Three weeks is enough to prepare for the Bank PO interview if you do one thing a day, aloud, with a clock. This plan gives you 21 daily tasks, each with its minutes and the page or practice mode that carries it, in the order the rounds arrive: documents and the psychometric test first, then your introduction and banking awareness, then the SBI Group Exercise, then full mocks and a taper. The dates that frame it are official. Per the SBI notice for advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09, the psychometric test is on 31 October 2026 and the Group Exercise and interviews run from 18 November 2026; per the IBPS CRP PO/MT-XVI notification, the IBPS PO interviews run in November and December 2026. The marks that frame it are official too: SBI Group Exercise 20 and interview 30, IBPS interview 100 with a 40 per cent qualifying floor (35 per cent for SC, ST, OBC and PwBD) and an 80:20 weightage with the mains. A ten-day emergency version follows for candidates whose call letter arrives late, and a section on running the SBI and IBPS calendars together. The same plan is rendered day by day on the Bank PO interview hub.
| Week | Goal | Daily minutes | Main practice mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Know the rounds and yourself | Documents in order, psychometric test understood, a 90-second introduction recorded | 20 to 30 | Reading plus one recorded introduction |
| 2: Banking awareness and the Group Exercise | Thirty concepts said aloud in three moves, one group discussion a day, the language decision made | 30 to 40 | Group discussion mode, panel mock |
| 3: Full mocks and taper | Four scored panel mocks, every recording compared with week 1, documents and travel checked, sleep | 45 then down to 10 | Bank panel mock interview |
How to use this plan
Count back 21 days from your interview date. For SBI, assume the earliest date, 18 November, until your call letter says otherwise; the notice says call letters with the exact date and time "will be released shortly". For IBPS, start the week after your mains and let the November result be your trigger for week 2. If your real date is later than 21 days away, do the plan and then repeat week 3 until the interview. If it is nearer, use the ten-day variant below.
Four rules make the plan work.
- Aloud, every day. The interview is a spoken test. Reading model answers silently trains recognition, not speech. Every task here is said out loud, and most are recorded on your phone so you can hear what the panel will hear.
- One task a day. Not three. A candidate who does the one task for 21 days finishes; a candidate who plans three a day stops in week 2.
- Your own words. Model answers on our pages are written by TalkDrill as examples. Read one, close it, and say your version. Panels have heard every coaching script.
- Documents before anything. Nothing in weeks 2 and 3 matters if an OBC certificate dated before 1 April 2026 or an EWS certificate for the wrong financial year keeps you out of the room. The SBI advertisement and the IBPS notification both say a candidate without the originals is not interviewed.
Week 1: know the rounds and yourself
Goal: finish the week with your documents in the official order, the psychometric test understood, your application form re-read, and a 90-second introduction recorded and listened to. Twenty to thirty minutes a day.
| Day | Minutes | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | Lay out every document against the SBI table or the IBPS (i) to (xiv) list. Check the date on the OBC, EWS and graduation documents. Apply today for anything missing or out of date. | Documents checklist |
| 2 | 20 | Read the rounds once: SBI Phase III (psychometric test, GE 20, interview 30, 75:25 normalisation) or IBPS (personality test, interview 100, 40 per cent floor, 80:20). Write the marks on a card. | SBI PO or IBPS PO |
| 3 | 20 | Read the psychometric page. Decide now to answer as yourself and consistently; it is placed before the panel, not scored. SBI candidates sit it on 31 October. | Psychometric test |
| 4 | 25 | Print your online application form. Read every field aloud. For each hobby, job and gap, write one sentence you would say about it. The panel asks about what you wrote. | Your application printout |
| 5 | 25 | Write your introduction: name, place, degree, one concrete thing since graduation, why banking. Say it aloud and record it. Under 90 seconds. | Sample introductions |
| 6 | 25 | First AI mock of your introduction. Do not restart if it goes badly. Listen back once and write down the three longest pauses. | Introduction drill |
| 7 | 20 | Read the first-language page for your mother tongue. Pick the two habits that appear in your day-6 recording and write the fix on your card. | Hindi speakers or Bengali, Telugu, Tamil |
Why the introduction before banking awareness: the first question in nearly every reported interview is some form of "tell us about yourself", and your answer decides the next five questions. A candidate who mentions a family shop gets asked about MSME credit; one who mentions a B.Tech gets asked why not IT. Write the introduction so that the follow-ups land where you are strongest.
