Bank Exams · Subject-wise preparation

Reasoning ability for bank exams

By the PrepMatic team · Updated 8 Oct 2026 · 8 min read

Reasoning for bank exams is scored in the prelims and mains of every major exam, and puzzles and seating arrangements usually take the biggest share of it. IBPS PO prelims gives you 20 minutes for 35 reasoning questions, about 34 seconds each, so the skill that matters is choosing which sets to solve and which to leave. This page lists where reasoning appears, the commonly tested topics, a method for each with a checked example, and how to pick questions under sectional timing.

Where reasoning appears in each bank exam

These come from the 2026 IBPS and SBI notifications and the RBI Assistant 2025 mains handout. The RBI Grade B advertisement does not split Phase I, and the RBI Assistant prelims split is from secondary sources, so confirm both in the latest handout. Note the difference in the mains: IBPS PO and IBPS CSA reasoning is a pure reasoning section in the 2026 notifications, while SBI PO and SBI JA still combine it with computer aptitude (see computer aptitude).

Commonly tested topics and rough weightage

Notifications name only the section, so there is no official topic list. These topics recur in recent papers. The shares are approximate, unofficial and change by exam and year.

Methods with worked examples

Linear seating. Six people P, Q, R, S, T and U sit in a row facing north. Q is third from the left end. P is second to the right of Q. R sits immediately to the left of Q. U sits immediately to the right of P. T sits at an end. Who sits between R and P?

Place the definite clues first: Q in seat 3, P in seat 5, R in seat 2, U in seat 6. T must be at an end, and seat 6 is taken, so T is in seat 1 and S in seat 4. The row is T R Q S P U, and Q and S sit between R and P. Always re-check the final row against every clue. When a clue gives two options ("at one of the ends"), draw both cases and let later clues cancel one.

Circular seating. First note whether each person faces the centre or outside. For someone facing the centre, left is clockwise and right is anticlockwise. For someone facing outside it is the other way round. In mixed-facing puzzles, convert every "left" and "right" clue before you place anyone.

Puzzles. Draw a table with the people as rows and the attributes as columns. Fill the definite clues, then eliminate. Clues like "A is not next to B" are weak, so use them last. If you cannot place anything definite within about two minutes, mark the set and move on.

Syllogism. Combine two statements using these rules (A = all, E = no, I = some, O = some not):

Every other pairing, such as A + I, gives no definite conclusion. A statement of the I type can always be reversed ("Some X are Y" means "Some Y are X"). Example: All banks are institutions; some institutions are lenders; no lender is a regulator. "Some lenders are institutions" follows by reversing. "Some institutions are not regulators" follows (I + E). "Some banks are not regulators" does not follow, because every bank could be a regulator without breaking any statement. When two conclusions share the same subject and predicate and form a pair like "Some X are Y" and "No X is Y" (or "All X are Y" and "Some X are not Y"), and neither follows alone, the answer is "either I or II".

Inequalities. Chain the symbols in one direction only. Given P > Q ≥ R = S < T: P > S follows (P > Q ≥ R = S), and R < T follows (R = S < T). Q and T cannot be compared, because the chain turns at S. With coded symbols, decode each statement first and then solve it.

Blood relations. "Pointing to a man, Meena said, 'His mother is the only daughter of my mother.'" The only daughter of Meena's mother is Meena herself, so the man's mother is Meena and he is her son. Sketch a family tree with male and female marks, and treat words like "only" as facts.

Direction sense. A man walks 10 km north, turns right and walks 6 km, turns right again and walks 2 km. He is now 6 km east and 8 km north of his start, so the straight-line distance is √(6² + 8²) = 10 km, to the north-east. Remember the common triples: 3-4-5, 5-12-13, 6-8-10, 8-15-17.

Coding-decoding and ranking. Letter shifts: BANK becomes DCPM when each letter moves 2 places forward, so LOAN becomes NQCP. For ranking, position from left plus position from right equals total plus 1: a student who is 14th from the top and 27th from the bottom means a class of 14 + 27 − 1 = 40.

Input-output (mains). Input: 48 12 63 7 30. Step I: 7 48 12 63 30. Step II: 7 12 48 63 30. Step III: 7 12 30 48 63. The rule is that the smallest remaining number moves to the front of the unsorted part. Find the rule from two steps, then apply it to the new input directly without writing every step.

Assumptions (mains). Statement: "The bank extended counter hours on Saturdays so that working customers can transact." Assumption I, "Some customers cannot visit during weekday hours", is implicit. Assumption II, "All customers prefer digital banking", is not. Test an assumption by negating it: if the statement then makes no sense, the assumption is implicit.

Picking questions under sectional timing

IBPS prelims sections are timed separately, so spend all 20 minutes on reasoning. Spend the first minute scanning every set. Start with the quick topics (inequality, syllogism, blood relations, coding) and the puzzle sets that open with definite clues. Leave a set that has only conditional clues for last. A 5-question puzzle set is one-seventh of the questions in a 35-question section, so a set that ties you up for eight minutes (40% of your 20 minutes) and then fails is the costliest mistake in the paper. Negative marking applies: the CSA, RRB, SBI and RBI Assistant documents deduct one-fourth of the marks assigned to a wrong answer, and IBPS PO also penalises wrong answers, so check its notification.

A four-week starting plan

1. Week 1: inequality, syllogism, blood relations, coding-decoding. These are quick and build confidence.
2. Week 2: linear and circular seating, with one clue-order drill per day.
3. Week 3: floor, day, month and box puzzles, then timed sets.
4. Week 4: mains topics, plus a 35-question, 20-minute sectional.

Keep an error log that notes whether you misread a clue, picked the wrong first move, or ran out of time. The IBPS PO preparation strategy and IBPS Clerk preparation strategy show where reasoning fits in the bigger plan, and Quantitative aptitude covers the other speed-critical section. For the whole journey, start from the bank exam guide.

Practising reasoning with PrepMatic

The free PrepMatic assessment, about 15 untimed multiple-choice questions, shows your subject-wise correct answers and flags your weakest subjects. You can then build a custom mock by choosing the subject, number of questions, duration and difficulty, such as a 35-question, 20-minute reasoning sectional, or generate mocks focused on those weak subjects. Results show a subject-wise breakdown and speed per question. Practice questions are AI-generated rather than official past papers.

Frequently asked questions

Which reasoning topics carry the most questions in bank exams?

Puzzles and seating arrangements, which often form around half of a prelims reasoning section in 5-question sets. Syllogism, inequalities, blood relations and coding-decoding fill most of the rest. These shares are approximate and change each year.

Is there a reasoning section in IBPS PO mains?

Yes. It is 40 questions for 60 marks in 45 minutes in the 2026 notification, and it is not titled "Computer Aptitude". SBI PO mains still uses "Reasoning & Computer Aptitude", with 40 questions for 60 marks in 50 minutes.

Should I skip a puzzle that looks hard?

If you cannot place anything definite within about two minutes, yes. Come back if time remains. Quick topics return marks faster than a stuck puzzle.

How do I get faster at seating arrangements?

Practise clue ordering: solve definite clues first, then clues that link two people, then negative clues. Redo solved puzzles on paper without the answer to build the habit.

Is the reasoning syllabus official?

No. IBPS and SBI publish only section names. The topic lists on this page reflect what recent memory-based papers show, and the official handouts with sample question types are a useful check against any coaching list.

Official sources

• IBPS: notifications and information handouts with sample question types.
• SBI careers: PO and Junior Associate advertisements.
• RBI opportunities: Grade B and Assistant notices.

IBPS and SBI do not publish past question papers. Confirm the pattern in the latest notification before relying on any figure here.

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