Government · Central · Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), for the Regional Rural Banks
IBPS RRB — Officer Scale I/II/III & Office Assistant
The largest banking intake of the year — and for the clerical posts the local language is not a formality but a gate.
What this exam is
One notification hires for all the Regional Rural Banks at once — 28 of them in the last cycle — across four posts: Office Assistant at the counter, Officer Scale I as the rural equivalent of a probationary officer, and Scale II and III for experienced and specialist officers. The 2025 cycle put up 13,316 posts: 8,002 Office Assistants, 4,128 Scale I, 1,184 Scale II and 202 Scale III. That makes RRB, not PO, the biggest banking recruitment of the year by a wide margin.
The prelims for both entry posts is short and brutal: 80 questions in 45 minutes across just two sections, and the clocks are deliberately uneven — 25 minutes for 40 Reasoning questions, 20 minutes for 40 Quantitative or Numerical Ability questions. That is 30 seconds a question on the arithmetic side. A quarter of a question's marks comes off for every wrong answer, and prelims is only a screen; nothing from it reaches the merit list.
Mains is where the posts separate. Both entry papers run 200 questions for 200 marks in 120 minutes across five sections, including a Computer Knowledge paper worth only 20 marks and a language paper you sit in either English or Hindi — your choice. From there the routes diverge: Office Assistant ends at mains with no interview, Officer Scale I adds one, and Scale II and III skip prelims entirely for a single exam followed by an interview. And for Office Assistant there is a requirement no score can substitute for — proficiency in the local language of the state you applied to.
Who can sit it
- Office Assistant: a bachelor's degree in any discipline; age 18–28
- Officer Scale I: a bachelor's degree in any discipline, with preference for agriculture, IT, management, law, economics or accountancy; age 18–30
- Officer Scale II: a bachelor's degree with at least 50%, plus relevant specialisation and one to two years of experience for the specialist cadres; age 21–32
- Officer Scale III: a bachelor's degree with at least 50% and five years of officer-level banking experience; age 21–40
- Age is reckoned as on 1 September 2026, with OBC +3, SC/ST +5 and PwBD +10 relaxation
- Office Assistant candidates must be proficient in the local language of the state or union territory of the RRB applied to
- Fee ₹850; ₹175 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates
The paper, stage by stage
| Stage | Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims · Officer Scale I | Reasoning | 40 | 40 | 25 min |
| Prelims · Officer Scale I | Quantitative Aptitude — shortlisting only; prelims marks do not reach the merit list | 40 | 40 | 20 min |
| Prelims · Office Assistant | Reasoning | 40 | 40 | 25 min |
| Prelims · Office Assistant | Numerical Ability | 40 | 40 | 20 min |
| Mains · both entry posts | Reasoning | 40 | 50 | 30 min |
| Mains · both entry posts | Quantitative Aptitude (Scale I) or Numerical Ability (Office Assistant) | 40 | 50 | 30 min |
| Mains · both entry posts | General Awareness — 40 questions in 15 minutes | 40 | 40 | 15 min |
| Mains · both entry posts | English or Hindi Language — you choose which paper to sit | 40 | 40 | 30 min |
| Mains · both entry posts | Computer Knowledge — 40 questions for only 20 marks, in 15 minutes | 40 | 20 | 15 min |
| Officer Scale II & III | Single examination, no prelims, followed by an interview | — | — | — |
| Interview | Officer Scale I, II and III only. Office Assistant selection ends at mains — there is no interview | — | — | — |
Live demo — no signup
Try IBPS RRB questions.
Watch the AI read you.
Original items in this exam's style — a timer armed the moment you saw them. Your answer and your seconds produce the diagnosis.
A sum of ₹12,000 is lent at 8% simple interest per annum. What amount is repayable after 3 years and 6 months?
Your diagnosis appears here
The engine is watching the clock, not just the answer.
Common questions
IBPS RRB — frequently asked
Who conducts IBPS RRB?
IBPS RRB — Officer Scale I/II/III & Office Assistant is conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), for the Regional Rural Banks.
When is the next IBPS RRB exam?
The exam dates are already published but the notification is not. IBPS's 2026-27 calendar fixes Officer Scale I prelims for 21–22 November 2026, Office Assistant prelims for 6, 12 and 13 December, the Scale I mains and the Scale II/III single exam for 20 December, and the Office Assistant mains for 30 January 2027 — all tentative. What is missing is the CRP RRBs-XV notification itself, and with it the vacancy count and the registration window; reporting points to August or September 2026, matching last year, when registration ran 1–21 September 2025.
How many vacancies or seats does IBPS RRB have?
13,316 in the 2025 cycle across 28 RRBs (8,002 Office Assistant, 4,128 Scale I, 1,184 Scale II, 202 Scale III); 2026 count not yet notified.
What is the IBPS RRB exam pattern?
The paper is Prelims 80; Mains 200. Timing: Prelims 45 min (2 sections); Mains 120 min (5 sections).
Is there negative marking in IBPS RRB?
One-fourth of the marks assigned to that question, per wrong answer.
What is the eligibility for IBPS RRB?
Office Assistant: a bachelor's degree in any discipline; age 18–28 Officer Scale I: a bachelor's degree in any discipline, with preference for agriculture, IT, management, law, economics or accountancy; age 18–30 Officer Scale II: a bachelor's degree with at least 50%, plus relevant specialisation and one to two years of experience for the specialist cadres; age 21–32 Officer Scale III: a bachelor's degree with at least 50% and five years of officer-level banking experience; age 21–40 Age is reckoned as on 1 September 2026, with OBC +3, SC/ST +5 and PwBD +10 relaxation Office Assistant candidates must be proficient in the local language of the state or union territory of the RRB applied to Fee ₹850; ₹175 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates
How many candidates appear for IBPS RRB?
Not published by IBPS.
Which languages is IBPS RRB available in?
English & Hindi; Office Assistant additionally requires local-language proficiency.
What is the IBPS RRB syllabus?
The paper covers Puzzles, seating arrangement, order and ranking, Syllogism, inequality, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, Simplification, approximation and number series, Data Interpretation — table, bar, line, caselet, Arithmetic: percentage, ratio, average, interest, time & work, speed, Banking awareness and current affairs, Static general knowledge and government schemes, Rural banking, priority-sector lending and agricultural finance, English or Hindi language — comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, Computer fundamentals, MS Office, internet and networking basics.
Related
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Honesty note: Adversarial verify pass pending (agent budget) — both question keys manually re-solved and confirmed. Nothing here was read from an official notification PDF: ibps.in served an untrusted TLS certificate on every attempt in this pass, so patterns, eligibility and the 2025 vacancy split rest on prep portals that agree with one another, with exam dates cross-checked against the official 2026-27 calendar as those portals reproduce it. One unresolved conflict is printed honestly: two sources place the Officer Scale I mains and the Scale II/III single exam on 20 December 2026 while a third says 27 December — the 20 December date is shown because two independent sources carry it. The 2026 vacancy count is genuinely unknown: CRP RRBs-XV had not been notified as of 9 August 2026, so no number is shown rather than an estimate, and the expected notification window (August–September 2026) is inference from last year's 1–21 September registration, not an announcement. The 28-RRB count and the 13,316 split belong to the 2025 cycle and will change. IBPS publishes no applicant or attendance data, and RRB cutoffs are state-wise and post-wise, so no single cutoff figure is quoted.
You've read the brief.
Now sit the paper.