Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) is an autonomous body that conducts Common Written Exam (CWE) to recruit candidates for various specialized posts in different nationalized banks. The specialist officers are hired for both Scale I and Scale II posts in different Public Sector Banks.
CWE is a pre-requisite for selection of the candidates as officers from different areas like Agriculture Field Officer, Finance, Marketing, Law, Information Technology, Human Resource and Rajbhasha Adhikari.
The overall Selection Process is as follows:
- Preliminary Exam
- Main Exam
- Interview
Let’s check out the detailed Exam Pattern of IBPS Specialist Officer CWE:
Specialist Officer Preliminary Exam pattern 2019
| Sections |
No. of Questions |
Marks |
Duration (minutes) |
| English Language |
50 |
25 |
40 |
| Reasoning |
50 |
50 |
40 |
| General/Banking Awareness (for Law officer & Rajsabha Adhikari only) |
50 |
50 |
40 |
| Quantitative Aptitude (for other specialist posts only) |
50 |
50 |
40 |
- The online preliminary test consists of 150 questions and is objective in nature.
- Except for one section (General awareness/Quantative aptitude), rest of the sections are common for all specialist posts.
- Any incorrect attempt in objective questions charges a penalty of 0.25 marks.
- The total duration is 2 hours and the test is of 125 marks.
- The paper is bilingual- Both Hindi and English
Main Exam Pattern (Rajbhasha Adhikari Scale) 2019
| Sections |
Total Questions |
Duration |
| Professional Knowledge (Objective) |
45 |
30 minutes |
| Professional Knowledge (Descriptive) |
2 |
30 minutes |
- The test is a computer based i.e. online and is objective in nature.
- Every incorrect attempt charges a penalty of 0.25 marks.
- The total duration is 1 hour and the test is of 60 marks.
- The paper is bilingual- Both Hindi and English
Main Exam Pattern (Law Officer, I.T Officer, Agriculture Officer, Marketing Officer & HR Officer) 2019
| Sections |
Total Questions |
Total Marks |
Duration |
| Professional Knowledge |
60 |
60 |
45 minutes |
- The test for these posts also is conducted online and is objective type.
- There is the deduction of 0.25 marks for every wrong attempt.
- The total duration of the test is 45 minutes.
- The medium of the paper is both in English and Hindi.
Personal Interview (PI)
All the candidates who clear the sectional and the overall cutoffs for the online examination and fulfill all the academic requirements become eligible for the interview round. Some Banks also conduct a Group Discussion round before the PI. The interview is conducted by the participating organizations and is coordinated by the nodal banks with the help of IBPS. The combined final merit list is prepared considering marks obtained in mains examination (80%) and interview (20%). This round carries 100 marks and the candidates clearing this round are finally selected in the banks.
