SBI PO | 2025
SBI PO Prelims 2025: topic weightage and difficulty analysis
100 questions across 3 sections. Overall difficulty: moderate.
SBI runs the PO Preliminary examination across several shifts on different days, with a different paper in each and a normalisation applied across them. The section structure below (30 English, 35 Quantitative Aptitude and 35 Reasoning for 100 marks in 60 minutes, with a separate 20-minute clock per section) is taken from the official advertisement and is identical in every shift. The topic-level counts are our own compilation from candidate reports across shifts, not official data, so read them as the typical shape of the paper rather than a record of one sitting. No question text is reproduced anywhere on this page.
Where the questions came from
Sorted by weightage, so the topics worth the most preparation time are at the top of each section.
English Language
English Language
A realistic target for a strong candidate: 20 to 24 attempts. This is our own guidance, not an official figure.
| Topic | Questions | Share of the section |
|---|---|---|
| Reading comprehension Usually one passage on an economic or business theme, with two of the questions on vocabulary drawn from it. SBI passages tend to be a shade harder than the IBPS equivalent. | 27%8 Moderate | |
| Cloze test | 17%5 Moderate | |
| Error detection and sentence correction New-pattern error questions, where a phrase rather than a single word is tested, appear more often than the old underline format. | 17%5 Moderate | |
| Para jumbles | 13%4 Moderate | |
| Sentence and phrase fillers | 13%4 Easy | |
| Word usage, word swap and vocabulary Word swap and word usage have largely displaced plain synonym and antonym questions in recent SBI papers. | 13%4 Moderate |
Quantitative Aptitude
Quantitative Aptitude
A realistic target for a strong candidate: 20 to 24 attempts. This is our own guidance, not an official figure.
| Topic | Questions | Share of the section |
|---|---|---|
| Data interpretation Two or three sets, typically a table plus a bar or line graph and sometimes a caselet. The single largest block and the one worth practising most. | 34%12 Moderate | |
| Arithmetic word problems Spread across percentage, profit and loss, ratio, ages, time and work, time speed and distance, interest, and mixtures. SBI leans on this block more heavily than IBPS. | 29%10 Moderate | |
| Simplification and approximation Pure calculation speed. The cheapest marks in the section. | 17%6 Easy | |
| Number series Missing or wrong number series. | 11%4 Easy | |
| Quadratic equations or quantity comparison | 9%3 Moderate |
Reasoning Ability
Reasoning Ability
A realistic target for a strong candidate: 22 to 26 attempts. This is our own guidance, not an official figure.
| Topic | Questions | Share of the section |
|---|---|---|
| Puzzles and seating arrangement Three or four sets, usually a linear arrangement, a circular arrangement, a box or floor puzzle and a scheduling puzzle. Nearly half the section and where the section is decided. | 46%16 Hard | |
| Inequality | 11%4 Easy | |
| Coding and decoding | 11%4 Moderate | |
| Syllogism | 9%3 Easy | |
| Blood relations | 9%3 Easy | |
| Order, ranking and direction sense | 9%3 Easy | |
| Alphanumeric series and miscellaneous | 6%2 Easy |
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What this means for your preparation
The Preliminary paper is a shade harder than IBPS PO in English and Quant, but the shape is identical, so preparation carries across directly rather than needing a separate plan.
Reasoning is the most attemptable section for most candidates and the one to bank marks in. Roughly sixteen of its thirty-five questions are puzzles and seating, so the skill of choosing the two solvable sets and leaving the third matters more than raw speed.
Data interpretation is a third of the quantitative section. Two DI sets a day against a clock moves the score more than another arithmetic chapter.
The sectional clock is twenty minutes with no return once it closes, so a badly chosen puzzle cannot be rescued later. Budget time before you start each section.
There is a quarter-mark penalty, so a blind guess between four options loses on average. Guess only after eliminating two.
Prelims is only a screen. Marks here do not enter the final merit list, and candidates are shortlisted for the Main examination at about ten times the vacancies, category-wise, so the goal is to qualify with margin rather than to maximise.
See the real paper, officially
- SBI careers portal
Call letters, results and the candidate login for each phase are published here. SBI shows your Preliminary result as qualified or not; category-wise cut-off marks are released later in the process rather than with the Preliminary result.
Common questions
- Can I download the SBI PO Preliminary Examination 2025 question paper?
- Not from this site. In India an exam question paper is a copyright work owned by the conducting body, and reproducing it commercially is infringement. What you can do is view your own paper and responses through the official portal during the objection window after the exam, and the links to do that are on this page.
- Are these topic counts exact?
- No, and we would rather say so. The exam runs across multiple shifts with a different paper in each, and the conducting body does not publish a topic-wise breakdown. The section structure, marks and timing are official. The topic counts are our compilation from candidate reports and describe the typical shape of the paper.
- How should I use a weightage analysis?
- To decide what to study next and what to skip. If one block is a third of a section, practising it has several times the payoff of a topic that carries two questions. It also tells you which questions to leave in the exam itself, which matters more than most candidates think.