IBPS SO cut off for prelims and mains, post by post

What the IBPS SO cut off measures

Specialist officer recruitment fills six different jobs, and the candidates for each one sit partly different papers. Law and Rajbhasha candidates take general awareness on banking in place of quantitative aptitude, and every post has its own professional knowledge test. Comparing a Law score with an IT score would make no sense, so IBPS fixes a cut off for each post and category separately.

At each written stage there are two layers:

• Sectional cut off: a floor in every section, set lower for reserved and PwBD candidates than for the General and EWS groups.
• Overall cut off: the closing total for your post and category, which IBPS checks only after you have passed each section.

The figures are released after each stage and appear on your scorecard, so the official record is always the IBPS notice for your cycle.

IBPS SO prelims cut off, 2025 cycle

This prelims was held on 30 August 2025, still using the older pattern of 150 questions for 125 marks.

HR closed at 62.63 for every category, and IT and Agricultural Field Officer each had one shared figure for General, OBC and SC. A shared number like this suggests that reserved candidates scoring high enough were absorbed into the open merit, leaving the reserved lists closing at the general mark.

IBPS SO prelims cut off, 2024 cycle

Comparing the two tables shows how unstable these numbers are. For IT Officer, the General figure jumped from 36 to 58.25 between these two cycles, while HR climbed from 43.25 to 62.63. Agricultural Field Officer stayed close to 50 in both. The EWS figure of 16.75 for IT in the 2024 cycle is unusually low, but it is the reported figure; confirm it in the official notice if it matters to you.

IBPS SO mains cut off, 2024 cycle

Under the pattern used up to the 2025 cycle, the mains was a single professional knowledge test of 60 marks, so these figures are out of 60.

Law Officer stands apart at 44 for General, far above the other posts. IT Officer closed at only 16.50 for General, which tells you how demanding the IT professional knowledge paper was that year and how heavily the negative marking bites. Do not read a low mains cut off as an easy paper.

Qualifying in a section versus getting selected

The sectional bars in the prelims are low, often in single digits for reasoning and quant, which leads many candidates to treat them lightly. They still knock out candidates each time, mostly those who get stuck on a single part of the paper and rush the rest. Clearing all sections only gets you counted; the overall cut off then decides whether you move up.

After the mains, IBPS shortlists candidates for the interview, and the final allotment depends on mains and interview marks together. A candidate who just crosses the mains cut off can still be overtaken in the final list, so a cushion of several marks above the mains figure is worth aiming for.

The revised pattern and future cut offs

The latest notification (CRP SPL-XVI) reshapes the exam. Professional knowledge now appears in the prelims, which has 100 questions for 125 marks: 25 each in English and reasoning, 25 in quant (or banking awareness for law and Rajbhasha candidates), plus 25 professional knowledge questions carrying 50 marks. The mains turns into a 150 question objective paper for 200 marks in 125 minutes, covering English, reasoning, quant (or banking awareness), and professional knowledge worth 100 marks. Just two streams, Law and Rajbhasha, also sit a short written test (two questions, 25 marks, half an hour), lifting their mains total to 225; the IT, agriculture, HR and marketing streams stay at 200.

Because the papers have changed, the prelims and mains figures above are not directly comparable with what comes next. Professional knowledge will now count from the first stage, so a strong subject base will matter earlier than before. The first prelims under this structure has already been held, so look for its post wise figures, now out of the new 125 mark paper, in the score notice on ibps.in. For the full topic list under the new structure, read the latest notification and our IBPS SO syllabus page.

Turning old figures into a study target

• Set your target from the higher of the recent cut offs for your post, not the average.
• Track sectional scores in every mock; a strong total with one weak section is still a fail.
• Under the revised pattern, give professional knowledge regular time from the start.

If you are weighing the generalist officer route as well, set these numbers beside the IBPS PO cut off tables (and the clerk figures if you want a fallback), or explore other recruitments through our banking hub.