Banking | RBI

RBI Grade B 2026-27 cycle

The central bank's flagship officer exam, with an aptitude screening paper followed by written papers on economics, finance and English writing, then an interview.

Awaiting notification5 stages

Overview

Conducting body: RBIopportunities.rbi.org.in
Age limit: 21 to 30 years
Application fee: ₹100 to ₹850
Vacancies: To be announced
First stage duration: 2 hr
Negative marking: 1/4 mark per wrong answer

Reserve Bank of India Recruitment of Officers in Grade B (Direct Recruitment) General is conducted by Reserve Bank of India. Selection runs through 5 stages: Phase I: Preliminary Examination, Phase II Paper I: Economic and Social Issues, Phase II Paper II: English (Writing Skills), Phase II Paper III: Finance and Management, Interview.

Clear Phase I, a 200-mark objective screening paper whose marks do not carry forward.
Sit Phase II, which has three papers: Economic and Social Issues, English Writing Skills, and Finance and Management.
Attend the interview, which carries 75 marks.
The final merit list is drawn from the Phase II papers and the interview together.
Selected candidates join as Officers in Grade B at a Regional Office or central office department.

Important dates

Important dates
Event	Date	Status
Notification release RBI has advertised Grade B posts in the first half of the year in recent cycles, but the timing has moved between years.	To be announced	Not announced
Online registration window Usually open for about three weeks from the advertisement date.	To be announced	Not announced
Phase I examination Usually held a few weeks after registration closes.	To be announced	Not announced
Phase II examination Usually held about a month after the Phase I result.	To be announced	Not announced
Interview	To be announced	Not announced
Final result	To be announced	Not announced

Eligibility

Educational qualification

A bachelor's degree in any discipline with at least 60% marks, or an equivalent grade, in aggregate. A master's degree with at least 55% in aggregate is also accepted.

The minimum percentage is relaxed to 50% for SC, ST and PwBD candidates at the bachelor's level. This marks threshold is the main eligibility difference from IBPS and SBI recruitment, which accept a pass degree in any discipline without a percentage bar. Candidates in the final year may apply subject to the conditions the advertisement sets out.

Age

21 to 30 years as on the cut-off date stated in the official advertisement.

Upper age relaxation

SC and ST+5 years
OBC (non-creamy layer)+3 years
Persons with Benchmark Disability (General)+10 years
Persons with Benchmark Disability (OBC)+13 years
Persons with Benchmark Disability (SC and ST)+15 years
Ex-servicemen+5 years
Candidates holding an MPhil, as specified in the advertisement+2 years
Candidates holding a PhD, as specified in the advertisement+4 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 and intimation charges, plus applicable taxes. Non-refundable.	₹850
SC, ST and PwBD Intimation charges only, plus applicable taxes. Non-refundable.	₹100

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
General Awareness	80	80
Reasoning	60	60
English Language	30	30
Quantitative Aptitude	30	30
Total	200	200

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

200 questions for 200 marks in a composite 120 minutes.
General Awareness alone is 80 of the 200 marks, a far heavier weighting than any other banking Preliminary paper gives it.
Screening only. Phase I marks do not enter the final merit list.
RBI normalises Phase I scores when the paper is held in multiple shifts.

Stage 2: Phase II Paper I: Economic and Social Issues

Computer based test

Section	Questions	Marks
Economic and Social Issues: objective	30	50
Economic and Social Issues: descriptive	3	50
Total	33	100

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

100 marks split evenly between an objective part and a descriptive part typed on the computer.
The descriptive part offers a choice of questions from which you attempt the stated number.
This paper is what makes RBI Grade B different in kind from other banking exams: it requires the ability to write an argued answer on economic policy, not just select an option.

Stage 3: Phase II Paper II: English (Writing Skills)

Descriptive, typed

Section	Questions	Marks
Essay, précis and comprehension	3	100
Total	3	100

Duration: 1 hr 30 min|Negative marking: None

Entirely descriptive, typed on the computer, and worth a full 100 marks.
Assesses the ability to write clearly and analytically about economic and financial subjects, which is a working requirement of the job.

Stage 4: Phase II Paper III: Finance and Management

Computer based test

Section	Questions	Marks
Finance and Management: objective	30	50
Finance and Management: descriptive	3	50
Total	33	100

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

100 marks split evenly between objective and descriptive parts, mirroring Paper I.
Covers financial markets, risk management, corporate governance and management theory.

Stage 5: Interview

Interview

Duration: Varies|Negative marking: None

Carries 75 marks in recent cycles.
The final merit list is drawn from the Phase II papers and the interview taken together.
Candidates may opt to be interviewed in Hindi.

