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Reasoning Ability for IBPS SO

IBPS SO sets 100 Reasoning Ability questions for 100 marks across 2 stages, so it is worth planning your preparation around the topics below.

100 questions100 marks9 topics

How to approach Reasoning Ability in IBPS SO

The puzzles and seating arrangements carry the most marks and take the most time, so the skill is choosing which set to attempt and which to leave. Clear the quick scoring topics — inequality, syllogism, coding-decoding, blood relations — first, then spend the remaining time on one or two puzzles you can actually finish.

Weightage in the paper

How much Reasoning Ability is worth in each IBPS SO stage, from the official pattern.

StageQuestionsMarksTimeShare
Preliminary Examination (IT, Agriculture, Marketing and HR posts)505040 min33%
Preliminary Examination (Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari posts)505040 min33%

Reasoning Ability syllabus for IBPS SO

Every topic in the official syllabus. The linked ones open a set of solved questions you can practise straight away.

Sample Reasoning Ability questions with solutions

Written to the IBPS SO pattern, with the answer key and the method behind it — a look at how the section is actually set before you drill the full topic sets.

Coded inequality · solved example

In these questions the symbols are used with the following meanings: A @ B means A is greater than B. A # B means A is greater than or equal to B. A $ B means A is smaller than B. A & B means A is smaller than or equal to B. A * B means A is equal to B.

Statements: A $ B, B & C, C @ D. Conclusions: I. A $ C. II. D @ B.

  • Only conclusion I is trueCorrect
  • Only conclusion II is true
  • Either I or II is true
  • Neither I nor II is true
  • Both I and II are true

Solution

Decoding: A < B, B is at most C, and C > D. From A < B and B at most C, A < C - conclusion I is true. For II, C > D and B at most C leave D and B unordered, so D > B is not established. Only I is true.

Floor puzzle · solved example

Six people - P, Q, R, S, T and U - live on six different floors of a building. The lowest floor is numbered 1 and the highest is numbered 6. T lives on an even-numbered floor. Two people live between T and P. R lives on the floor immediately above Q. S lives on the topmost floor. U does not live on floor 1.

How many people live between Q and U?

  • None
  • One
  • TwoCorrect
  • Three
  • Four

Solution

The arrangement from floor 1 upward is P, Q, R, T, U, S. Q is on floor 2 and U is on floor 5, so floors 3 and 4 lie between them, holding R and T. That is two people. Count the people strictly between the two named floors, not the floors themselves, which would give three and is the usual slip in this question type.

Syllogism · solved example

Statements: No stone is a metal. All metals are alloys. Some alloys are wires. Conclusions: I. No wire is a stone. II. Some wires are metals.

  • Only conclusion I follows
  • Only conclusion II follows
  • Either conclusion I or conclusion II follows
  • Neither conclusion I nor conclusion II followsCorrect
  • Both conclusion I and conclusion II follow

Solution

Neither follows. Wires are known only to overlap alloys, and stones are excluded from metals but never from alloys, so a wire could well be a stone and conclusion I is not established. Conclusion II fails for the mirror reason: the alloys that are wires need not be the alloys that are metals. Both statements are possible rather than certain, and in syllogism only certainty counts. Had conclusion II been worded as 'some wires being metals is a possibility' it would have followed, which is the distinction being drawn.

Circular seating · solved example

Eight people - A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H - sit around a circular table facing the centre. Because everyone faces the centre, the person to someone's immediate left is the next person in the clockwise direction, and the immediate right is the next person anticlockwise. A and C sit opposite each other. B sits second to the left of A. D sits immediately to the left of B. E sits second to the left of C. F sits immediately to the left of A. G sits immediately to the left of E.

Who sits immediately to the right of C?

  • A
  • DCorrect
  • E
  • G
  • H

Solution

Immediate right means one seat anticlockwise. Moving one seat anticlockwise from C reaches D.

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Practise Reasoning Ability

Untimed drills with the method shown after every question — the step between learning a topic and sitting it under a clock.

Sit Reasoning Ability under a real clock

Reasoning Ability shows up in every IBPS SO mock test, in the same interface, with sectional locking and negative marking.

  • IBPS SO: 27-question practice mock

    27 questions | 27 min

    Start

  • IBPS SO: full-length mock (150 questions)

    150 questions | 2 hr

    Start

Frequently asked questions

How many Reasoning Ability questions are asked in IBPS SO?

IBPS SO 2026-27 cycle (CRP SPL-XVI) sets 100 Reasoning Ability questions for 100 marks, split across 50 in the Preliminary Examination (IT, Agriculture, Marketing and HR posts) and 50 in the Preliminary Examination (Law Officer and Rajbhasha Adhikari posts).

Is there negative marking for Reasoning Ability in IBPS SO?

Yes. IBPS SO deducts one fourth of a mark for each wrong answer, Reasoning Ability included, so unsure guesses cost you. One fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for a wrong answer.

Which Reasoning Ability topics matter most for IBPS SO?

The IBPS SO syllabus lists Puzzles and seating arrangement, Syllogism, Inequality, Blood relations and direction sense, Order, ranking and comparison, Coding and decoding and more. Weight your revision towards the ones you are weakest on and confirm the emphasis against the paper analysis for recent cycles.

How can I practise Reasoning Ability for IBPS SO free?

Every Reasoning Ability question on this site is free and written to the exam pattern. Use the topic drills for instant-feedback practice, the daily quiz to keep the section warm, and the IBPS SO mock tests to sit it under a real clock with negative marking.