Free banking awareness questions for SBI Clerk Mains

Where banking awareness counts

General/Financial Awareness is not in SBI Clerk Prelims. It appears in Mains as a 50-question, 50-mark section with 35 minutes. Since Mains alone decides the final merit list, these 50 marks matter a great deal.

The section has two halves you prepare differently:

• Static banking: history of banks, RBI functions, types of accounts, cheques, payment systems, financial terms. Learn it once, revise it often.
• Current affairs: recent appointments, schemes, RBI decisions, economy news. This changes every month and must be read regularly.

Five sample questions to test yourself

1. When was the Reserve Bank of India established? 1 April 1935, under the RBI Act, 1934. It was nationalised in 1949.
2. What is the Cash Reserve Ratio? The share of a bank's net demand and time liabilities that it must keep as cash balance with the RBI.
3. What does NEFT stand for? National Electronic Funds Transfer, a payment system run by the RBI that settles transfers in batches.
4. Which institution is the apex body for agriculture and rural credit? NABARD, set up in 1982.
5. Who signs a ₹100 note? The Governor of the RBI. A ₹1 note is signed by the Finance Secretary.

If you got four or five, your static base is decent. If you got two or fewer, start with the topic notes before practising.

Topics to cover, in order

Pairs that candidates mix up

Most wrong answers in banking awareness are not total blanks. They come from confusing two similar things. These pairs come up again and again:

• CRR and SLR. CRR is kept as cash with the RBI. SLR is kept by the bank itself, in cash, gold or approved securities.
• Repo and reverse repo. Under repo the RBI lends to banks. Under reverse repo the RBI absorbs money from banks.
• NEFT and RTGS. NEFT settles in batches and has no minimum amount. RTGS settles each transaction individually and is meant for larger amounts.
• SIDBI and NABARD. SIDBI serves small industries; NABARD serves agriculture and rural development.
• SEBI and IRDAI. SEBI regulates securities markets; IRDAI regulates insurance.

When you get a question wrong, check whether it was one of these confusions. If it was, write the pair side by side in your notes. Our questions often place the twin as a wrong option on purpose, so you learn to tell them apart.

A warning about rates and figures

Policy rates such as the repo rate change through the year. Do not memorise a figure from an old book or a video recorded months ago. Note the date of the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting and check the RBI's own press release for the current rates in the last two weeks before your exam.

A 25-minute daily revision routine

1. Ten minutes: practise 10 banking awareness questions and read each explanation.
2. Five minutes: look up two terms you did not know in the glossary.
3. Ten minutes: read banking and economy news and write three one-line notes.

Done daily for two months, that is around 600 practice questions and over 100 glossary terms, without a single long session.

Questions people ask