous six months

General Awareness

IT Officer: database management, data structures, operating systems, computer networks, software engineering, data communication, web technology and information security
Agricultural Field Officer: crop production, horticulture, soil science, animal husbandry, agronomy, agricultural economics, government agriculture schemes and rural credit
Law Officer: banking regulation, Negotiable Instruments Act, SARFAESI, Companies Act, contract law, Transfer of Property Act, RTI, consumer protection and compliance
HR Officer: human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, industrial relations, labour laws, performance appraisal and compensation management
Marketing Officer: marketing management, consumer behaviour, market segmentation, product and brand management, distribution channels, digital marketing and services marketing
Rajbhasha Adhikari: Hindi grammar and usage, translation between Hindi and English, official language policy, banking terminology in Hindi and letter drafting

How to apply

Confirm your degree matches the post clause
The qualification requirement is stream-specific and strictly interpreted. Read the clause for your post in the notification before paying, since a related but non-listed degree is usually rejected.
Register on the IBPS portal
Open the CRP Specialist Officers link on ibps.in, choose New Registration and save the provisional registration number and password.
Choose one post
You may apply for a single specialisation in a cycle. Compare vacancy counts, since a stream with very few posts can carry a much higher cut-off.
Upload your photograph, signature, thumb impression and declaration
IBPS specifies exact pixel dimensions and file sizes for each image as JPEG files.
Pay the fee and save the receipt
Pay online, then download the e-receipt and the application printout for later stages.

Documents to keep ready

Valid photo identity proof such as Aadhaar, PAN, passport, driving licence or voter ID
The professional degree or postgraduate certificate required for the applied post, with mark-sheets
Bar Council enrolment certificate for Law Officer applicants
Caste or EWS certificate in the prescribed format, where applicable
PwBD certificate issued by the competent authority, where applicable
Recent passport-size photograph, signature, thumb impression and handwritten declaration as uploaded

Salary and job profile

Pay and allowances

Pay scale:: Junior Management Grade Scale I (JMGS-I)
Initial basic pay:: To be announced
Approximate in-hand:: To be announced

Allowances

Dearness Allowance revised quarterly
House Rent Allowance or bank accommodation
City Compensatory Allowance based on place of posting
Special Allowance

Perks

Medical insurance covering self and dependants
Leave Fare Concession
Concessional interest on staff housing, vehicle and personal loans
Pension under the National Pension System
Gratuity and provident fund

Specialist Officers join in the same scale as Probationary Officers. Basic pay follows the bipartite settlement in force; confirm the current figure from the notification.

What the job involves

IT Officer: managing core banking infrastructure, application support, data centre operations and information security.
Agricultural Field Officer: appraising farm credit, running rural lending schemes and liaising with agricultural borrowers in the field.
Law Officer: vetting documentation, advising branches on recovery and compliance, and managing litigation.
HR Officer: recruitment, transfers, industrial relations and staff welfare administration.
Marketing Officer: product campaigns, third-party product distribution and branch sales support.
Rajbhasha Adhikari: implementing official language policy, translation and Hindi correspondence.
Work is in the specialisation rather than general branch banking, which suits candidates who want to stay in their professional field.

How to prepare for IBPS SO

Spend the majority of your time on Professional Knowledge. It carries 80% of the merit weight in a single 45-minute paper, and it is where candidates with genuine domain grounding pull away.
Treat the Preliminary paper as a qualifying hurdle with a deadline, not a scoring opportunity. Practise enough to clear sectional cut-offs comfortably and stop there.
In the Preliminary paper, remember English carries 50 questions for 25 marks. Do not spend Reasoning-level time on questions worth half as much.
Work through your own degree syllabus rather than a generic banking guide. The Professional Knowledge paper is pitched at graduate level in your discipline.
Because vacancies per stream are small, cut-offs swing hard year to year. Prepare for a higher bar than last cycle's cut-off suggests.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply for more than one specialist post?

No. One post per cycle. Choose based on where your qualification fits rather than where vacancies look highest, because eligibility is checked strictly at document verification.

How much does the Professional Knowledge paper matter?

It is effectively the whole exam. The Preliminary paper only screens, and the Main examination is a single 60-mark Professional Knowledge paper carrying 80% of the final merit. Aptitude practice gets you through the door; domain depth wins the seat.

Which posts have a different Preliminary paper?

Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari. Their Preliminary paper replaces Quantitative Aptitude with General Awareness with special reference to the Banking Industry. The other four streams take the Quantitative Aptitude version.

Is there a descriptive paper?

Only for Rajbhasha Adhikari, whose Main examination combines an objective part with a descriptive part taken on the computer. The other streams have an objective paper only.

Do I need work experience?

Not for Scale I specialist posts, which are open to freshers holding the required professional qualification. Law Officer applicants do need Bar Council enrolment, which is a registration rather than an experience requirement.

Last verified 28 July 2026(today, by editorial)

Not yet confirmed for this cycle: the schedule, the vacancy count, basic pay, gross pay, in-hand pay, the application fee and the exam pattern. Where we have a figure from previous cycles we show it and label it as expected; where we do not, the page says "to be announced". Check the official source below before you rely on any of it.

Official sources

IBPS official website (official portal)
IBPS online application portal (official portal)

Found something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it, citing the source.