IBPS SO Exam Pattern 2021
The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) has released the notification for the post of Specialist Officer (SO) 2021 for 1800+ vacancies for recruitment into the public sector banks of the country. In order to grab a seat as a specialist officer in IBPS candidates have to appear for the online written examination and crack the cut-off as disclosed by the officials of IBPS.
The IBPS SO Exam Pattern comprises of Reasoning Ability, Quantitative Aptitude, English language, and Professional knowledge. The syllabus of Professional knowledge varies as per the post for which a candidate has applied.
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IBPS SO Exam Pattern 2021
The IBPS SO selection for all the posts is done through an online Preliminary Exam followed by Mains Exam and lastly an interview. The IBPS SO Exam Pattern is indicated here for the following mentioned posts.
- Agriculture Field Officer
- Marketing Officer (Scale I)
- HR/Personnel Officer
- IT Officer Scale I
- Law Officer
- Rajbhasha Adhikari Scale I

IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern 2021
After successful conduction of the IBPS Prelims Exam, IBPS will release a cutoff as per the category of the candidate. The shortlisted candidates will be issued admit cards to appear for the IBPS SO Mains Exam. The IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern will comprise of Professional knowledge related to the discipline of the candidates.
We have depicted the exam pattern for all the posts of IBPS SO in the subsequent section for the Prelims, Mains, and Interview.
For the Post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer
The Mains Exam for IBPS SO for the post of Law Officer, IT Officer, Agriculture Field Officer, HR/Personnel Officer, and Marketing Officer will have professional knowledge questions related to the post that is selected by the candidates.
- All the questions will be objective multiple-choice questions.
- There is a negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question.
- The duration of the online test for the IBPS SO Mains Exam will be 45 Minutes.
- The IBPS SO Mains Exam will be bilingual i.e. in English and Hindi
- There will be a total of 60 Questions of a total of 60 Marks.
Name of the Test | No. of Qs. | Max. Marks | Duration |
Professional Knowledge | 60 | 60 | 45 minutes |
For the Post of Rajbhasha Adhikari
The IBPS SO Mains Exam Pattern for the post of Rajbhasha Adhikari is different as compared to the rest of the posts.
- IBPS SO Rajbhasha Adhikari Question Paper will comprise of Objective and Descriptive Papers.
- There is a negative marking of one-fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question.
- The duration for each of the papers will be of 30 minutes each.
- 45 Questions will be there for the Objective Type Questions while 2 Questions will be for the Descriptive Paper.
- The test will be of a total of 60 Marks.
Name of the Test | No. of Qs. | Max. Marks | Duration |
Professional Knowledge (Objective) | 45 | 60 | 30 minutes |
Professional Knowledge (Descriptive) | 2 | 30 minutes |