Interview experience
SBI Interview Questions and Answers (2026)
Overview
Section titled “Overview”SBI runs two structurally different hiring pipelines: a large-scale, exam-based route (Prelims, Mains, Group Exercise, Interview) for PO and Clerk roles, and a much shorter, interview-only route for Specialist Cadre Officer (SCO) roles - including most IT positions - where the written exam is skipped entirely.
SBI interview process at a glance
Section titled “SBI interview process at a glance”| Round | Duration | What they test |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims (PO/Clerk) | 1 hour | English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning - qualifying only |
| Mains (PO/Clerk) | ~3 hours | Objective sections + Descriptive Test (essay/letter); Psychometric Test for PO |
| Group Exercise (PO/Clerk) | 20-30 min | Group discussion/exercise, teamwork and communication |
| Personal Interview (PO/Clerk) | 15-20 min | Banking awareness, motivation, background |
| Interview only (Specialist Cadre Officer / IT roles) | 30-45 min | Domain knowledge (networking, programming, cybersecurity, cloud) - no written exam |
Prelims (PO/Clerk)
Section titled “Prelims (PO/Clerk)”A 1-hour, 100-mark qualifying test covering English Language, Quantitative Aptitude, and Reasoning Ability. It’s a filter only - marks don’t carry forward to the merit list.
Common questions
- Reading comprehension, cloze test, error spotting (English)
- Simplification, data interpretation, percentages (Quantitative Aptitude)
- Puzzles, seating arrangement, syllogism (Reasoning)
Mains (PO/Clerk)
Section titled “Mains (PO/Clerk)”A roughly 3-hour test combining objective sections (Reasoning & Computer Aptitude, Data Analysis & Interpretation, General/Economy/Banking Awareness, English) with a Descriptive Test (essay and letter writing). PO Mains adds a Psychometric Test.
Common questions
- Essay writing and formal letter writing on banking/economy topics
- Banking and financial awareness - RBI policies, banking terms, recent developments
- Data interpretation and computer aptitude MCQs
Group Exercise (PO/Clerk)
Section titled “Group Exercise (PO/Clerk)”A 20-mark group discussion or case-study exercise run alongside the Personal Interview on the same day, assessing communication, decision-making, and how you engage with a group under time pressure.
Common questions
- Case-study or scenario-based group discussion topics on banking/economy
- Current-affairs discussion prompts tied to the financial sector
Personal Interview (PO/Clerk)
Section titled “Personal Interview (PO/Clerk)”A 30-mark, one-on-one interview covering personal background, academics, banking awareness, current affairs, and situational questions - carrying most of the weight in the final 50-mark interview stage.
Common questions
- Tell me about yourself?
- Why do you want to join SBI, and why banking?
- What recent RBI policy or banking-sector development have you followed?
- How would you handle a situation where a bank customer is dissatisfied with a service or process?
- Questions on your hobbies, academics, and local/regional awareness
Interview (Specialist Cadre Officer / IT roles)
Section titled “Interview (Specialist Cadre Officer / IT roles)”The entire selection for SCO/IT roles rests on a single interview carrying 100 marks - there is no written exam. Shortlisting happens on qualification and experience, so the interview itself goes deep on your stated specialization, alongside physical document verification.
Common questions
- Core networking concepts and cybersecurity fundamentals
- Programming basics relevant to your role (Java, Python, SQL)
- Cloud fundamentals and infrastructure concepts
- Detailed walkthrough of your past projects or work experience
- Domain-specific questions tied to the exact SCO/IT posting (e.g. security operations, application development, infrastructure)
Sample answer frameworks for the interview stage are on the SBI HR interview questions page.
PO/Clerk exam route vs SCO/IT interview-only route
Section titled “PO/Clerk exam route vs SCO/IT interview-only route”SBI’s two hiring pipelines look nothing alike. PO and Clerk hiring runs through IBPS-style Prelims and Mains exams before a Group Exercise and Personal Interview decide the merit list - it’s non-technical, high-volume, and tests aptitude, reasoning, English, and banking awareness. Specialist Cadre Officer roles, a separate track SBI opens periodically for specific IT/technical postings (usually requiring several years of relevant experience, so most freshers won’t be eligible), skip the written exam entirely: candidates are shortlisted on qualification and experience, then selected purely on a single 100-mark interview that probes real technical depth (networking, programming, cybersecurity, cloud). If you’re prepping for an SBI “interview,” check which route your posting falls under first - the prep looks completely different.
Common technical interview questions and answers
Section titled “Common technical interview questions and answers”Q: What are the repo rate and reverse repo rate, and who decides them?
The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to commercial banks against government securities; the reverse repo rate is what the RBI pays banks for parking surplus funds with it. Raising the repo rate makes bank borrowing costlier, which pushes up lending rates, cools credit demand and helps contain inflation - cutting it does the opposite to support growth. Rates are set by the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (three RBI members including the Governor, who has a casting vote, and three members appointed by the central government), which meets bi-monthly against a CPI inflation target of 4 percent with a tolerance band of plus or minus 2 percent. Since 2022 the RBI has used the Standing Deposit Facility rate rather than the reverse repo as the effective floor of the corridor.
Q: What is the difference between CRR and SLR?
Both are reserve requirements, but they work differently. The Cash Reserve Ratio is the share of a bank’s net demand and time liabilities it must keep as cash with the RBI, and it earns no interest. The Statutory Liquidity Ratio is the share it must hold in its own books as cash, gold, or approved securities - mainly government bonds - which does earn a return. So CRR directly drains lendable money from the system and is the sharper liquidity tool, while SLR is a solvency-and-liquidity cushion that also creates a captive market for government debt. In recent years CRR has sat in the region of 4 percent and SLR around 18 percent of NDTL.
