This page lists IBPS Clerk previous year question papers for 10 years, 2015 to 2024, with labelled mock papers for 10 years with no official question paper. IBPS Clerk is conducted by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and covers English, Numeracy, Reasoning and Computer/GA. Pick a year below for the paper, answer key and a timed practice plan; confirm dates and pattern on ibps.in.
Explore: Question papers by year · Syllabus & pattern · Pattern changes · FAQ
Year-wise question papers
IBPS does not publish Clerk question papers. Each year page has an original mock paper written in the pattern candidates reported for that cycle, clearly marked as a mock, with notes on how to use it.
IBPS Clerk 2024
The newest Clerk paper here. Use it to set your attempt target for each 20-minute section.
IBPS Clerk 2023
Same Prelims and Mains structure as 2024. A good fresh paper for a second timed attempt.
IBPS Clerk 2022
Useful for Mains practice: four timed sections and 190 questions to get through in 160 minutes.
IBPS Clerk 2021
The cycle that added regional languages for the paper. Good for English and Numerical Ability speed.
IBPS Clerk 2020
The COVID cycle, with Mains held in 2021. The format matches later years.
IBPS Clerk 2019
Prelims ran with 20 minutes per section. A good starting point for today’s format.
IBPS Clerk 2018
Older Prelims timing. Sit it with three 20-minute timers to match the current exam.
IBPS Clerk 2017
Good for simplification, number series and basic puzzle drills from the archive.
IBPS Clerk 2016
Use its English section for grammar and cloze practice, untimed at first.
IBPS Clerk 2015
The first Clerk cycle with separate Prelims and Mains. Best for topic-wise arithmetic practice.
Want to practise one topic at a time? IBPS Clerk topic-wise practice sorts the 272 questions from our labelled mock papers by section and topic.
About IBPS Clerk
IBPS Clerk recruits Customer Service Associates, the clerical staff of the public sector banks that take part in the Common Recruitment Process. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection runs it every year. Vacancies are announced state by state, and you apply for one state. You are expected to know that state’s official language, and a Language Proficiency Test can be held for this.
The exam has two written stages, Prelims and Mains, and no interview. The final merit list is made from Mains marks alone. That makes IBPS Clerk different from the PO exam in a way that changes how you prepare. There is no descriptive paper and no interview to make up for a bad day, and the competition within a state is close, so a few marks in Mains can decide whether you get allotted.
The Clerk paper is easier than the PO paper question for question. It is harder in a different way. The paper is built for speed, and the people who clear it are the ones who attempt a lot of questions with very few mistakes. Old papers are the best way to find out how many questions you need to attempt, and how fast you have to be to get there. The full syllabus and section details are on the IBPS Clerk syllabus and pattern page.
About the papers on this site
IBPS does not publish Clerk question papers or a public answer key. After the exam you can see your own scorecard. What circulates online are memory-based papers that coaching institutes reconstruct from what candidates remember. They give a fair idea of the paper’s mix, but numbers and options are often wrong.
Each year page here has an original mock paper in the reported pattern and difficulty for that cycle, clearly labelled. The guide on memory-based and official papers explains how to use reconstructions without being misled by their errors.
How the paper has changed since 2015
IBPS Clerk has changed less than most exams over this decade. The topics are almost the same in 2015 and 2024. The timing and the way Mains is organised are what moved.
| Cycle | Prelims | Mains | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 100 questions in 60 minutes: English, Numerical Ability, Reasoning | Separate sections including Computer Knowledge, on a single clock | First year with Prelims and Mains; no interview for Clerk |
| 2016–2018 | 100 questions, 60 minutes, one clock | Four sections with their own timers: General/Financial Awareness, General English, Reasoning Ability and Computer Aptitude, Quantitative Aptitude. 190 questions, 200 marks, 160 minutes | Computer folded into Reasoning; sectional timing in Mains |
| 2019–2020 | English 30, Numerical Ability 35, Reasoning 35, 20 minutes each | Same four timed sections | Sectional timing in Prelims |
| 2021–2024 | Same as 2019 | Same as 2019 | Exam offered in 13 regional languages besides Hindi and English |
Marking has been one mark per question in Prelims with a quarter-mark penalty, and a quarter of the question’s marks deducted in Mains. Every section has a cut-off, and you also need an overall score above the cut-off for your state and category.
The 2021 language change matters only if you plan to write the paper in a regional language. The papers themselves look the same. Before using this table for your own exam, read the current notification, since IBPS has revised some of its exam patterns from 2025.
What the papers show, section by section
Numerical Ability (Prelims) and Quantitative Aptitude (Mains)
This is where Clerk differs most from PO. Prelims Numerical Ability is about one-third simplification and approximation. You will see around 10 to 15 such questions, plus a number series, one or two DI sets and arithmetic word problems. Simplification questions are the fastest marks in the paper if your tables, squares, cubes and fractions are automatic. They are the slowest marks if they are not.
In Mains, the section moves towards DI and arithmetic, with quantity comparisons and data sufficiency in some years. It is still lighter than PO DI. Most students lose marks to calculation errors under time pressure, not to hard concepts.
When you check a Numerical Ability section, time each type of question separately. If you are taking 40 seconds on simplification, that is the first thing to fix, because it frees time for everything else. A daily 15-minute drill of simplification and series questions from old papers does more for a Clerk score than a new chapter.
Reasoning Ability
Prelims Reasoning has puzzles and seating arrangements, but they are smaller and more direct than in PO. Alongside them come inequalities, syllogisms, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, alphanumeric series and order-ranking. These short questions decide the section. A student who can do all of them quickly can afford to leave one hard puzzle.
In Mains, puzzles get longer and you get Computer Aptitude in the same section, worth a set of easy marks if you have read the basics: hardware, software, networking, shortcuts, MS Office and internet terms. Past papers show these computer questions repeat in style year after year.
