Free SBI Clerk preparation for Prelims and Mains

Where the 2026 cycle stands

SBI released the Junior Associate (Customer Support and Sales) notification on 11 August 2026. Prelims was held on 26 and 27 September 2026. As of 23 October 2026 the Prelims result has not been declared, and SBI's notification gives the Main exam as tentatively November 2026.

So what you should do depends on where you are:

• You wrote Prelims in September: do not wait for the result. Start Mains preparation now, especially General/Financial Awareness and Computer Aptitude, which Prelims did not test.
• You missed this cycle: start the Prelims syllabus now. The next notification is likely in the second half of 2027 if SBI follows recent years, but that is not confirmed.

Check the exam dates page for updates.

Prelims: what to study

Prelims is 100 questions in 60 minutes: English 30, Numerical Ability 35 and Reasoning 35, each with its own 20-minute timer. It is a screening test, and its marks are not added to the final merit.

Our Prelims strategy guide covers attempt order and how many questions to try.

Mains: what changes

Mains is 190 questions for 200 marks in 2 hours 40 minutes, and it alone decides the final merit list. Two sections are new compared with Prelims:

• General/Financial Awareness (50 questions, 35 minutes): banking, RBI policy, financial terms, government schemes and current affairs.
• Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude (50 questions, 60 marks, 45 minutes): computer questions sit inside the reasoning section.

English (40 questions) and Quant (50 questions) get harder too, with more DI and longer passages. Read the Mains strategy guide before you plan.

Which free tool to use at which stage

A four-week Mains start if you wrote Prelims

If you wrote Prelims in September and expect to clear it, the next few weeks are the most valuable of the whole cycle. A simple split that uses only free tools:

Keep 30 minutes of English every day throughout. Mains English has 40 questions in 35 minutes and the passages are longer than in Prelims, so reading speed matters more than grammar rules at this point.

Two things to avoid in these weeks: starting brand-new Quant chapters you skipped for Prelims, and spending whole evenings watching current affairs compilations instead of practising questions on them. Use what you already know, add GA and Computer, and test yourself often.

Three rules that matter more than any resource

1. Accuracy before speed. Each wrong answer costs a quarter mark. Getting 62 right and 12 wrong gives 59; getting 60 right and 2 wrong gives 59.5.
2. Review every mock. A mock without analysis is just a timed worksheet. Spend as long reviewing as you spent writing.
3. Know your state. You apply for one state and compete within it, and you need its local language. Check the eligibility guide.

Questions people ask