Week 2: banking awareness and the Group Exercise
Goal: thirty banking concepts you can say in three moves (what it is, who sets or runs it, why a branch officer cares), one timed group discussion a day, and a firm decision about the language you will lead in. Thirty to forty minutes a day. SBI candidates: the psychometric test falls in or just before this week; sit it rested and move on.
| Day | Minutes | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 30 | Ten concepts aloud in three moves: CRR, SLR, repo, reverse repo, bank rate, MCLR, external benchmark, NPA, provisioning, CASA. Say the current figure only if you checked it on rbi.org.in today. | Banking awareness |
| 9 | 30 | Ten more: KYC, PMJDY, PMMY, KCC, priority sector lending, UPI, IMPS, NEFT, RTGS, digital fraud. For each, one sentence on what a PO does with it at a counter. | Banking awareness |
| 10 | 35 | First timed group discussion on a banking or economy topic in English. Practise three moves only: an entry line with one fact, one build-on that names a previous speaker, a 30-second summary. | Group discussion |
| 11 | 30 | Decide your language. Read the Hindi-or-English page. Practise the switch sentences until they are automatic, then record your introduction in English with one announced switch and back. | Hindi or English? |
| 12 | 35 | Second group discussion, different topic. Today's rule: speak third, not first, and make your entry a response to someone else's point. | Group discussion |
| 13 | 30 | Ten concepts from your own background: an engineer does payment systems and cyber security, a commerce graduate does balance-sheet terms and GST, a science or arts graduate does financial inclusion and the economy of the home district. Then the "why banking after your degree" answer, aloud, three times. | Questions by background |
| 14 | 40 | First full bank panel mock with the AI: introduction, why banking, three banking questions, one situational question. Score yourself: pauses over three seconds, answers over two minutes, and questions you could not answer. | Bank panel mock |
A note on current affairs. The panel is not running a quiz; it is checking whether you read what a branch officer reads. The RBI's bi-monthly policy statement, the current repo rate and CRR, the budget lines on banking, and the economy of your own district cover most of what is asked. Ten minutes a day of reading, then one minute aloud explaining it, is the right ratio.
Week 3: full mocks and taper
Goal: four scored panel mocks on alternate days, every recording from week 1 compared with its week 3 version, the documents and the travel checked, and two quiet days before the interview. Forty-five minutes at the start of the week, falling to ten at the end.
| Day | Minutes | Task | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 45 | Full panel mock, scored. Then read one of the three mock transcripts and mark where that candidate lost marks; check whether you do the same thing. | Mock transcripts |
| 16 | 30 | Ten situational questions aloud: an angry customer, a colleague's error, a pressure to mis-sell, a flood in the district. Answer each in under 60 seconds with one decision and one reason. | Questions and answers |
| 17 | 45 | Full panel mock, scored. Read the marks page once so you know what one interview mark is worth against the mains; it changes how hard you try on the last question. | Marks and weightage |
| 18 | 35 | SBI: one last group discussion, summary role. IBPS: a mock in which every answer is one sentence shorter than you want. Both: read one RBI press release aloud and explain it in four sentences. | Group discussion or Bank panel mock |
| 19 | 45 | Final full mock. Listen to it beside your day-6 recording. Write down the three things that improved; those are what you will trust in the room. | Bank panel mock |
| 20 | 20 | Documents and travel. The night-before checklist: originals and copies in order, ID with the exact name, photographs, clean hands, clothes laid out. Book travel for the day before if the centre is outstation. | Documents and day |
| 21 | 10 | Read your application form and your introduction once. No new material, no new mock. Sleep. | Your application printout |
If your interview is later than day 21, repeat days 15 to 19 as a loop: a mock, a drill, a mock, a discussion, a mock. Do not add new material in the loop; add precision to what you already say.
The ten-day emergency variant
Written by TalkDrill. For the candidate whose call letter gives ten days, or who finds this page late. Everything that is reading is cut; everything that is speaking is kept. Thirty to forty-five minutes a day.
