How many questions should I attempt in SBI Clerk Prelims?

"Good attempts" depend on the paper and on you. In an easy paper, everyone attempts more, and cut-offs rise. In a hard paper the reverse happens. A fixed target like "80 attempts" can push you into guessing in a tough year.

Use accuracy, not a number

Your net score is correct answers minus a quarter of wrong ones. The table shows how attempts and accuracy combine in a 100-question paper:

More attempts at lower accuracy give a lower score. Push attempts up only while accuracy stays high.

How to find your own number

1. Take 5 mocks and note attempts and accuracy per section.
2. For each section, find the attempt level where your accuracy stays above 85%.
3. That is your current target. Raise it by 2-3 questions per section once accuracy holds for a week.

About cut-offs

SBI shortlists about 10 times the vacancies for Mains from the Prelims merit, separately by state and category, and there is no sectional cut-off in SBI Clerk Prelims according to the 2026 notification. So the score you need depends on your state and category. Check past cut-offs for your own state from a reliable source and aim clearly above them in mocks.

Section by section

Your attempts will not be equal across sections. Many candidates attempt a larger share of Reasoning when puzzles go well, because a solved arrangement gives several sure answers at once, and a smaller share of Quant when DI is calculation-heavy. Set a separate target for each section, based on your own mocks, rather than one total.