Syllabus

General Awareness

Economic and Social Issues: growth and development, measurement of growth, poverty alleviation and employment
Economic and Social Issues: economic reforms in India, industrial and labour policy, privatisation
Economic and Social Issues: globalisation, opening of the economy, balance of payments and export-import policy
Economic and Social Issues: social structure in India, urbanisation, education, health and social justice
Finance: financial system regulators, financial markets and instruments
Finance: risk management in the banking sector, Basel norms and derivatives
Finance: corporate governance, financial inclusion and alternative sources of finance
Finance: Union Budget, inflation, monetary policy and fiscal policy
Management: fundamentals, motivation theories, leadership and communication
Management: corporate ethics, human resource development and organisational behaviour
Current affairs with emphasis on economic and financial developments over the previous year

Reasoning Ability

Puzzles and seating arrangement of higher difficulty
Syllogism and logical reasoning
Inequality and coded inequality
Blood relations and direction sense
Input and output
Data sufficiency
Critical reasoning, statement and argument, course of action
Verbal reasoning and passage-based inference

Quantitative Aptitude

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

English Language

Reading comprehension on economic and policy themes
Cloze test and para jumbles
Error spotting and sentence correction
Précis writing
Essay writing on economic, financial and social subjects
Comprehension-based descriptive answers

How to apply

Open the RBI opportunities portal
RBI advertises vacancies on its dedicated opportunities site rather than the main rbi.org.in home page. Open the Grade B advertisement there and read the eligibility clause before registering.
Register and save your credentials
Complete new registration, then save the registration number and password generated.
Upload photograph, signature, left thumb impression and handwritten declaration
RBI specifies dimensions and file sizes for each. Applications with mismatched images are rejected.
Declare your qualification percentage accurately
The 60% bachelor's threshold, or 55% at master's level, is verified against your mark-sheets. Aggregate is computed as the advertisement defines it, which may differ from your university's own calculation.
Pay the fee and save the receipt
Pay online, then download the e-receipt and application printout for later stages.

Documents to keep ready

Valid photo identity proof such as Aadhaar, PAN, passport, driving licence or voter ID
Bachelor's degree certificate and all semester or year mark-sheets, to establish the aggregate percentage
Master's degree documents, where you rely on the 55% master's route
MPhil or PhD certificate, where claiming the associated age relaxation
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:: Officers in Grade B under the Reserve Bank of India pay structure
Initial basic pay:: To be announced
Approximate in-hand:: To be announced

Allowances

Dearness Allowance
Local Compensatory Allowance
House Rent Allowance or Bank accommodation
Family Allowance
Grade Allowance

Perks

Bank accommodation, subject to availability
Medical facilities for self and dependants
Leave Fare Concession
Concessional interest on housing, vehicle, education and personal loans
Reimbursement of telephone, book and newspaper expenses
Pension under the National Pension System, gratuity and provident fund

RBI states an indicative starting pay and gross emoluments in each advertisement. Confirm the current figures there rather than relying on earlier cycles.

What the job involves

Working in departments such as banking supervision, financial markets, monetary policy, currency management, or regulation.
Analysing economic and financial data and contributing to policy notes.
Supervising and inspecting regulated entities, including banks and non-banking financial companies.
Managing currency issue and government banking operations at a Regional Office.
A structured promotion path from Grade B through Grade C, D, E and F over a career.
Postings across RBI offices in India, with opportunities for deputation and further study.

How to prepare for RBI Grade B

Treat this as a subject exam rather than an aptitude exam. Reading a standard economics text and the RBI Annual Report will do more for your Phase II score than another month of puzzle practice.
General Awareness is 80 of the 200 marks in Phase I. Most candidates under-weight it because other banking exams do not, and that is where the screening cut-off is often lost.
Practise writing under the clock. Three descriptive papers means several hours of typed argument, and candidates who have only ever answered multiple-choice questions run out of time and structure.
Read the RBI's own publications: the Monetary Policy Report, the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking, and the Annual Report. Questions frequently track the framing used in these documents.
For English Writing Skills, practise précis specifically. It is the sub-skill candidates ignore, and it is the hardest to improve in the final weeks.

Frequently asked questions

How is RBI Grade B different from IBPS PO or SBI PO?

It is a different kind of exam rather than a harder version of the same one. Phase II requires written, argued answers on economics, finance and management, and English Writing Skills is a full 100-mark descriptive paper. Aptitude only gets you through Phase I; the merit list is decided by subject depth and writing ability.

Do I need an economics background?

No, any discipline is eligible, but you will be writing graduate-level answers on economic and social issues. Candidates from other backgrounds routinely clear it, though they usually need longer to build the subject base.

Is there a minimum percentage requirement?

Yes, and this is a common reason for rejection. You need at least 60% in your bachelor's degree, relaxed to 50% for SC, ST and PwBD candidates, or 55% at master's level. IBPS and SBI have no such bar.

Do Phase I marks count towards the final selection?

No. Phase I is purely a screening test. The merit list is built from the three Phase II papers and the interview.

How many vacancies are there usually?

RBI recruits a small cohort of Grade B officers each year, often well under two hundred across categories. Combined with the number of applicants, this makes it one of the steepest ratios in banking recruitment.

Can I take the interview in Hindi?

Yes. Candidates may opt to be interviewed in Hindi, and the option is stated in the advertisement.

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, the limit on attempts 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

RBI opportunities portal (official portal)
Reserve Bank of India official website (official portal)

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