| Day | Task | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Documents against the official list; apply for anything missing. Print and read your application form aloud. | 45 |
| 2 | Write and record your 90-second introduction. Listen once. Decide your language and learn the two switch sentences. | 30 |
| 3 | Fifteen banking concepts aloud in three moves, the ones on your card from day 8 and 9 of the full plan. Check the repo rate and CRR on rbi.org.in. | 35 |
| 4 | First full bank panel mock. Score pauses, length and blanks. | 40 |
| 5 | SBI: one timed group discussion, three moves. IBPS: ten situational questions, under 60 seconds each. | 35 |
| 6 | Fifteen more concepts, plus "why banking after your degree" and "how will you manage outside your state", five times each, shorter each time. | 35 |
| 7 | Second full mock. Read one mock transcript and mark where the candidate lost marks. | 45 |
| 8 | Third full mock, or for SBI a second group discussion followed by a short mock. Listen to it beside day 2. | 45 |
| 9 | Night-before checklist, travel, clothes. One read of the application form. | 20 |
| 10 | Interview day, or rest if the interview is tomorrow. Nothing new. | 0 |
Three days or fewer: documents on day 1, one mock and your introduction on day 2, the checklist and sleep on day 3. A candidate who has cleared the mains knows enough banking to talk for twenty minutes; what a last-minute candidate lacks is the habit of saying it aloud, and two sessions give you the first draft of that habit.
If you are working or sitting another exam
Many candidates are employed or are sitting the IBPS Clerk mains on 27 December 2026 or the SBI Clerk mains in November (both per the respective official calendars). Two adjustments keep the plan alive. First, move the speaking tasks to the commute or the evening and keep them to twenty minutes: an introduction in the car, five concepts aloud while walking, one mock after dinner. Second, do not skip the mocks to make time for reading; cut the reading instead. A working candidate who does four mocks and reads nothing new arrives in better shape than one who reads every night and never speaks. Candidates in government or PSU service have one extra week-1 task that cannot wait: the No Objection Certificate, which both the SBI advertisement (clause 28) and the IBPS notification (item xi) require at the interview, and which a government office can take weeks to issue.
SBI and IBPS on the same calendar
Many candidates sit both. The two schedules overlap: SBI's psychometric test on 31 October and its Group Exercise and interviews from 18 November, per the SBI notice; IBPS's main result and personality test in November and interviews in November and December, per the notification. Prepare them as one interview with two differences.
| Point | SBI PO Phase III | IBPS PO interview | What changes in the plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marks | GE 20 + interview 30 = 50, normalised to 25 of 100 | Interview 100, 20 per cent of the final score | Only the arithmetic: per our marks page, one SBI Phase III mark is worth about 1.5 mains marks, while one IBPS interview mark is worth about half a mains mark but the 40 per cent floor is absolute. Prepare both as if every mark counts |
| Qualifying | "As decided by the Bank" | 40 per cent (35 per cent for SC, ST, OBC, PwBD) | IBPS has a known floor; SBI does not, so do not relax for either |
| Group round | Group Exercise, 20 marks | None | Days 10, 12 and 18 are SBI-only; IBPS-only candidates use them for extra mocks |
| Profile test | Psychometric test, 31 October, placed before the panel | Personality test, November, non-qualifying but mandatory | Same approach: answer as yourself, consistently |
| Documents | Clauses 15, 24, 28 and the category notes | Fourteen items in seriatim plus a mandatory PDF upload | Build one file that satisfies the stricter list, the IBPS one, and it covers SBI |
| Who interviews | SBI | Participating banks via a nodal bank in your region | For IBPS, know the eleven participating banks and your preference order |
If both dates fall in the same week, do the SBI Group Exercise practice in the three days before SBI and switch to pure panel mocks for IBPS. The banking content is identical; only the group round differs.
How to measure progress: three numbers
Panels do not publish marking criteria, so you cannot score yourself against theirs. You can score the three things every panel reacts to, and all three are audible in a phone recording. Write your own week 1 count beside each; the targets are TalkDrill's, not an official standard.
| Number | How to count it | Week 3 target (TalkDrill's) |
|---|---|---|
| Pauses over three seconds | Per ten-minute mock, count silences you can time on the recording | Three or fewer |
| Answers over two minutes | Per mock, count answers that ran long; the introduction may run to 90 seconds, nothing else should | None |
| Blanks | Questions you could not answer at all; "I do not know, sir, but I would check the RBI site" is an answer, silence is a blank | None |
Write the three numbers after every mock on the same card as your marks and your two first-language fixes. The card, your application printout and your document folders are the only things you take to the venue. The day itself is set out on our documents and interview-day page.
Sources for the dates and marks on this page, read on 20 October 2026: the SBI notice on Phase III tentative dates, the SBI PO 2026-27 detailed advertisement, the IBPS CRP PO/MT-XVI detailed notification and the IBPS tentative calendar 2026-27.