How many questions are there in IBPS RRB Office Assistant Prelims?

80 questions for 80 marks in 45 minutes: Reasoning has 40 questions in 25 minutes and Numerical Ability has 40 questions in 20 minutes. Each test is timed separately and you must clear the minimum cut-off in both.

Is there negative marking in IBPS RRB Office Assistant?

Yes. The CRP RRBs XV notification deducts one fourth (0.25) of the marks assigned to a question for each wrong answer, in Prelims and in Mains. A question left blank carries no penalty.

Is there an interview for IBPS RRB Office Assistant?

No. The interview applies only to Officers Scale I, II and III. Office Assistants are provisionally allotted on the marks of the Online Main Examination and the actual vacancies reported by the RRB of the state applied for.

Do Prelims marks count in the final merit for Office Assistant?

No. The notification says marks obtained only in the Online Main Examination are considered for final merit listing. Prelims only shortlists candidates for Mains.

When is the IBPS RRB Office Assistant exam in 2026?

The IBPS calendar of 16 January 2026 gives 6, 12 and 13 December 2026 for the Office Assistant Preliminary exam and 30 January 2027 for the Main exam. The notification itself says November or December 2026. Dates are tentative, so check ibps.in.

What is the age limit and qualification for IBPS RRB Office Assistant?

18 to 28 years as on 1 September 2026, with relaxations such as 5 years for SC and ST and 3 years for OBC (non-creamy layer). You need a bachelor's degree in any discipline and proficiency in the local language prescribed by the RRB.

IBPS RRB Office Assistant Exam Pattern 2026

Everything below comes from the documents IBPS has published for CRP RRBs XV, the Common Recruitment Process for Regional Rural Banks notified on 1 September 2026. That is the newest cycle as of 13 November 2026. The post is Group "B" Office Assistant (Multipurpose). IBPS says the schedule is tentative and reserves the right to change the structure of the test, so check ibps.in before you rely on a date. Our own comments are labelled.

Stages at a glance

Stage	Mode	Purpose
Online Preliminary Examination	Computer-based, objective	Shortlisting for Mains (not counted in final merit)
Online Main Examination	Computer-based, objective	Decides final merit
Provisional allotment	By IBPS, state-wise	Allotment to the RRB of the state applied for
Document verification and joining	By the allotted RRB	Eligibility check and appointment

There is no interview for Office Assistants. The notification keeps the interview for Officers Scale I, II and III only.

Dates for CRP RRBs XV

Event	Date (per IBPS)
Online registration and fee payment	1 September to 21 September 2026, extended to 27 September 2026 by the corrigendum of 21 September
Edit window	For 2 days after registration closes; IBPS said it would notify the dates on its website
Pre-Examination Training (online)	November 2026
Preliminary exam, Office Assistants	6, 12 and 13 December 2026 (IBPS calendar of 16 January 2026)
Result of Preliminary exam	December 2026 or January 2027
Main exam, Office Assistants	30 January 2027 (IBPS calendar)
Provisional allotment	February or March 2027

The detailed notification gives only months (Preliminary in "November / December, 2026", Main in "December, 2026 / January, 2027"). The exact days come from the calendar IBPS issued in January, which carries a disclaimer that dates can change. On 13 November 2026 the CRP RRBs XV page listed the Preliminary call letter and information handout for Officer Scale I (dated 9 November) but nothing yet for Office Assistants.

Eligibility, fee and vacancies

Age: 18 to 28 years as on 1 September 2026. The notification puts it as born not earlier than 2 September 1998 and not later than 1 September 2008, both dates inclusive.
Age relaxation: 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC (non-creamy layer), 10 years for persons with benchmark disability. Ex-servicemen get the period of defence service plus 3 years (8 years for disabled ex-servicemen from SC or ST), up to an age of 50. Widows, divorced women and women legally separated who have not remarried can apply up to 35 years (General and EWS), 38 years (OBC) and 40 years (SC and ST).
Education: a bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university, with the result declared on or before 21 September 2026. Working knowledge of computers is listed as desirable.
Local language: proficiency in the language prescribed by the RRB is essential. You are treated as proficient if you studied that language in Class 8 or above. If you did not, the notification gives six months from joining to acquire it.
Fee: Rs 175 for SC, ST, PwBD, ex-servicemen and disabled ex-servicemen; Rs 850 for all others, both inclusive of GST.
Applying for more than one post: you may apply for Office Assistant and also for one officer post, with a separate application and fee for each.
Vacancies: Annexure I, as updated on 25 September 2026, lists indicative Office Assistant vacancies bank by bank across 28 RRBs. IBPS prints no grand total; adding the bank-wise totals gives 8,222 (our addition). The largest are Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank (1,200), Andhra Pradesh Grameena Bank (900), Telangana Grameena Bank (750), Odisha Grameen Bank (600), Gujarat Gramin Bank (510) and Bihar Gramin Bank (500). Manipur Rural Bank shows zero. IBPS calls these figures indicative: allotment happens on the actual vacancies the RRBs report later.

