Banking | SBI Clerk
SBI Clerk sets 85 Reasoning Ability questions for 95 marks across 2 stages, so it is worth planning your preparation around the topics below.
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.
How much Reasoning Ability is worth in each SBI Clerk stage, from the official pattern.
| Stage | Questions | Marks | Time | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Examination | 35 | 35 | 20 min | 35% |
| Main Examination | 50 | 60 | 45 min | 26% |
Every topic in the official syllabus. The linked ones open a set of solved questions you can practise straight away.
Written to the SBI Clerk 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.
Syllogism · solved example
Statements: No cat is a dog. All dogs are pets. Conclusions: I. Some pets are not cats. II. No cat is a pet.
Solution
All dogs are pets and no dog is a cat, so those dog-pets are pets that are not cats - I follows. II overreaches: cats could still be pets by some other route, so it is not forced and does not follow.
Syllogism · solved example
Statements: Some doctors are engineers. All engineers are rich. Conclusion: Some doctors are rich.
Solution
The doctors who are engineers are rich, since all engineers are rich, so some doctors are rich. The conclusion follows.
Coded inequality · solved example
Statements: L % M, M # N, N @ O Conclusions: I. O # M II. L $ N
Solution
Decoded, the statements read L <= M, M < N and N >= O. Conclusion I asks whether O < M. O is only known to be at most N, and M is below N as well, so O could fall on either side of M and nothing is established. Conclusion II asks whether L equals N. That is not merely unproven but impossible, since L <= M and M < N force L < N. Neither follows. Note the difference between the two failures: one conclusion is undetermined, the other is ruled out, and both count as not following.
Syllogism · solved example
Statements: Some cards are keys. All keys are locks. No lock is a door. Conclusions: I. Some cards are locks. II. Some cards are not doors.
Solution
Conclusion I follows: some cards are keys and every key is a lock, so those cards are locks. Conclusion II follows from I: those same cards are locks, and no lock is a door, so they are not doors, which makes 'some cards are not doors' certain. Both follow. This is the standard chain where a definite 'some' combines with a universal to carry through two steps, and it is worth contrasting with the previous question, where the middle term pointed the wrong way.
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Untimed drills with the method shown after every question — the step between learning a topic and sitting it under a clock.
Analogy and classification
81 questions, instant feedback
Blood relations and direction sense
108 questions, instant feedback
Seating arrangement
93 questions, instant feedback
Coding, decoding and series
135 questions, instant feedback
Order and ranking
69 questions, instant feedback
Puzzles
99 questions, instant feedback
Syllogism and inequality
126 questions, instant feedback
Reasoning Ability shows up in every SBI Clerk mock test, in the same interface, with sectional locking and negative marking.
SBI Clerk 2026-27 cycle sets 85 Reasoning Ability questions for 95 marks, split across 35 in the Preliminary Examination and 50 in the Main Examination.
Yes. SBI Clerk 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. Questions left blank carry no penalty.
The SBI Clerk syllabus lists Puzzles: floor, box, day and category based, Seating arrangement: linear and circular, Syllogism, Inequality, coded and direct, Blood relations and direction sense, Order, ranking and comparison and more. Weight your revision towards the ones you are weakest on and confirm the emphasis against the paper analysis for recent cycles.
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 SBI Clerk mock tests to sit it under a real clock with negative marking.