The IBPS PO interview for CRP PO/MT-XVI is worth 100 marks, needs a minimum of 40% to qualify (35% for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD candidates), and counts for 20% of your final score against 80% for the online main examination. All three figures are in section J of the IBPS detailed notification. The notification's tentative schedule puts the main result and the personality test in November 2026, the interviews in November / December 2026 and provisional allotment in January 2027. Interviews are conducted by the participating banks, coordinated by a nodal bank in each state, union territory or region, with IBPS arranging the personality test and the call letters. This page takes the notification clause by clause, in the order you will meet it, and ends with a six-week route. Dates are checked weekly against ibps.in.
- Registration 1 to 21 July 2026; fee Rs 850 (Rs 175 for SC, ST and PwBD), inclusive of GST.
- Prelims 22 and 23 August 2026; mains 4 October 2026 (IBPS calendar dated 16 January 2026).
- Main result and personality test: November 2026. Interviews: November / December 2026. Allotment: January 2027.
- Interview 100 marks; qualifying not less than 40% (35% reserved); mains to interview 80:20.
- Only mains marks count for shortlisting and for the final merit; prelims marks do not.
- Eleven participating banks; indicative vacancies in Annexure I; allotment on actual vacancies, merit cum preference.
The IBPS timeline from mains to allotment
Two IBPS documents carry dates. The tentative calendar for 2026-27, dated 16 January 2026, fixes the examination days. The detailed notification, dated 1 July 2026, carries the full schedule down to allotment. Every row below names which one it comes from.
| Activity | Tentative date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Online registration and fee payment | 1 to 21 July 2026 | Notification, important dates |
| Online preliminary examination | 22 and 23 August 2026 | IBPS calendar 2026-27 |
| Preliminary result | September 2026 | Notification |
| Online main examination | 4 October 2026 | IBPS calendar 2026-27 |
| Main result | November 2026 | Notification |
| Personality test | November 2026 | Notification |
| Conduct of interview | November / December 2026 | Notification |
| Provisional allotment | January 2027 | Notification |
The gap between the main result and the first interviews can be short. In the schedule above, the result, the personality test and the start of interviews all sit inside November. Candidates who wait for the main result before starting interview preparation give themselves a fortnight at most. Candidates sitting SBI PO as well should note that SBI's Group Exercise and interviews also begin on 18 November 2026 per the SBI notice, so the two can collide; our SBI PO page has that schedule.
The IBPS calendar's disclaimer applies to every date here: IBPS "reserves the right to change the dates of examination and the selection process" for administrative reasons, court orders or government advisories. The main result and interview call letter will appear on ibps.in; the CRP PO/MTs block on the home page links to the notification and, in due course, to the call letter.
Who conducts the interview and where
IBPS does not interview you. The notification's introduction says shortlisted candidates "will be called for a Personality Test and subsequently for Common Interview to be conducted by the Participating Banks and co-ordinated by the Nodal Bank". Section J repeats it: interviews are "conducted by the Participating Banks and coordinated by the Nodal Bank in each State/ UT/ Region with the help of IBPS". In practice, the panel in front of you is made up of officers from the public sector banks in that region.
The eleven participating banks named in section A of the notification:
| Participating banks (CRP PO/MT-XVI) | Indicative PO/MT vacancies 2027-28 (Annexure I) |
|---|---|
| Bank of Baroda | 1,900 |
| Bank of India | 500 |
| Bank of Maharashtra | 1,100 |
| Canara Bank | 1,500 |
| Central Bank of India | 500 |
| Indian Bank | NR (not reported) |
| Indian Overseas Bank | 550 |
| Punjab National Bank | 504 |
| Punjab & Sind Bank | 161 |
| UCO Bank | NR (not reported) |
| Union Bank of India | NR (not reported) |
Adding the eight reported figures gives 6,715; three banks had not reported when the notification was printed. The notification calls every figure indicative and says allotment is made on the actual vacancies the banks report later. Coaching sites that quote a single "total vacancies" number are adding assumptions to Annexure I.
On centres, section J says only that interviews "will be conducted at select centres" and that the centre, venue address, time and date are given in the call letter. The notification also says that IBPS or the banks "would also conduct Online Aadhaar verification" of candidates, and advises every candidate to hold a valid Aadhaar card for the process.