English Language
English in Clerk is more grammar than reading. Error spotting, fillers, cloze tests, word swaps, para jumbles and phrase replacement make up much of it, with one reading passage. Students coming from Hindi-medium schools often find this the hardest section to clear. It has a cut-off like the others.
Track your mistakes by type. If the same grammar rule keeps tripping you up (articles, prepositions, subject-verb agreement), you have found something you can fix in a week. Reading one newspaper editorial a day will help the RC questions over a few months.
General/Financial Awareness (Mains)
This section only appears in Mains and carries 50 marks, a quarter of the total. Since Mains decides the final list, it is often the section that separates selected candidates from the rest. It is mostly banking and financial awareness plus current affairs from the months before the exam, with some static questions on capitals, currencies, national parks and the like.
Past papers here teach you the kind of facts that get asked, not the facts themselves. A strong GA score is also the most reliable part of Mains, because you can answer these questions in seconds and they do not depend on how you feel on the day.
Notes on recent years
2024 is the closest to what you will sit next. Its Prelims followed the 30/35/35 split with 20 minutes per section. Do it when your speed is already good, so the score tells you something.
2022 and 2023 used the same structure. Treat them as two more full-length papers for both Prelims and Mains. Mains in these years is a good test of whether you can keep your accuracy across 160 minutes.
2021 was the year IBPS opened the exam to 13 regional languages after a public debate about language access. The paper itself followed the usual format.
2020 was a pandemic year. Mains moved into 2021, but the paper was in the standard format.
2015 to 2019 are still useful for topic practice. Questions on simplification, series, syllogisms and grammar do not age. Use 20-minute timers for the Prelims sections even where the original exam had one clock.
Using old papers at different stages of preparation
In the first months
Use past papers by topic. After learning simplification shortcuts, solve every simplification question from five or six years of papers in one sitting. Do the same for number series, inequalities and error spotting. This builds speed on the question types that make up most of the Prelims score. Hold off on full papers until each section feels familiar.
Six to eight weeks before Prelims
Move to full Prelims papers three or four times a week, with strict 20-minute sectional timers. Record the number of questions you attempted in each section and your accuracy. For Clerk, a high attempt count with poor accuracy is as bad as a low attempt count, because the quarter-mark penalty adds up fast at this volume. Look for the attempt level where your accuracy stays high, and train to raise it slowly.
Between Prelims and Mains
Switch to Mains papers and revise General Awareness every day. Mains is long and the four sections need different paces. GA should be quick. Reasoning and Quant need steady work. English sits in between. Sit at least four or five full Mains papers before the exam, and keep revising computer terms for the Reasoning section.
After Mains
There is no interview. Your next step is the state language requirement and document checks, so keep your certificates ready and make sure you can read and write the official language of the state you applied for.
Mistakes students make with past papers
The commonest mistake is practising with PO-level puzzles and DI and neglecting the simple questions. Clerk is won on simplification, series, short reasoning and grammar. If you spend your practice time on hard puzzles, you will be slow on the questions that actually decide the score.
The next is ignoring General Awareness until after Prelims. GA is a quarter of the Mains total, and Mains alone decides selection. Starting it a month before Mains is too late.
Some students also take memory-based papers at face value. A wrong option or a typo in a number can make a question look unsolvable, and that can shake your confidence for no reason. And many never practise Mains as a full 160-minute sitting, so they find on exam day that their accuracy drops sharply in the last section.
FAQ
Does IBPS release Clerk question papers?
No. IBPS shares scorecards and cut-offs but not the question papers or a public answer key. Papers on coaching sites are memory-based reconstructions. The year pages here have original mock papers in each year’s reported pattern, labelled as mocks.
What is the IBPS Clerk Prelims pattern?
Prelims has 100 questions in 60 minutes: 30 English, 35 Numerical Ability and 35 Reasoning Ability, with 20 minutes for each section. Each question is worth one mark and a wrong answer loses a quarter mark. Confirm in the current notification before your exam.
Is there an interview in IBPS Clerk?
No. The final selection is based on Mains marks only, subject to the state’s language requirement and document checks. That is why Mains, and General Awareness in particular, deserves more practice than many students give it.
How many years of IBPS Clerk papers should I solve?
Do 2019 to 2024 as full papers, since they use the current sectional timing. Use 2015 to 2018 for topic-wise practice in simplification, series, short reasoning and grammar. SBI Clerk papers make good extra practice at a similar level.
How many questions should I attempt in IBPS Clerk Prelims?
It depends on your accuracy and the paper’s difficulty, and cut-offs vary by state and year. Use past papers to find the attempt level at which your accuracy stays high, then raise it gradually. Guessing to push up attempts usually costs more than it gains.
Can I write IBPS Clerk in my regional language?
Since the 2021 cycle, IBPS has offered the Clerk exam in 13 regional languages besides Hindi and English, except for the English Language section. Check the current notification for the list that applies to your state.
Are IBPS PO papers useful for Clerk preparation?
For topic practice, yes, but they are not a good guide to the Clerk paper’s level or speed. PO puzzles and DI are longer, and Clerk has more simplification and short questions. Use Clerk and SBI Clerk papers for full-length practice.
Which section is hardest to clear in IBPS Clerk?
For many candidates it is English, because it has its own cut-off and is mostly grammar. For others it is Numerical Ability, if their calculation speed is weak. Your own past-paper scores will show which one it is for you.
Where to get the official papers
IBPS publishes Clerk notifications, state-wise vacancies, scorecards and cut-offs on ibps.in. It does not publish the question papers. Read the notification for the current pattern and the languages offered. We add notes and mock papers for each year, but the official notification is the final word.