Q: What is an NPA, and how are NPAs classified?
A loan becomes a Non-Performing Asset when the borrower has not paid interest or principal for more than 90 days (different norms apply to agricultural loans, tied to crop seasons). NPAs are then classified by how long they have stayed bad: a substandard asset has been an NPA for up to 12 months, a doubtful asset for more than 12 months, and a loss asset is one identified as uncollectible where recovery is not expected. Banks must set aside provisions from profit that rise with each category, so a growing NPA book directly hits profitability. Gross NPA is the total bad-loan value; net NPA is gross NPA minus provisions already made.
Q: What is the CASA ratio, and why do banks care about it?
CASA stands for Current Account and Savings Account. The CASA ratio is the share of a bank’s total deposits held in current and savings accounts rather than in term deposits. It matters because current accounts pay no interest and savings accounts pay very little, while fixed deposits pay much more - so a high CASA ratio means a cheaper deposit base, a lower cost of funds, and a wider net interest margin. SBI’s very large branch and salary-account base is exactly why its CASA ratio is a headline number in its results, and it is a fair question to expect in a PO interview.
Q: What is the difference between NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and UPI?
RTGS settles each transaction individually and in real time, is meant for large values with a minimum of Rs 2 lakh and no upper limit, and is available 24x7. NEFT has no minimum or maximum and also runs 24x7, but settles in half-hourly batches rather than one by one. IMPS is an NPCI service giving instant round-the-clock transfers, typically up to Rs 5 lakh, using account number and IFSC or an MMID. UPI, also from NPCI, layers a mobile-first interface over the same instant rails, letting you pay with a VPA or QR code without sharing account details, with a standard per-transaction cap of Rs 1 lakh that is higher for certain categories.
Q: What is Priority Sector Lending?
Priority Sector Lending is an RBI mandate requiring domestic scheduled commercial banks to lend a set share of their Adjusted Net Bank Credit - 40 percent - to sectors the economy needs served but that markets underserve. Eligible categories include agriculture, micro/small and medium enterprises, export credit, education, housing, social infrastructure, renewable energy, and lending to weaker sections. There are sub-targets on top of the overall figure, notably 18 percent for agriculture and 10 percent for weaker sections. Banks that fall short must place the shortfall in funds such as the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, or buy Priority Sector Lending Certificates from banks that have exceeded their target.
Q: What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?
Symmetric encryption uses one shared secret key for both encryption and decryption - AES is the standard example. It is fast and suited to bulk data, but both parties must somehow exchange the key securely first. Asymmetric encryption uses a mathematically linked key pair: the public key encrypts and only the matching private key decrypts, as in RSA or elliptic-curve schemes. It solves key distribution and enables digital signatures, but it is far slower. Real systems combine them, which is what HTTPS does: an asymmetric handshake authenticates the server and agrees a session key, then all traffic is encrypted symmetrically with that key.
Q: What is the difference between TCP and UDP, and where does each sit in the OSI model?
Both are transport-layer protocols - layer 4 of the OSI model. TCP is connection-oriented: it sets up a session with a three-way handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK), numbers its segments, retransmits lost ones, and applies flow and congestion control, so data arrives complete and in order. That reliability costs latency and header overhead. UDP is connectionless and fire-and-forget - no handshake, no retransmission, no ordering guarantee - which makes it lighter and better for voice, video and DNS, where a late packet is worse than a missing one. Banking traffic such as web and core-banking sessions rides on TCP, since correctness matters more than a few milliseconds.
Frequently asked questions about SBI interviews
Section titled “Frequently asked questions about SBI interviews”What is the SBI recruitment process for PO and Clerk roles?
SBI hires PO and Clerk staff through its own exam-based route, not a typical corporate pipeline: 1. Prelims (1 hour, 100 marks, qualifying) - English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning. 2. Mains (around 3 hours) - objective sections plus a Descriptive Test (essay/letter writing) and, for PO, a Psychometric Test. 3. Group Exercise (20 marks) and Personal Interview (30 marks), for a combined 50 marks that decides the final merit list. The full cycle from prelims to interview typically spans several months.
Is there a written exam for all SBI roles?
No. The PO and Clerk route requires clearing Prelims and Mains before the interview stage. But for Specialist Cadre Officer (SCO) roles, including many IT positions, SBI often skips the written exam entirely - candidates are shortlisted directly on qualification and experience, then selected purely on interview performance (100 marks).
How many rounds are there in the SBI interview process?
For PO/Clerk: Prelims, Mains, and a final stage combining a Group Exercise and Personal Interview. For Specialist Cadre Officer/IT roles: typically just a profile-based shortlist followed by a single Interview round, with no written test.
How should I prepare for the SBI interview?
For the PO/Clerk interview and group exercise, stay current on banking and financial awareness (RBI policies, banking terms, recent developments) since interviewers probe this heavily alongside your background and motivation for banking. For SCO/IT interviews, be ready to go deep on networking, programming basics (Java/Python/SQL), cybersecurity, and cloud fundamentals since the interview itself carries the full selection weight.
What questions are asked in the SBI SCO/IT interview?
SBI Specialist Cadre Officer IT interviews are interview-only (100 marks, no written test) and go deep on the candidate’s stated specialization - core networking and cybersecurity concepts, programming fundamentals (Java/Python/SQL), cloud basics, and a detailed walkthrough of past project or work experience, since shortlisting itself is based on qualification and experience rather than a screening test.
What does SBI’s Group Exercise round involve?
The Group Exercise (20 marks, PO/Clerk route) is a group discussion or case-study exercise assessing communication, decision-making, and how you engage with a group under time pressure - distinct from the one-on-one Personal Interview (30 marks) that follows it on the same day.