Your guide for IBPS PO selection procedure

Are you seeking job in bank and practicing hard to clear the Bank PO competitive test? Well, here we bring you a complete guide to IBPS PO selection process along with types of Questions asked in IBPS PO Interviews that will make your preparations easier.

The job of a bank probationary officer (PO) is a lucrative career option for which lakhs and lakhs of aspirant contest every year as it is the initial stages of taking up the service of an officer in Bank. The selection of eligible candidates is done by Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). Cracking the IBPS PO selection process is very tough and requires thorough preparations for the IBPS PO Main Exam and IBPS PO interview.  

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) has recently invited applications for the recruitment of Probationary Officers/ Management Trainees with participating organisations. To appear in the IBPS PO Prelims, IBPS PO Main Exam and IBPS PO interview, interested candidates will have to first register themselves for the Common Recruitment Process (CWE PO/MT-VII).

Pre-Examination Training in IBPS PO selection process

Pre-Examination training may be arranged by the Nodal Banks/ Participating Organisations to a limited number of candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribes/ Minority Communities at certain centres across India.

All eligible candidates who opt for and wish to avail of Pre-Examination Training should fill in the relevant column in the online application. While training will be imparted free of cost, all other expenses regarding travelling, boarding, lodging etc. will have to be borne by the candidate for attending the pre examination training programme at the designated Centres. Depending on the response and administrative feasibility the right to cancel any of the Pre- Examination Training Centres and/ or add some other Centres and/ or make alternate arrangements is reserved. By merely attending the Pre-Examination Training no candidate acquires any right to be selected in any of the Participating Organisations mentioned.

Online Examination for IBPS PO selection process

I. The structure of the Examinations which will be conducted online are as follows:

a. Preliminary Examination

Sr.No	Name of Tests	No. of Qs	Maximum Marks	Duration
1.	English Language	30	30	Composite time of 1 hour
2.	Quantitative Aptitude	35	35
3.	Reasoning Ability	35	35
	Total	100	100

Candidates have to qualify in each of the three tests by securing cut-off marks to be decided by IBPS. Adequate
number of candidates in each category as decided by IBPS depending upon requirements will be shortlisted for
Online Main Examination.

b. Main Examination

Sr.No	Name of Tests (Not BY SEQUENCE)	No. of Questions	Maximum Marks	Medium of Exam	Time allotted for each test (Separately timed)
1.	Reasoning	50	50	English & Hindi	40 minutes
2.	English Language	40	40	English	30 minutes
3.	Quantitative Aptitude	50	50	English & Hindi	40 minutes
4.	General Awareness (with special reference to Banking)	40	40	English & Hindi	20 minutes
5.	Computer Knowledge	20	20	English & Hindi	10 minutes
	Total	200	200		140 minutes

Marking pattern in IBPS PO selection process

The corrected scores obtained by each of the candidates in different sessions (if held) will be

• normalised using equi-percentile method.  

• Scores up to two decimal points shall be taken for the purpose of calculations

However, for cut-off score i.e online main examination, candidates will be required to obtain a minimum score in each test of online main examination and also a minimum total score to be considered to be shortlisted for interview. Depending upon the number of vacancies available, cut-offs will be decided and candidates will be shortlisted for interview. Prior to the completion of the interview process, scores obtained in the online main examination will not be shared with the candidates shortlisted for interview. Marks obtained in the main examination only will be considered for the short listing of interview and also for final merit listing.

Is there Negative marking in IBPS PO selection process

There is a penalty for wrong answers marked in the objective tests of IBPS PO Prelims and IBPS PO Main Exam

For each question for which a wrong answer has been given by the candidate one fourth or 0.25 of the marks assigned to that question will be deducted as penalty to arrive at corrected score. If a question is left blank, i.e. no answer is marked by the candidate; there will be no penalty for that question.

IBPS PO interview  

IBPS PO interview is another stage of IBPS PO selection process, which is important and not easy to clear.

• Candidates who have been shortlisted in the main examination for CWE PO/MT-VII will subsequently be called for an interview to be conducted by the participating organisations and coordinated by the Nodal Bank in each State/ UT with the help of IBPS.

• Interviews will be conducted at select centres. The centre, address of the venue, time & date of interview will be informed to the shortlisted candidates in the call letter. The interview call letters can be downloaded from authorised IBPS website.

• The total marks allotted for Interview are 100. The minimum qualifying marks in interview will not be less than 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PWD candidates). The weightage (ratio) of CWE (Main exam) and interview will be 80:20 respectively.

• The combined final score of candidates shall be arrived at on the basis of scores obtained by the candidates in the Main Examination of CWE PO/MT-VII and Interview. Interview score of the candidates 7 failing to secure minimum qualifying marks or otherwise barred from the interview or further process shall not be disclosed. A candidate should qualify both in the CWE (Main) and interview and be sufficiently high in the merit to be shortlisted for subsequent provisional allotment process, details of which will be made available subsequently on IBPS website.

• While appearing for the interview, the candidate should produce valid prescribed documents given below. In the absence of documents candidature of the candidates shall be cancelled.

• Non submission of requisite documents by the candidate at the time of interview will debar his candidature from further participation in the recruitment process.

Types of questions asked in IBPS PO interviews

Candidates gain a lot of knowledge and aptitude with the IBPS PO interview experience as they have to go through rigorous preparations for both written exam and interview. Many competitive exam preparation books with solved papers and tentative IBPS PO interview questions are available in the market.

Here below are some the frequently asked IBPS PO interview questions that can help in the preparations:

• Why you want to enter in Banking industry?

• Why are you not working anywhere from past 6 months ?

• Can you shift to another city ?

• Why you left your previous job ?

• Why don’t you join your father’s business ?

• What is CRR?

• What is SLR?

• What is Bank rate?

• What are open market operations?

• What is Sensex and how it is calculated?

• What is CP ?

• What are various services provided by a commercial bank ?

• What is PPF?

• What are various investments under section 80(C) of Income Tax act?

• What are NPAs?

• What was the purpose of setting up NABARD?

• NABARD is the apex institution for the development of farm sector cottage What are various functions of RBI?

• What is IRDA and what are its functions?

• What are Derivatives ?

• What is an Option in derivative market ?

• What is Call option and Put option ?

• What is GDP ?

• What is GNP ?

• What is Monetary Policy?

• What is Fiscal policy?

• What is Fiscal deficit?

• What is DeMat account ?

• What is RuPay card?

• Bull and Bear market?

• What is SWIFT?

• What is Service Tax?

• What is Mutual Fund ?

• What is safest type of fund ?

• Mutual Fund is a pool of fund where investors invests their money for a common ?

• What is GST?

IBPS PO interview experience is a lifetime gain of knowledge and education, irrespective of you get selected or not. So what, you cannot make through the IBPS PO selection? With this level of preparation you are ready to take any other competitive exams too. Therefore, work hard and get going.

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