Marks, qualifying floor and the 80:20 rule
Section J of the notification, quoted and then explained:
What the notification says
"The total marks allotted for Interview are 100. The minimum qualifying marks in interview will not be less than 40% (35% for SC/ST/OBC/PwBD candidates). The relative weightage (ratio) of Online Main Exam and interview will be 80:20 respectively. The combined final score of candidates shall be arrived at on the basis of scores obtained by the candidates in the Online Main Examination of CRP- PO/MT-XVI and Interview. Interview score of the candidates failing to secure minimum qualifying marks or otherwise barred from the interview or further process shall not be disclosed. A candidate should qualify both in the Online Main Exam and interview and be sufficiently high in the merit to be shortlisted for subsequent provisional allotment process."
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Interview out of 100 | Every answer is worth a full mark, not a fraction of 30 as in SBI. Small differences between candidates are visible. |
| Qualifying 40% (35% reserved) | Below 40 out of 100 (35 for SC, ST, OBC, PwBD) you are out regardless of your mains score. "Not less than" means IBPS could set it higher, not lower. |
| 80:20 weightage | The mains carries four times the weight of the interview in the final score. The interview still decides the order among candidates whose mains marks are close. |
| Failing scores not disclosed | If you do not clear the floor, you will never see your interview mark. |
| Qualify both, then merit | Clearing both floors earns a place in the merit list; allotment depends on rank and vacancies. |
Section F adds two facts that shape your preparation. First, "marks obtained in the online main examination only will be considered for shortlisting for personality test and interview and also for final merit listing"; the prelims are a gate, nothing more. Second, mains scores "will not be shared" with shortlisted candidates until the interview process is complete, so you cannot calculate how much the interview must make up. Section G says scores are normalised across sessions by the equi-percentile method and taken to two decimal places. The main examination itself is 200 objective marks over 170 questions in 160 minutes plus a 25-mark descriptive paper, per section D. How those 225 marks and your interview mark combine is worked through, with numbers, on our marks and weightage page.
The personality test in November
New candidates often miss this stage. Section D(c) of the notification says candidates who qualify in the main examination "will be called for a Personality Test (self-report)". The personality profile "will be placed before the Interview panel". The test "will be non-qualifying in nature", but "appearing in the Personality Test will be mandatory for being eligible for appearing for the Interview process". It "may be conducted through proctored mode or at identified examination centres, as decided by IBPS".
So: no marks, no cut-off, but miss it and there is no interview. A self-report test asks you to rate statements about yourself or choose between options; the panel then has a profile to compare with the person in the chair. The practical advice is the same as for SBI's psychometric test on 31 October: answer as yourself, keep answers consistent, and be ready to talk about the traits you reported. Our psychometric test page covers item types and a method for staying consistent across a long inventory; it applies here too.
Call letter and the fourteen-item document list
Section J says candidates "are required to download their interview call letters from official IBPS website www.ibps.in", and that the call letter carries the centre, venue address, time and date. Before the interview, candidates must also upload soft copies of their eligibility documents in PDF through a link IBPS will publish; the notification says this upload "is mandatory". The notification lists fourteen items to produce in original with self-attested photocopies, "arranged in seriatim", failing which "the candidate may not be permitted to appear for the interview".
| # | Document (notification wording, shortened) | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|
| i | Printout of the valid interview call letter | Everyone |
| ii | System-generated printout of the online application form for CRP PO/MT-XVI | Everyone |
| iii | Proof of date of birth: birth certificate, or SSLC / Standard X certificate with DOB | Everyone |
| iv | Photo identity proof as listed in point L(i): PAN card, passport, permanent driving licence, voter card with photograph, bank passbook with photograph, Aadhaar or e-Aadhaar with photograph, employee ID, Bar Council ID with photograph, a recognised college or university ID, or photo ID issued by a gazetted officer or people's representative on official letterhead; name exactly as on the call letter | Everyone |
| v | Graduation mark sheets or certificates; proof that the result was declared on or before 21 July 2026 | Everyone |
| vi | Caste certificate in the Government of India format | SC, ST, OBC |
| vii | Income and asset certificate in the prescribed format | EWS |
| viii | Disability certificate from the District Medical Board; scribe details if a scribe was used | PwBD |
| ix | Certificate for specified disability under 40% with difficulty in writing (Appendix I format) | Those who used a scribe under that provision |
| x | Service or discharge book, pension payment order, proof of rank; or a certificate of release on or before 20 July 2027 if still serving | Ex-servicemen |
| xi | No Objection Certificate in original from the employer; it must not be issued for any one particular bank | Government, quasi-government, PSU, nationalised bank and FI employees |
| xii | Experience certificates, if applicable | As applicable |
| xiii | Certificate of eligibility from the Government of India | Candidates under nationality categories ii to v |
| xiv | Any other relevant documents in support of eligibility | As applicable |
Three traps in that list. The OBC certificate: the notification says creamy-layer candidates, or candidates whose caste is not in the Central List, are not entitled to OBC reservation and should have applied as General. The NOC: a "conditional" NOC naming one bank is rejected because the process is common to all participating banks, and without an NOC the candidature "will not be considered". And the notification says no documents "shall be directly sent to IBPS/ Nodal Banks" before or after the interview; everything happens at the venue and through the upload link. The dress code and the etiquette of the room are on our documents and interview-day page.
