Is SBI Clerk Mains Easy/Difficult than IBPS Clerk Mains?

SBI Clerk Mains has been postponed; even the Prelims results are not declared hitherto. Talking about IBPS Clerk, its notification was released but was retracted after some days because of regional language issues. As these 2 exams take place this year, banking aspirants often ask a question: Is SBI Clerk Mains easy/difficult than IBPS Clerk Mains? Well! Both these exams are well-known to make an entry into the banking industry and both the exams have some common as well as peculiar points. So, in this article, we are going to answer this question. And we’ll do that by comparing both the exams on various factors. After going through this comparison, you will be able to gauge which of the two exams is difficult. Let’s get started.

Number of Vacancies

SBI Clerk 2021 notification has 5000 vacancies while IBPS Clerk 2021 notification has 5,830 vacancies. The less number of vacancies of SBI Clerk implies that there would be more competition over it. If the same number of banking aspirants compete for SBI Clerk as well as IBPS Clerk, IBPS Clerk will obviously be a bit more accommodative as it has slightly more vacancies. However, the difference isn’t that much. Also, there might be an increase in the number of vacancies once IBOS Clerk 2021 notification is re-released. So, from the number of vacancies point of view, IBPS Clerk seems to be relatively easier than SBI Clerk.

Exam Pattern

The Prelims exam pattern of both SBI Clerk as well as IBPS Clerk are exactly the same but in the IBPS Clerk Prelims, there are sectional as well as overall cut-offs whereas in SBI Clerk Prelims, there are neither sectional nor overall cut-offs. Talking about the Mains exam pattern, just like the Prelims exam pattern, there is no difference between the SBI Clerk Mains & IBPS Clerk Mains. There are sectional as well as overall cut-offs in IBPS Clerk Mains whereas in SBI Clerk Mains, there are neither sectional nor overall cut-offs. So from the point of view of exam pattern, IBPS Clerk seems to be difficult when compared to SBI Clerk

Questions of New Pattern

SBI is known for introducing new pattern questions in exams. Questions on new patterns confuse a majority of students which might have an adverse effect on their performance. While most of the aspirants get anxious on seeing questions of new kinds, please keep in mind that any new type of question is nothing but an application of the same concepts in a different way. Read: How to Deal with New Kinds of Questions- with Solved Examples. Judging by this factor, IBPS Clerk seems to be easier than SBI Clerk.

Previous Year Cut-offs

Previous year cut-offs of SBI Clerk Mains, as well as IBPS Clerk Mains, will give you a good idea of the difficulty level of both of these exams. As you have seen already, that the exam pattern is the same for both SBI Clerk Mains as well as IBPS Clerk Mains. So, the exam which will have higher cut-offs will most likely be a more difficult exam. Let’s have a look at state-wise cut-offs of SBI Clerk Mains as well as IBPS Clerk Mains for the years 2019 & 2020.

States	SBI Clerk Mains 2019 Cut-off	SBI Clerk Mains 2020 Cut-off	IBPS Clerk Mains 2019 Cut-off	IBPS Clerk Mains 2020 Cut-off
Punjab	102.75	96.25	56.58	45.75
Andhra Pradesh	99.75	88.75	50.98	44.13
Bihar	98.00		51.78	44.00
Karnataka	85.75	80.50	51.95	37.63
Jharkhand	97.50		50.63	39.25
Haryana	103.25		56.43	44.75
Uttar Pradesh	97.50	90.25	51.45	42.00
Delhi	99.75	98.75	55.83	44.00
Madhya Pradesh	94.75	89.25	51.18	36.38
Rajasthan	97.00	90.25	53.18	41.50
Uttarakhand	96.50	91.00	52.25	46.13
West Bengal	97.25	86.75	53.28	39.13
Himachal Pradesh	101.25	87.25	53.05	44.75
Odisha	94.75		51.28	43.25
Chattisgarh	87.75		49.88	41.38
Maharashtra	89.75	84.00	50.08	38.00
Gujarat	91.25	82.75	48.45	39.38
Kerala	96.25		53.58	42.13
Tamil Nadu	98.00	92.75	52.43	44.00
Assam	85.00		49.83	37.75

Since both SBI Clerk Mains as well as IBPS Clerk Mains are of 200 marks each but in IBPS Clerk Mains exam, the total marks are converted to 100 marks. You can simply multiply the IBPS Clerk Mains 2019 cut-off with 2 to equate it with that of SBI Clerk Mains. You can observe that overall the IBPS Clerk Mains cut-offs are slightly more than that of SBI Clerk Mains. This implies that IBPS Clerk Mains paper was slightly easy when compared to that of SBI Clerk Mains.

So Is SBI Clerk Mains Easy/Difficult than IBPS Clerk Mains?

So, from all the points discussed above, we can clearly observe that SBI Clerk Mains is slightly difficult when compared to IBPS Clerk Mains. SBI Clerk has comparatively fewer vacancies, it’s prone to questions of new patterns, its cut-offs are more etc. All these points make IBPS Clerk Mains slightly easy to clear when compared with SBI Clerk Mains. IBPS Clerk notification is about to re-release; meanwhile, why don’t you take a free mock test of SBI Clerk Mains 2021 exam and see how well do you perform.