Banking | NABARD

NABARD Grade A 2026 cycle (notification awaited)

Officer recruitment into NABARD, the apex bank for agriculture and rural development, over a qualifying Phase I, a merit-deciding descriptive Phase II, a psychometric test and an interview.

Awaiting notification5 stages2 free mock tests

Overview

Conducting body: NABARDwww.nabard.org
Age limit: 21 to 30 years
Application fee: ₹150 to ₹850
Vacancies: To be announced
First stage duration: 2 hr
Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

NABARD Assistant Manager in Grade A (Rural Development Banking Service) is conducted by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. Selection runs through 5 stages: Phase I: Preliminary Examination, Phase II: Main Examination (Paper I, General English), Phase II: Main Examination (Paper II, ESI and ARD), Psychometric Test, Interview.

Clear Phase I, a qualifying objective screen where only General Awareness, ESI and ARD count towards the shortlist.
Sit Phase II, whose descriptive English paper and ESI/ARD paper decide the merit.
Take the mandatory psychometric test, which is qualifying.
Attend the interview.
The final merit list combines the Phase II marks and the interview.

Important dates

Important dates
Event	Date	Status
2026 recruitment notification Not yet released for 2026. NABARD's most recent Grade A cycle advertised 91 vacancies; the notification appears on the Career Notices section of nabard.org. Every date on this page is indicative until the official advertisement is published, so watch the portal rather than any secondary site.	To be announced	Not announced
Online application window Opens with the notification and typically stays open for about three weeks, with the fee payment window running alongside it.	To be announced	Not announced
Phase I (Preliminary) examination Usually held a few weeks after applications close. The exact date, shift and centre are printed on the call letter.	To be announced	Not announced
Phase II (Main) examination Held for candidates who clear Phase I, roughly a month after the Phase I result.	To be announced	Not announced
Psychometric test and interview The psychometric test is mandatory but qualifying; the interview follows for candidates who clear Phase II.	To be announced	Not announced

Eligibility

Educational qualification

Open toGraduate Postgraduate

A Bachelor's degree in any discipline with at least 60% marks (55% for SC, ST and PwBD), or a Master's degree with at least 55% (50% for SC, ST and PwBD), or a professional qualification such as CA, CS or ICWA, or a doctorate, as specified for the RDBS stream.

The percentage and subject requirement vary by stream. Specialist streams such as Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Forestry, Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, IT and Finance each require the corresponding degree. Read the stream you are applying for in the notification carefully.

Age

21 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 (unreserved)+10 years
Ex-servicemen+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 specified countries intending to settle permanently in India

Application fee

Category	Fee
General, OBC and EWS Application fee plus intimation charges in the most recent cycle, non-refundable. Confirm the current figure from the 2026 notification.	₹850
SC, ST and PwBD Intimation charges only in the most recent cycle, non-refundable.	₹150

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: Phase I: Preliminary Examination

Computer based testQualifying only

Section	Questions	Marks
Test of Reasoning (qualifying)	20	20
English Language (qualifying)	30	30
Computer Knowledge (qualifying)	20	20
Quantitative Aptitude (qualifying)	20	20
Decision Making (qualifying)	10	10
General Awareness (merit)	20	20
Economic and Social Issues (merit)	40	40
Agriculture and Rural Development (merit)	40	40
Total	200	200

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

200 questions for 200 marks in a composite 120 minutes.
Only General Awareness, Economic and Social Issues, and Agriculture and Rural Development count towards the Phase I merit that shortlists for Phase II; the first five sections are only qualifying.
Phase I marks do not enter the final merit list.

Stage 2: Phase II: Main Examination (Paper I, General English)

Descriptive, typed

Section	Questions	Marks
General English: essay, precis and comprehension	3	100
Total	3	100

Duration: 1 hr 30 min|Negative marking: None

Answers are typed on the computer.
Tests the writing needed for an officer's role: an essay, a precis and comprehension.

Stage 3: Phase II: Main Examination (Paper II, ESI and ARD)

Computer based testSectional timing

Section	Questions	Marks	Time
Economic and Social Issues, and Agriculture and Rural Development (objective)	30	50	30 min
Economic and Social Issues, and Agriculture and Rural Development (descriptive)	4	50	90 min
Total	34	100	2 hr

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

Paper II mixes an objective and a descriptive section, for 100 marks. For specialist streams, Paper II is on the stream subject instead of ARD.
Phase II marks decide the merit for the interview.

Stage 4: Psychometric Test

Computer based testQualifying only

Duration: Varies|Negative marking: None

Mandatory but qualifying; its findings are placed before the interview board rather than scored into the merit.

Stage 5: Interview

Interview

Duration: Varies|Negative marking: None

The final merit list combines the Phase II marks and the interview.
The interview carries a smaller weight than Phase II, so the Main examination is where selection is effectively decided.

Syllabus

Every subject in the paper, topic by topic. Open a subject for its weightage in this exam, the full topic list and the mock tests, practice sets and notes that cover it.

