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SBI SO (Specialist Cadre Officer) mock test
Government Exams · Syllabus

SBI SO (Specialist Cadre Officer) Syllabus 2026

The complete SBI SO (Specialist Cadre Officer) syllabus for 2026 — 7 sections and 63 topics in all, organised exactly as the State Bank of India Central Recruitment & Promotion Department (CRPD) prescribes. Use it as your revision checklist, then test yourself with a free SBI SO (Specialist Cadre Officer) mock below.

Reasoning Ability (Online Written Test)11 topics

  • Puzzles — floor-based, day-based, year-based, hybrid floor+flat
  • Seating arrangement — linear, parallel rows, circular, square
  • Blood relations (including coded relations)
  • Syllogisms (two and three statements, possibility cases)
  • Statement and assumptions, statement and conclusions, course of action, cause and effect
  • Coded and direct inequalities
  • Direction and distance
  • Coding-decoding
  • Alphanumeric series
  • Input-output machine
  • Data sufficiency in reasoning

Quantitative Aptitude (Online Written Test)12 topics

  • Number system, simplification, approximation
  • Percentages, profit-loss-discount, partnership, average
  • Ratio and proportion, mixture and alligation
  • Simple interest and compound interest (including mixed)
  • Time and work, pipes and cisterns, time-speed-distance (boats, trains, relative speed)
  • Ages, problems on ages with successive change
  • Permutation, combination and probability
  • Quadratic equations and quadratic comparison
  • Mensuration — 2D and 3D figures
  • Data Interpretation — bar, line, pie, table, caselet DI, mixed DI
  • Number series
  • Data sufficiency

English Language (Online Written Test)8 topics

  • Reading comprehension — domain-relevant passages (banking, finance, technology, legal, marketing as per stream)
  • Cloze test
  • Para jumble
  • Error spotting and sentence correction
  • Fill in the blanks (single and double)
  • Sentence improvement
  • Vocabulary in context — synonym, antonym, one-word substitution, idioms
  • Word usage and phrase replacement

Professional Knowledge — Credit Analyst / Risk / Finance streams8 topics

  • Financial statement analysis — Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Flow Statement, ratio analysis (liquidity, solvency, profitability, efficiency, market-value ratios)
  • Credit appraisal — CMA data, Tandon and Chore committees, working capital assessment (Operating Cycle, Turnover, Cash Budget methods)
  • Term loan appraisal — DSCR, IRR, NPV, sensitivity analysis, risk assessment
  • BASEL III/IV norms — capital adequacy, CET1, AT1, Tier 1, Tier 2, CCB, leverage ratio, LCR, NSFR, RWA computation
  • Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS), IFRS basics, ECL provisioning under Ind AS 109
  • SARFAESI Act 2002, IBC 2016 (CIRP, waterfall under Sec 53, pre-pack), DRT/DRAT
  • Risk types — credit, market, operational, liquidity, interest-rate, FX, model risk; risk-management frameworks (3 lines of defence)
  • RBI prudential norms — Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC), provisioning, restructuring (PCA Framework 2021)

Professional Knowledge — IT / Cyber Security / Data Scientist streams9 topics

  • Computer networks — OSI/TCP-IP, routing, switching, VLAN, firewall, IDS/IPS, VPN, zero-trust architecture
  • Operating systems and virtualisation, container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
  • Database management — relational and NoSQL, ACID, normalisation, indexing, query optimisation
  • Cyber security — CIA triad, vulnerability management, OWASP Top 10, SOC, SIEM, threat intelligence, incident response
  • Cryptography basics — symmetric/asymmetric encryption, PKI, hashing, digital signatures, TLS
  • Information Technology Act 2000 (with 2008 amendment), DPDP Act 2023, RBI Cyber Security Framework (2016, with updates)
  • Data science fundamentals — statistics, probability, regression, classification, clustering, NLP basics, deep learning (CNN, RNN, transformers)
  • Machine learning lifecycle — data engineering, feature engineering, model evaluation (precision, recall, F1, ROC-AUC), MLOps
  • Banking-specific AI/ML applications — fraud detection, credit scoring, customer churn, AML pattern recognition, conversational banking

Professional Knowledge — Law / Marketing / HR / other streams6 topics

  • Law stream — Negotiable Instruments Act 1881, Contract Act 1872, SARFAESI 2002, IBC 2016, Companies Act 2013, PMLA 2002, RBI Act 1934, Banking Regulation Act 1949, Consumer Protection Act 2019
  • Law stream — recovery of debts (DRT, DRAT), arbitration and conciliation, civil procedure basics, banking ombudsman (RB-IOS 2021)
  • Marketing stream — 4P/7P framework, segmentation-targeting-positioning, consumer behaviour, digital marketing, brand management, retail banking products and cross-sell
  • Marketing stream — banking product knowledge (savings, fixed deposit, home loan, car loan, credit card, wealth management, mutual funds, life and general insurance, SBI Cards)
  • HR stream — labour laws, industrial relations, performance management, learning and development, compensation, HR analytics
  • General Banking Awareness across all streams — RBI structure, monetary policy, financial-inclusion schemes, payment systems, regulatory architecture, BASEL III, BCBS, FATF, Indian financial regulators

Banking Awareness (cross-stream)9 topics

  • RBI structure and functions, monetary policy (repo, reverse repo, CRR, SLR, MSF, SDF), MPC composition, inflation targeting framework
  • Banking sector architecture — Public Sector Banks, Private Banks, Foreign Banks, RRBs, SFBs, Payments Banks, Cooperative Banks, NBFCs
  • Recent RBI circulars on digital lending, FLDG, co-lending, securitisation, IRAC norms, FX volatility management
  • Financial inclusion schemes — PMJDY, PMSBY, PMJJBY, APY, MUDRA, Stand-Up India, PM Vishwakarma, PM Vidyalaxmi
  • Payment systems and CBDC — UPI, NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, BBPS, e-rupee wholesale + retail
  • Indian regulators — RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA, IFSCA, IBBI, FSDC
  • International — BCBS, BIS, FATF, IMF, World Bank, OECD, FSB
  • Recent Union Budget banking sector announcements and Economic Survey themes
  • Current affairs (last 4-6 months) — RBI MPC decisions, regulatory circulars, fintech announcements, awards, sports, books, defence, science

Know the syllabus — now see where you stand.

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