Government · Central · Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS)
IBPS Specialist Officer
Six different exams wearing one name. Professional Knowledge pays double marks — and it alone decides who reaches the interview.
What this exam is
IBPS SO is not one exam but six, sharing a notification and a date. The 2026 cycle — CRP SPL-XVI — went out on 1 July for 1,035 Scale-I posts, revised up from an initial 745, and the split is nothing like even: IT Officer 376 and Agriculture Field Officer 370 take most of it, then Law Officer 125, Rajbhasha Adhikari 94, HR/Personnel 60, and Marketing Officer just 10. Which post you tick decides both the paper you sit and the odds you face.
The prelims changed shape this cycle. It is now 100 questions for 125 marks in 80 minutes — four locked 20-minute sections — because Professional Knowledge was pulled forward into the screening stage and given 25 questions worth 50 marks. Every other section pays one mark a question; yours pays two. Law Officer and Rajbhasha candidates sit a different mix, swapping Quantitative Aptitude for banking General Awareness alongside their subject paper.
Then mains narrows to the specialism alone: 60 Professional Knowledge questions in 45 minutes, and for Rajbhasha Adhikari, 45 objective questions plus a descriptive paper. Prelims marks do not travel — the merit list is built from mains and the interview, and the shortlist for that interview is drawn on Professional Knowledge. The aptitude sections get you into the room; your subject decides whether you leave with the job.
Who can sit it
- Age 20–30 as on 1 July 2026, with OBC-NCL +3, SC/ST +5 and PwBD +10 relaxation
- IT Officer: a four-year engineering or technology degree in computer science, IT or electronics & communications, or an equivalent postgraduate degree
- Agriculture Field Officer: a four-year degree in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry or an allied field
- Law Officer: a bachelor's degree in law and enrolment as an advocate
- Rajbhasha Adhikari: a postgraduate degree in Hindi with English at degree level, or in Sanskrit with Hindi and English
- HR/Personnel Officer: a graduate degree plus a full-time postgraduate qualification in personnel management, HR or social work
- Marketing Officer: a graduate degree plus a full-time MBA or MMS in marketing
- Fee ₹850; ₹175 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates
The paper, stage by stage
| Stage | Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelims · IT, Agriculture, HR, Marketing | English Language | 25 | 25 | 20 min, locked |
| Prelims · IT, Agriculture, HR, Marketing | Reasoning | 25 | 25 | 20 min, locked |
| Prelims · IT, Agriculture, HR, Marketing | Quantitative Aptitude | 25 | 25 | 20 min, locked |
| Prelims · IT, Agriculture, HR, Marketing | Professional Knowledge — new to prelims in 2026; two marks a question | 25 | 50 | 20 min, locked |
| Prelims · Law & Rajbhasha | English Language · Reasoning · General Awareness with special reference to banking — one mark a question | 75 | 75 | 3 × 20 min, locked |
| Prelims · Law & Rajbhasha | Subject-specific paper — two marks a question | 25 | 50 | 20 min, locked |
| Mains | Professional Knowledge — IT, Agriculture, Law, HR and Marketing candidates | 60 | 60 | 45 min |
| Mains | Professional Knowledge (Rajbhasha Adhikari) — objective paper plus a descriptive paper | 45 objective + 2 descriptive | 60 | 30 min + 30 min |
| Interview | Common interview conducted by the participating banks. Merit = mains + interview; prelims marks are not carried forward | — | 100 | — |
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Common questions
IBPS SO — frequently asked
Who conducts IBPS SO?
IBPS Specialist Officer is conducted by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
When is the next IBPS SO exam?
The 2026 cycle is past its application window and into the exam run: prelims on 29 August 2026, mains on 1 November, interviews through November and December, allotment expected in January 2027. Both exam dates come from IBPS's own calendar and carry its 'tentative' label. Vacancy counts move a lot between cycles — 1,402 in 2023, 2,973 in 2024, 949 in 2025, 1,035 now — so the intake is worth re-reading every year rather than assumed.
How many vacancies or seats does IBPS SO have?
1,035 Scale-I posts (2026, revised from 745); 949 in 2025, 2,973 in 2024.
What is the IBPS SO exam pattern?
The paper is Prelims 100; Mains 60 (Rajbhasha: 45 objective + 2 descriptive). Timing: Prelims 80 min (4 × 20-min locked sections); Mains 45 min.
Is there negative marking in IBPS SO?
0.25 marks per wrong answer in prelims and mains objective papers.
What is the eligibility for IBPS SO?
Age 20–30 as on 1 July 2026, with OBC-NCL +3, SC/ST +5 and PwBD +10 relaxation IT Officer: a four-year engineering or technology degree in computer science, IT or electronics & communications, or an equivalent postgraduate degree Agriculture Field Officer: a four-year degree in agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry or an allied field Law Officer: a bachelor's degree in law and enrolment as an advocate Rajbhasha Adhikari: a postgraduate degree in Hindi with English at degree level, or in Sanskrit with Hindi and English HR/Personnel Officer: a graduate degree plus a full-time postgraduate qualification in personnel management, HR or social work Marketing Officer: a graduate degree plus a full-time MBA or MMS in marketing Fee ₹850; ₹175 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates
How many candidates appear for IBPS SO?
Not published by IBPS.
Which languages is IBPS SO available in?
English & Hindi; the English paper in English only.
What is the IBPS SO syllabus?
The paper covers Professional Knowledge — computer networks, DBMS, operating systems, software engineering (IT Officer), Professional Knowledge — agronomy, soil science, horticulture, agricultural economics and rural finance (AFO), Professional Knowledge — contract, company, banking and negotiable-instruments law (Law Officer), Professional Knowledge — industrial relations, labour law, training and compensation (HR), Professional Knowledge — consumer behaviour, brand and retail management, digital marketing (Marketing), Hindi grammar, translation and official-language policy (Rajbhasha), Reading comprehension, error spotting, cloze test, para jumbles, Puzzles, seating arrangement, syllogism, inequality, coding-decoding, Data Interpretation, simplification, arithmetic and number series, Banking awareness and current affairs (Law and Rajbhasha streams).
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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 the official notification PDF: ibps.in served an untrusted TLS certificate on every attempt in this pass, so vacancies, the post-wise split and both patterns rest on prep portals that agree with each other, with exam dates cross-checked against the official calendar as those portals reproduce it. The revised prelims structure (Professional Knowledge moved into prelims at 25 questions for 50 marks, total 100 questions / 125 marks / 80 minutes) is reported consistently but should be confirmed against the CRP SPL-XVI notification before anyone plans around it. One source describes an expanded 225-mark mains combining aptitude sections, Professional Knowledge and a descriptive paper; that could not be corroborated, so the mains shown here is the Professional Knowledge paper the other sources agree on. The 1,035 figure is a revision upward from 745 reported by portals — no corrigendum PDF was seen. Prior-cycle vacancy counts (949, 2,973, 1,402) and the 2025 IT Officer general prelims cutoff of 58.25 come from a single compilation. IBPS publishes no applicant data.
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