IBPS PO Exam Pattern 2025: Exam Timings, Subjects, Total Marks and Negative Marking

The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection has released the IBPS PO exam pattern 2025 in its official notification PDF. The IBPS PO exam consists of Prelims, Mains and Interview. The Prelims is held for a total of 100 marks for English Language, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability subjects. The Mains exam is for 200 marks that has subjects such as Reasoning, General/Economy/Banking Awareness / Digital/Financial Awareness (incl. RBI circulars), English Language and Data Analysis & Interpretation. Know more details about the latest IBPS PO exam pattern on this page.

IBPS PO Exam Pattern 2025 

The IBPS PO Exam Pattern 2025 has been released by the IBPS along with the notification PDF on 30th June 2025. The IBPS PO exam consists of three stages, Prelims, Mains and Interview. Candidates need to qualify each stage of the exam to be eligible for an appointment. The Prelims is objective in nature, while the Mains is a combination of an objective test and a descriptive test. There is also a negative marking for each incorrect answer marked by the candidate in each of the tests. Read this post to know more about the IBPS PO exam pattern for the Pre and Main exam. 

IBPS PO Prelims Exam Pattern 

The IBPS PO exam consists of three subjects, English Language, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability. The exam shall be held in online mode only and shall be objective in nature having multipole choice questions. Here are salient features of IBPS PO exam pattern for Prelims exam: 

• Each section is separately timed for 20 minutes each, making the total exam duration 60 minutes.
• The exam shall be held in English medium for English Language and in Hindi medium for Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning Ability sections.
• The Prelims exam of IBPS PO is only to shortlist candidates for the Mains exam. Its marks will not be used to determine the merit list. 

The following table has segregated details indicating the IBPS PO exam pattern consisting of subjects, number of questions, maximum marks, medium of exam and time allotted. 

IBPS PO Mains Exam Pattern 

Candidates who manage to achieve the required cut off marks are eligible to appear for the IBPS PO Mains exam. The Mains exam is crucial as the marks obtained in this shall be used for determining the merit list. The IBPS PO Mains exam pattern is a combination of objective and descriptive papers.

IBPS PO Mains Exam Pattern for Objective Test 

The IBPS PO Mains exam consists of four subjects, Reasoning, General/Economy/Banking Awareness / Digital/Financial Awareness (incl. RBI circulars), English Language and Data Analysis & Interpretation. All the questions are objective in nature. The total marks for Mains paper is 200 marks for a duration of 160 minutes. The following table gives mire clear picture of the IBPS PO Mains exam for objective test. 

IBPS PO Mains Exam Pattern for Descriptive Test 

The descriptive test shall be held the same day as the objective test. The IBPS PO Mains descriptive test shall have an essay and comprehension paper for a total of 25 marks. The descriptive test may be based on Economic and Social issues, emerging trends in Banking and Technology, Current events, Ethics etc. It has to be attempted in English medium only for a duration of 30 minutes. 

IBPS PO Interview/Personality Test 

The interview or personality test is the last round of the IBPS PO selection process. Only those candidates are eligible to appear for the interview who qualify the Mains exam. This is non qualifying in nature. However, it is mandatory to appear for the interview. 

Is there a negative marking in IBPS PO 2025 Exam? 

Yes, for each incorrect answer marked by the candidate, there is a negative making of 0.25 mark. No marks are deducted for attempted questions. 

IBPS PO 2025 Marking Pattern

The candidates will obtain full marks, i.e. 1 mark for each correct answer. In case of incorrect answer key marked, there is a penalty of 0.25 mark. No marks is deducted or awarded for unattempted questions.