What the interview is like
The notification fixes the marks, the floor and the documents. It does not fix the panel size, the duration or the language. What follows is the pattern reported across recent cycles, labelled as such.
- Panel (pattern): a board of serving or retired bank officers from the participating banks in that region, usually with one member who leads on banking questions and one on personal background.
- Duration (pattern): nothing in the notification sets a length. Candidates in recent cycles describe a short interview, so expect every answer to count from the first minute.
- Language (pattern): English or Hindi are accepted by panels; a candidate may be asked to continue in English after starting in Hindi. See our language page for how to handle the switch.
- Content (pattern): your introduction and home district, your degree and why banking, banking and economy awareness, recent RBI actions, a situational question about a customer or a colleague, and sometimes a question drawn from the personality profile.
Written by TalkDrill: a banking question handled in three moves
Panel: "You are a B.Tech. What do you know about the repo rate?" Candidate: "The repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends to banks against government securities, sir. It is set by the Monetary Policy Committee at its bi-monthly meetings. When the RBI changes it, banks' cost of funds changes, and loan rates linked to external benchmarks move with it. I checked the latest figure on the RBI site this week, and I can tell you the number and the date of the last change if you would like." Three moves: definition, who sets it and how often, and why a branch officer cares. The candidate offers the number rather than reciting it, which lets the panel decide where to go next. Our banking awareness page uses the same three-move frame for sixty concepts, each with the RBI page where the current figure lives.
Provisional allotment: how you get a bank
Section K: "On completion of the interview process, depending on the vacancies to be filled in during the financial year 2027-28 based on the business needs of the Participating Banks and as reported to IBPS, candidates shortlisted will be provisionally allotted to one of the Participating Banks, based on merit-cum-preference". The bank preferences you gave in the application form are used in rank order; the notification says no change in the registered data is possible after the edit window closed, and that once an allotment is made "no request for change shall be entertained" and "any request for change shall result in cancellation of candidature".
Three more clauses from section K and the introduction are worth knowing before January. A reserved-category candidate selected on General norms is treated as a General candidate for allotment. Where two or more candidates have the same score, merit order is decided by date of birth, the candidate senior in age placed above, "as per the prevailing practice". And the validity of CRP PO/MT-XVI "will automatically expire on the day which is one year after the date of Provisional Allotment or until a fresh provisional allotment is made, whichever is earlier". The notification also states plainly that the "ultimate authority for recruitment is the Participating Bank itself", which verifies eligibility again at joining.
A preparation route for the next six weeks
From the week after the mains to a December interview is about six weeks. The order below follows the IBPS schedule: documents and the personality test first, then daily speaking, then full mocks. Our three-week plan compresses the last half when your call letter arrives.
| Weeks | Focus | Daily | Do this |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 and 2 (late October) | Documents and self-knowledge | 30 min | Assemble the fourteen items; apply now for anything missing. Write a one-page profile of yourself: district, degree, two real achievements, why banking. Record a 90-second introduction and compare it with the eight sample introductions. |
| 3 (early November) | Personality test and banking basics | 30 min | Sit the personality test as yourself. Ten concepts a day from the banking awareness page, each said aloud in three moves. |
| 4 | Questions by background | 40 min | Work the question set for your profile on the background page: engineer, commerce, science, arts, working, gap year. One HR-style mock every second day. |
| 5 | Full panel mocks | 45 min | A scored bank panel mock on alternate days; read your allotment-preference banks' latest results and one RBI press release a day. |
| 6 (interview week) | Taper | 20 min | Re-read your application form, lay out the documents in the notification's order, travel the day before if the centre is outstation. |
Sources read on 19 October 2026: IBPS CRP PO/MT-XVI detailed notification, IBPS tentative calendar 2026-27 and the IBPS home page. This page is re-checked weekly; the dates block above it is rendered from the same dated rows used across the site. The Bank PO interview hub links every page in this series.