Preliminary examination

Test	Questions	Marks	Time
Reasoning	40	40	25 minutes
Numerical Ability	40	40	20 minutes
Total	80	80	45 minutes

Each test has its own timer. This split (25 and 20 minutes) is printed in the notification.
You must qualify in both tests by securing the minimum cut-off marks. IBPS then shortlists an "adequate number" of candidates in each category for Mains. The notification gives no fixed ratio and no qualifying percentage.
Penalty: 0.25 of the marks assigned to the question for each wrong answer. Each question carries 1 mark here, so a wrong answer costs 0.25.

Main examination

Test	Medium	Questions	Marks	Time
Reasoning	English, Hindi or state language	40	50	30 minutes
Computer Knowledge	English, Hindi or state language	40	20	15 minutes
General Awareness	English, Hindi or state language	40	40	15 minutes
English Language or Hindi Language	English or Hindi	40	40	30 minutes
Numerical Ability	English, Hindi or state language	40	50	30 minutes
Total		200	200	120 minutes

You choose either the English Language test or the Hindi Language test, not both.
You must obtain a minimum score in each test of the Main exam to be considered for provisional allotment, and then stand high enough on total score in your state and category.
The same 0.25 penalty rule applies. Because marks per question differ between tests, the deduction differs too. Arithmetic from the table, not an IBPS statement: Reasoning and Numerical Ability carry 1.25 marks per question, so a wrong answer costs about 0.31; General Awareness and the language test carry 1 mark, so 0.25; Computer Knowledge carries 0.5 mark, so 0.125.

Medium of the paper

The tests marked with an asterisk in the notification are offered in English, Hindi and the language listed for your state. Examples from the notification's table: English and Hindi for Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand; English, Hindi and Urdu for Uttar Pradesh; English, Hindi and Telugu for Andhra Pradesh; English, Hindi, Telugu and Urdu for Telangana; English, Hindi and Bengali for West Bengal and Tripura. You pick the medium in the application form. If the English and translated versions differ, the English version prevails.

How scores and merit work

According to the notification:

Where the exam runs in more than one session, the corrected scores are normalised using the equi-percentile method. Scores are taken to two decimal places.
For Office Assistants, only the Main exam marks count for final merit. Prelims is a filter.
Provisional allotment is restricted to the RRB of the state or UT you applied for. A reserved-category candidate selected on general norms is treated as a general-category candidate.
Tie-break: if two candidates have the same score, the older candidate is placed higher.
IBPS draws up a reserve list in each category. It says provisional allotment from the reserve list can take place three to four times if RRBs report further vacancies within one year. Being on the reserve list is not a guarantee.
The validity of CRP RRBs XV ends one year after the date of provisional allotment, or when a fresh allotment is made, whichever is earlier.
The offer of appointment, its terms and document verification are decided by the allotted RRB. IBPS states it has no role at that stage.

Exam-hall rules worth knowing

IBPS had not published the Office Assistant information handout by 13 November 2026. The handout it published on 9 November for the Officer Scale I Preliminary exam, which has the same 80-question, 45-minute structure, says:

Each question has five answer options, of which one is correct.
You can move between questions of a test only during the time allotted to that test, and you cannot submit before the full test time is over.
Calculators, phones and written notes are not allowed. Rough sheets are provided and collected at the end.
The test takes 45 minutes, but you should expect to be at the venue for about 110 minutes including entry and verification.
Candidates with a disability who are eligible for compensatory time get 20 minutes for every hour of the exam.

Treat these as a guide for Office Assistants until IBPS issues the handout for your own paper. The notification itself confirms the 20-minutes-per-hour compensatory time and the ban on calculators.

What this means for your attempt strategy

These points are arithmetic and our reading of the scheme, not IBPS advice.

Time per question in Prelims: 37.5 seconds in Reasoning (25 minutes for 40 questions) and 30 seconds in Numerical Ability (20 minutes for 40). Numerical Ability is the tighter test.
Time per question in Mains: 45 seconds each in Reasoning, Numerical Ability and the language test; 22.5 seconds each in Computer Knowledge and General Awareness.
Guessing: with five options, +1 for a right answer and 0.25 off for a wrong one, a blind guess is worth zero on average. Once you can rule out even one option, the guess has a small positive expected value. This assumes the five-option format of the Scale I handout holds for your paper.
Where the Mains marks are: Reasoning and Numerical Ability are 100 of the 200 marks. These are the same two subjects as Prelims, so Prelims preparation is not wasted.
Sectional timers remove one decision: you cannot borrow time from one test for another, so the only choice is which questions to skip inside a test.

What this page does not have

Office Assistant call letter dates and the Office Assistant information handout. Neither was on the IBPS page on 13 November 2026.
Edit-window dates. The notification says 2 days after registration closes; we did not open a notice with the dates.
Pay scale and allowances. The CRP RRBs XV notification does not state them, so we do not either. Each RRB sets out the terms in its offer of appointment.
Qualifying marks or cut-offs. IBPS fixes them after the exam. See cut-offs for what is and is not published.
The ratio of candidates shortlisted for Mains. The notification only says an adequate number.

To try the format, a free 10-question mini-mock and the Daily Dangal quiz are open to everyone on Pareeksha. Full Prelims-pattern mocks with sectional timers, previous-year papers and topic practice are Pro.

Related: Syllabus · Cut-offs · Preparation strategy

IBPS RRB Office Assistant Exam Pattern 2026: Prelims, Mains, Timing and Negative Marking