RBI Assistant 2026: what we know
The online prelims were held on 11 and 13 April 2026, and on 30 April 2026 for candidates at Imphal and Kakching, whose exam was moved after a curfew. The prelims result came on 25 May 2026, and the main exam was scheduled for 7 June 2026, as announced by RBI. Prelims marksheets and the office-wise cut-off table were published on 27 August 2026, and the mains result on 24 September 2026. RBI does not publish difficulty ratings or good-attempt figures, so we don’t offer a verdict on how the papers went.
What this page covers
Test-wise paper
Test names, questions, marks and timings are from the advertisement; each test is separately timed. The English tests are in English; the others are offered in English, Hindi and the regional language(s) listed for your recruiting office in Appendix II. RBI publishes only the test names, so the topic lists below are commonly tested areas, not an official syllabus.
Prelims · English Language
30 Q · 30 marks · 20 min. Commonly tested: reading comprehension, cloze test, error spotting, fillers and para jumbles.
Prelims · Numerical Ability
35 Q · 35 marks · 20 min. Commonly tested: simplification and approximation, number series, data interpretation and arithmetic.
Prelims · Reasoning Ability
35 Q · 35 marks · 20 min. Commonly tested: puzzles and seating arrangement, syllogism, inequalities and coding-decoding.
Mains · Test of Reasoning
40 Q · 40 marks · 30 min. Commonly tested: puzzles and seating arrangement, blood relations, direction sense, input-output and logical reasoning.
Mains · Test of English Language
40 Q · 40 marks · 30 min. Commonly tested: reading comprehension, vocabulary, error detection and sentence-level questions.
Mains · Test of Numerical Ability
40 Q · 40 marks · 30 min. Commonly tested: data interpretation, quadratic equations, number series and arithmetic word problems.
Mains · Test of General Awareness
40 Q · 40 marks · 25 min. Commonly tested: current affairs, banking and RBI-related awareness, and static general knowledge.
Mains · Test of Computer Knowledge
40 Q · 40 marks · 20 min. Commonly tested: computer fundamentals, MS Office, internet, networking and abbreviations.
What a wrong answer costs
One-fourth of the marks assigned to a question is deducted for each wrong answer, in both prelims and mains; a question left blank costs nothing. In every RBI Assistant test the marks equal the number of questions, so each question carries 1 mark. Worked out from the official tables:
| Test | Marks per question | Penalty per wrong answer |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims · English Language | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Prelims · Numerical Ability | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Prelims · Reasoning Ability | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Mains · Reasoning | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Mains · English Language | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Mains · Numerical Ability | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Mains · General Awareness | 1.00 | 0.25 |
| Mains · Computer Knowledge | 1.00 | 0.25 |
Because the exam ran in more than one session, RBI equates scores across sessions and normalises them using the equipercentile method, so your final marks can differ from a raw count of right and wrong answers. RBI does not publish good-attempt numbers, so we don’t show any.
What the prelims cut-offs show
You had to qualify in each prelims test separately, and then about 10 times the vacancies were shortlisted for mains on aggregate marks, office-wise and category-wise. RBI’s cut-off table of 27 August 2026 gives both. The sectional minimums (out of 30 / 35 / 35):
| Category | English | Numerical Ability | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|
| General / EWS | 12.00 | 14.00 | 14.00 |
| SC / ST / OBC / PwBD-A / PwBD-C / EXS-2 | 10.50 | 12.25 | 12.25 |
| PwBD-B | 3.00 | 3.50 | 3.50 |
| PwBD-D&E / EXS-1 | 1.50 | 1.75 | 1.75 |
On the total (out of 100), the General cut-off ranged from 90.25 at Mumbai — the office with the most vacancies — to 96.75 at Chandigarh; New Delhi was 95.25 and Chennai 94.75. At Mumbai the other categories were OBC 90.00, EWS 86.50, SC 86.25 and ST 85.00. These are Panel Year 2025 prelims figures only; RBI has said the mains cut-offs will be displayed shortly, and we don’t estimate them.
See the full office-wise cut-off tableCrack RBI Assistant with your own daily plan
Daily targets, PYQ practice sets & timed mocks — to the RBI Assistant pattern.
Turn the paper structure into your next mock
With prelims totals in the 90s and a minimum in every test, accuracy across all sections decides who moves on. JobSafal turns the RBI Assistant tests into daily targets and timed practice, so that habit forms before the exam.
Test-wise plan
Daily targets across English, Numerical Ability, Reasoning, General Awareness and Computer Knowledge.
Full mock tests
Real-interface mocks with rank comparison.
Sectional drills
Work on the test your mocks flag as weak.
PYQ practice sets
Practice sets in the RBI Assistant pattern for each test.
