The RBI office attendant syllabus is built around one online test of 120 objective questions in four subjects: reasoning, general English, general awareness and numerical ability, with 30 questions each. Those who clear it then take a Language Proficiency Test in the tongue used locally around the regional office they chose.
The questions are set at roughly class 10 level, since the post is open to matriculates, but competition for a Reserve Bank job is stiff. Speed and accuracy in 90 minutes decide your rank, so knowing exactly what each section asks is the first step.
Exam at a glance
Conducted by
Reserve Bank of India, through its regional officesPost
Office Attendant (Class IV staff)Stages
Online test, then Language Proficiency TestQuestions and marks
120 objective questions, 120 marksTime
90 minutes for the whole testNegative marking
One quarter of a mark for each wrong answerQualification
Class 10 pass from the state or UT of the recruiting office, not a graduateOfficial website
How the selection works
There are two steps. First comes the online competitive test, held at centres across the country. Candidates who reach the merit list for their regional office are then called for the Language Proficiency Test (LPT) and document verification. The LPT is qualifying: it confirms that you can handle the regional language of your chosen office in reading, writing and conversation, and failing it means you are not selected even with a high score.
Posts are counted office by office and ranks are drawn up separately for each, so your rivals are only those who picked the same office. Recent notifications have allowed an application to only one office (confirm this in the current one), which makes the choice of state important if you know more than one regional language.
RBI office attendant exam pattern
| Section | Questions | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | 30 | 30 |
| General English | 30 | 30 |
| General awareness | 30 | 30 |
| Numerical ability | 30 | 30 |
| Total | 120 | 120 |
The 90 minutes are composite, meaning there is no separate clock for each section and you can move between them freely. That gives you 45 seconds a question on average. A correct response earns 1 mark, an incorrect one loses 0.25, which means four bad guesses erase a whole right answer.
Section wise RBI office attendant exam syllabus
Reasoning
- Analogy, classification and odd one out
- Missing terms in sequences of digits, alphabets and shapes
- Coding, family relation puzzles, directions
- Simple seating arrangements and puzzles, order and ranking
- Syllogism, inequalities and statement based questions
- Alphanumeric series and mirror or water images
General English
- Reading comprehension on short passages
- Spotting errors and sentence improvement
- Fill in the blanks and cloze test
- Synonyms, antonyms, idioms and one word substitution
- Arranging jumbled sentences
General awareness
- Recent national and world news, roughly six months back
- Banking awareness: RBI functions, monetary policy terms, types of accounts and banks
- Static GK: capitals and currencies, important days, books and authors, sports, awards
- Basic Indian history, geography and polity, with simple science facts
- Government schemes, especially financial inclusion schemes
Numerical ability
- Simplification, approximation and number system
- Percentages, ratio and proportion, averages
- Buying and selling sums with discounts; bank interest sums
- Work and wages; speed, trains and boats
- Number series, basic data interpretation from tables and bar charts
- Mensuration of simple figures
Where marks are easiest to pick up
Numerical ability and reasoning are the most predictable sections because the same question types repeat. Most of the arithmetic is straightforward once you know your tables to 20, squares to 30 and fraction to percentage conversions by heart. Aim to finish these two sections in about 50 minutes with high accuracy.
General awareness is the fastest section, since recall rather than working out is needed, so it can be done in 10 to 12 minutes. Banking terms and RBI related news deserve special attention here, as the exam is set by the central bank itself.
English is the section where candidates from regional medium schools often lose marks. Short daily practice on comprehension passages and common grammar rules (subject verb agreement, tenses, prepositions, articles) improves scores steadily over two or three months.
Twelve weeks with the RBI office attendant syllabus
- Weeks 1 to 4: learn the basic methods of every arithmetic chapter and every reasoning type, 15 questions a day on each. Start a notebook of banking and current affairs facts.
- Weeks 5 to 8: move to timed sets of 30 questions per section. Revise English grammar rules and read one editorial or news article daily to build comprehension speed.
- Weeks 9 to 12: take a full 120 question mock in 90 minutes every two or three days, mark it with the quarter mark penalty, and spend the next day fixing the topics where you went wrong.
Mock tests are best checked against real papers: the question types are described on our RBI office attendant previous papers page.
Books and preparation material
You do not need specialised material. Class 8 to 10 mathematics textbooks are enough for the arithmetic basics, followed by one general book of arithmetic practice questions. A standard school grammar book helps with English. For general awareness, read a daily newspaper, the press releases on the RBI website and one monthly news digest. Having the notification at hand saves you from chasing topics it never mentions.
Who can apply, and where to go next
In the latest round applicants had to be aged 18 to 25 on the reference date, with the usual upper age concessions for reserved groups. You must have passed class 10 from the state or union territory under the recruiting regional office and must not be a graduate on the cut off date. Full details, including the relaxation table, are on our RBI office attendant eligibility page.
Past qualifying scores by regional office are collected on the RBI office attendant cut off page. If you later become a graduate, the next step up is the RBI assistant post, whose RBI assistant syllabus builds on the same four subjects. For more banking jobs, browse our bank exams section.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the RBI office attendant exam paper?
The online test has 120 questions, 30 each from reasoning, general English, general awareness and numerical ability. All questions are worth one mark apiece, and the clock runs for 90 minutes.
Is there a penalty for guessing in the RBI office attendant test?
Yes. Each incorrect choice takes away 0.25 of a mark. Blank answers cost nothing, so leave out anything where two options still look equally right.
Is there an interview for RBI office attendant?
No interview was part of the latest recruitment. Once the online scores are out, those on the list sit the Language Proficiency Test and get their papers verified.
Can a graduate apply for RBI office attendant?
No. The notification required candidates to be undergraduates on the cut off date and to have passed class 10 from the state or union territory of the recruiting office.
What is the level of questions in this exam?
Most questions are at class 10 level. What makes it hard is the pace of 120 questions in 90 minutes, and the general awareness section often includes banking related questions.
What happens in the Language Proficiency Test?
It tests your command of the regional language linked to your chosen office, both written and spoken. It is qualifying, so you must pass it to be selected.