General Awareness

Economic and Social Issues: growth and development, poverty and unemployment, Indian economy and planning
Agriculture and Rural Development: cropping patterns, irrigation, rural credit and cooperatives
NABARD's role, refinance and development schemes
Government schemes for agriculture and the rural economy
Banking and financial awareness with a rural focus
Current affairs of national and international importance

General Awareness guide & weightage →

Reasoning Ability

Puzzles and seating arrangement
Syllogism and inequality
Coding and decoding
Blood relations and direction sense
Decision making and situational judgement

Reasoning Ability guide & weightage →

Quantitative Aptitude

Data interpretation
Simplification and number series
Arithmetic: percentage, ratio, interest, time and work
Quadratic equations

Quantitative Aptitude guide & weightage →

English Language

Reading comprehension
Cloze test and error detection
Para jumbles and fillers
Descriptive writing: essay, precis and comprehension

English Language guide & weightage →

Computer Aptitude

Computer fundamentals and terminology
Hardware, software and memory
Internet, networking and security basics

Computer Aptitude guide & weightage →

How to apply

Register on the NABARD recruitment portal
Open the Career Notices section on nabard.org, choose the Grade A advertisement and register with your name, email and mobile number. Save the registration number and password.
Fill the application and choose your stream
Complete the form with your education, category and the stream (RDBS or a specialist stream) you are eligible for, since the Phase II paper depends on it.
Upload documents and pay the fee
Upload photograph, signature and any required documents, then pay the fee online or claim the exemption. Save the e-receipt and the application printout.

Documents to keep ready

Valid photo identity proof such as Aadhaar, PAN, passport, driving licence or voter ID
Graduation and, where relevant, post-graduation or professional certificates and mark-sheets
Category certificate (SC, ST, OBC, EWS) in the prescribed format, where applicable
PwBD certificate issued by the competent authority, where applicable
Recent passport-size photograph and signature matching the uploads

Salary and job profile

Pay and allowances

Pay scale:: Grade A officer scale; entry basic pay around Rs 44,500 in the current scale.
Initial basic pay:: To be announced
Approximate in-hand:: To be announced

Allowances

Dearness Allowance revised periodically
House Rent Allowance or accommodation
Grade Allowance and Special Allowance
Local Compensatory Allowance

Perks

Medical benefits for self and dependants
Leave Fare Concession
Concessional interest on housing and vehicle loans
Pension under the National Pension System

Figures follow NABARD's wage structure and the city of posting. Treat them as indicative and confirm from the official notification.

What the job involves

Development banking work: appraising and monitoring rural credit, refinance and infrastructure projects.
Working with cooperative banks, regional rural banks and state governments on rural development.
Supervision and inspection of the institutions NABARD refinances.
Policy and scheme implementation for agriculture and the rural economy.
Postings across NABARD's head office, regional offices and training establishments.

Free mock tests

Written to this exam's pattern, with the same interface, sectional locking and marking scheme you will face on exam day.

NABARD Grade A: 12-question practice mock
12 questions | 12 min
Start
NABARD Grade A: full-length mock (200 questions)
200 questions | 2 hr
Start

How to prepare for NABARD Grade A

The exam is won on Economic and Social Issues and Agriculture and Rural Development, which together are 80 of the 200 Phase I merit marks and the heart of Phase II. Build these from standard economics and rural-development sources rather than a generic banking syllabus.
Treat the five qualifying Phase I sections as a threshold: practise enough to clear the cut-off comfortably, but do not over-invest, because the marks do not count.
Phase II has descriptive papers typed on a computer. Practise writing an essay and a precis to a word limit and a clock, since this is unlike the objective banking exams.
Keep a running note of rural-economy current affairs, government schemes and NABARD's own initiatives, which recur across GA, ESI and ARD.
For a specialist stream, your Phase II Paper II is on your subject, so revise your degree domain alongside the general preparation.

Practise NABARD Grade A by topic

Free question banks with worked solutions for the topics NABARD Grade A tests. Drill one topic at a time, then sit a full mock and keep a daily habit going.

Daily quiz

A fresh mixed set every day to keep every section warm.

Untimed practice drills

Learn a topic with the method shown after every question.

Current affairs

Daily, sourced digests for the general-awareness section.

Frequently asked questions

Which Phase I sections actually count?

Only General Awareness, Economic and Social Issues, and Agriculture and Rural Development are used to shortlist for Phase II. Reasoning, English, Computer Knowledge, Quantitative Aptitude and Decision Making are qualifying, so you must clear their cut-off but the marks do not add to your Phase I merit.

Do Phase I marks count in the final merit?

No. Phase I only screens for Phase II. The final merit is built from the Phase II marks and the interview, so Phase II is where selection is decided.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, one fourth of a mark for each wrong objective answer, in Phase I and in the objective part of Phase II Paper II. The descriptive papers carry no negative marking.

What is the difference between RDBS and a specialist stream?

RDBS is the generalist Rural Development Banking Service stream. Specialist streams such as Agriculture, Civil Engineering, IT or Finance need the corresponding degree and are examined on that subject in Phase II Paper II instead of Agriculture and Rural Development.

How is NABARD Grade A different from the Development Assistant post?

Grade A is the officer cadre, recruited through Phase I, Phase II and an interview, with development-banking responsibilities. Development Assistant is a clerical-cadre post with a simpler Preliminary and Main pattern and no interview.

Last verified 20 August 2026(36 days ago, by editorial)

Not yet confirmed for this cycle: the schedule, the vacancy count, the application fee, pay scale and gross pay. 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

NABARD official website, career notices (official portal)

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