One RBI office attendant previous year paper, solved in a single 90 minute sitting, teaches you more about this exam than a week of reading: 120 questions, four subjects of 30 each, no separate section clocks, and every wrong guess wiping out 0.25 of a mark. The level is class 10, but the pace is fast.
This page recaps the format, what the April 2021 round and the latest round reportedly asked, a routine for old sets, a handful of items we created, and where RBI publishes official material.
Exam at a glance
Conducted by
Reserve Bank of India, through its regional officesPost
Office AttendantOnline test
120 questions, 120 marks, 90 minutesSections
Reasoning, General English, General Awareness, Numerical Ability; 30 eachPenalty
One fourth of a mark per wrong answerAfter the test
Language Proficiency Test, qualifyingOfficial source
The test you are practising for
The online test has kept one shape across recent recruitments: thirty questions each of reasoning, English, awareness and arithmetic, one mark apiece, 120 in all.
Ninety minutes cover all four sections together, which leaves the sequence and the time split to you. There is also a qualifying mark in every section. All sections except English are offered in Hindi as well. Candidates on the merit list then take the Language Proficiency Test in the regional language of the office they chose. See the RBI office attendant syllabus for every topic.
What recent papers asked, section by section
Analyses of the latest round, put together from what candidates reported after each shift, rated the paper easy to moderate:
- Numerical ability: about 10 simplification items, 10 arithmetic word problems, a five question number series block (wrong or missing number) and one data set of five questions on a table or a line chart.
- Reasoning: one or two puzzles (circular, box, linear or floor based), syllogism, inequality, alphanumeric series, direction and blood relation, with small items such as word pairs and odd one out.
- English: a short story style passage, error spotting, fillers, sentence arrangement and improvement, synonyms or antonyms, and spelling.
- General awareness: mostly static facts, such as dance forms, monuments, awards and government savings schemes, with only a few current affairs items.
That last point matters. If your notes cover only recent news, the rbi office attendant previous year question paper trend suggests you will miss easy static marks.
How to split 90 minutes
Because there are no section timers, working through old sets is how you find an order that suits you. A plan that works for many candidates:
- General awareness, 10 minutes: answer what you know at once and skip the rest.
- English, 20 minutes: grammar and vocabulary items first, the passage after.
- Reasoning, 25 minutes: short blocks before the puzzle.
- Numerical ability, 30 minutes: simplification, then series, then the data set, then word problems.
- Final 5 minutes: return to questions you marked for review.
Adjust the numbers after each old paper. If you keep running out of time in maths, move it earlier.
Sample items in the office attendant style
Our team made up these five items to mirror what recent shifts looked like; they are not from any RBI paper.
- Simplification: 15 x 8 + 144 / 12 = ? Answer: 120 + 12 = 132.
- Series: 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, ? Answer: 127; multiply by 2 and add 1 at every step.
- Direction: Ravi walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, then turns right again and walks 5 km. How far is he from the start, and in which direction? Answer: 3 km east.
- English, spelling: Pick the correctly spelt word: recieve, receive, receeve, riceive. Answer: receive.
- Awareness: In which city is RBI's central office located? Answer: Mumbai.
Finding an official RBI office attendant previous year paper
RBI publishes the recruitment advertisement, call letters with an information handout, and results on its website, rbi.org.in, under the recruitment and opportunities section. Full question papers are not normally released, so any complete set you see has been reconstructed from candidate memory. Read the handout carefully: it explains the test rules and the kind of questions to expect, in RBI's own words.
Earlier qualifying scores office by office appear in our RBI office attendant cut off guide, and age and qualification rules on RBI office attendant eligibility.
Where to go after this exam
Office attendant rounds are infrequent, so add other papers at the same level to your practice. The SSC MTS previous papers cover similar reasoning, English and arithmetic. Once you graduate, the next step at the central bank is the assistant post; its papers are explained on RBI assistant previous papers. More options are listed under bank exams.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a separate time limit for each section?
No. The 90 minutes are shared across all four sections, and you can move freely between them. You still need the minimum mark in every section.
How difficult were recent RBI office attendant papers?
Candidate reports rated the latest round easy to moderate, with general awareness leaning on static topics. The April 2021 round followed the same 120 question layout.
Can graduates use these papers?
Anyone can practise with them, but graduates are not eligible for this post in recent notifications. The eligibility page and the latest RBI advertisement give the exact rule.
Is the test available in Hindi?
Yes. Apart from General English, each section can be answered in Hindi or English.
How do I prepare for the LPT?
This step tests whether you handle the regional tongue on paper and in conversation, specifically the one used where your chosen office sits. There is no common paper for it, so practise by reading and writing that language regularly.
What is a sensible number of practice sets?
Since RBI holds this exam rarely, solve every reconstructed office attendant set you can find, then add papers from similar class 10 level exams. Eight to ten full timed papers before the exam is a sensible target.