IBPS Clerk Previous Year Question Paper with Answers PDF: Quick Answer
You can attempt 2 IBPS Clerk 2025 Prelims papers right here on BookOfExams: memory-based papers from Shift 1 and Shift 2 of 4 October 2025, 100 questions each, playable with a timer, instant scoring and explanations. Read the label carefully: these are memory-based papers, rebuilt from questions candidates remembered after the examination. They are not official IBPS papers, and this page never calls them official. IBPS does not publish its question papers: candidates get a scorecard, not a paper, so no official IBPS Clerk paper exists in the public domain the way SSC papers do. As of 2 November 2026, the 2026 cycle's Prelims (held 10–11 October 2026) has no result yet and no paper of any kind. Use the two papers below for pattern and difficulty practice, not as a word-for-word record of the 2025 examination.
Read this first (as of 2 November 2026): "Memory-based" is a statement about the source, not a mark of shame — but pages that drop the label mislead you. A memory-based paper can miss questions, reorder them, and get an answer wrong where no candidate remembered the options correctly. Treat every question below as practice at the 2025 pattern, and cross-check anything that looks wrong against the syllabus rather than trusting it blindly. The files on this site are marked "memory-based" in their own metadata, and this page keeps that label everywhere.
IBPS Clerk Prelims Exam Pattern for Previous Year Papers
The memory-based papers follow the Prelims pattern of the 2025 cycle: 30 English, 35 Numerical Ability and 35 Reasoning questions, 1 mark each, 100 marks in 60 minutes. The 2026 cycle did not change the Prelims — it is unchanged at 100 questions for 100 marks; only the Mains changed (160 questions for 200 marks in 125 minutes). The 30/30/40 marks split belongs to the IBPS PO Prelims, not the Clerk Prelims, and must not be read into this paper. The papers below are the 2025 pattern, so use them for question style and difficulty — the section counts and marks are the same in 2026.
| Section (2025 pattern) | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language | 30 | 30 | 20 minutes (sectional timer) |
| Numerical Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 minutes (sectional timer) |
| Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 minutes (sectional timer) |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 60 minutes |
Negative marking is 0.25 marks per wrong answer. You must clear the cut-off in each section of Prelims, and Prelims marks do not count in the final selection — the Mains decides it. For the full current pattern, including the revised 160-question Mains in 125 minutes, read the IBPS Clerk syllabus 2026 note. The IBPS Clerk expected cut off 2026 note explains the cut-off position for the 2026 cycle, whose Prelims result is expected in November 2026 with the Mains on 27 December 2026.
IBPS Clerk 2025 Prelims Memory-Based Papers: Attempt Online
Both papers are from 4 October 2025. Attempt a paper only when you can sit for 60 uninterrupted minutes, because the sections run on separate 20-minute timers in the real examination.
| Date and shift | Paper | Questions | Time | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 October 2025, Shift 1 (9:00 AM) | IBPS Clerk 2025 Prelims Memory-Based Paper 4 October Shift 1 | 100 | 60 minutes | Memory-based |
| 4 October 2025, Shift 2 | IBPS Clerk 2025 Prelims Memory-Based Paper 4 October Shift 2 | 100 | 60 minutes | Memory-based |
After you finish, review differently from an official paper: for every question you got wrong, ask whether the question itself is sound before you blame your method. Memory-based papers occasionally carry a wrong option set or a misremembered number, and practising a wrong question as if it were right teaches the wrong method. If a question looks unsound, skip it and move on — two papers give you 200 questions, and losing two or three doubtful ones costs nothing.
Why There Is No Official IBPS Clerk Paper
IBPS conducts its examinations online and does not release the question paper, the response sheet or a combined answer-key PDF for public download. What IBPS does release is the scorecard and, with it, a "Process for Arriving at Scores" document that explains how marks were normalised and where the cut-offs fell. That is why the honest previous-year material for IBPS Clerk is memory-based, while SSC previous-year material can be official: the two bodies publish differently.
This difference is also why you should distrust any page offering an "official IBPS Clerk 2025 paper PDF". It is either a memory-based paper with the label removed, a mock test relabelled, or a compilation from several shifts. The same caution applies to paid "complete 2016–2025 PDF bundles": check a sample shift first, and check whether the bundle labels its source. A bundle that will not show you a sample is selling you a label, not a paper. For the 2026 cycle, no paper of any kind exists yet — the Prelims result is still awaited — so any "2026 paper" offered today is a mock test.
How to Use IBPS Clerk Memory-Based Papers
Attempt a paper the way you will attempt the examination. Sit with a timer, no phone and no notes, and work through the three sections in order on their separate 20-minute timers. Mark every question you are unsure about as you go, so your review afterwards is about decisions, not memory. When the 60 minutes end, stop. The score that matters is the score under time pressure, not the score you could reach with an extra half hour.
Review in three passes. First, re-solve every wrong answer without looking at the explanation, and write down why your first method failed — but flag any question whose stem or options look inconsistent, and do not learn from those. Second, check the explanations for the questions you guessed right. Third, list the topics where you lost more than two marks in a single section, and practise those topics with the section tests on the IBPS Clerk mock test hub before you attempt the second paper. Attempt the two papers on different days: back-to-back attempts train recognition of the same remembered questions, not recall.
Track only three numbers across papers: total score out of 100, marks lost to wrong answers, and marks left unattempted. If wrong-answer losses are rising, you are guessing too much for a paper with 0.25 negative marking. If unattempted marks are rising, your speed in one section is the problem, and the sectional tests are the fix. For the Mains stage that follows Prelims, the free IBPS Clerk Mains full mock test 01 follows the revised 160-question pattern.
IBPS Clerk Previous Year Question Paper FAQs
Are the papers on this page official IBPS papers?
No. Both papers are memory-based papers from 4 October 2025, rebuilt from questions candidates remembered after the examination. They are labelled memory-based in their own file metadata and everywhere on this page. IBPS does not publish official question papers.
Where is the IBPS Clerk 2026 previous year paper?
It does not exist in any form. The 2026 Prelims was held on 10–11 October 2026 and its result is still awaited as of 2 November 2026. Any page offering a "2026 paper" today is offering a mock test or a relabelled older paper.
How many questions are in the IBPS Clerk Prelims paper?
100 questions for 100 marks in 60 minutes in the 2025 pattern used by these papers: 30 English, 35 Numerical Ability and 35 Reasoning, on separate 20-minute timers. The 2026 pattern keeps the same 100 questions, 100 marks and 1 mark per question — the Prelims is unchanged; only the Mains changed. (The 30/30/40 marks split is the IBPS PO Prelims change, not the Clerk's.)
Is there a PDF download for the papers on this site?
The papers are designed to be attempted online with a timer and instant scoring. For offline practice, print a paper's questions from your browser after opening it. Do not download PDFs from unfamiliar sites that ask for payment or personal details first, and do not trust any PDF labelled "official IBPS paper".
Do these papers cover the Mains?
No. The Mains is a separate 160-question paper for 200 marks in 125 minutes, with four sections including General/Financial Awareness. The IBPS Clerk Mains full mock test 01 covers the Mains pattern, and the IBPS Clerk syllabus 2026 note explains both stages.
What score should I aim for in a memory-based paper?
Aim for consistency across both papers rather than one high score, and discount the result by a few marks for memory errors in the paper itself. Check the IBPS Clerk expected cut off 2026 note for the cut-off position, and remember that Prelims is qualifying only — the Mains decides selection.
Sources
- This site's own test files on the working tree, verified 2 November 2026: 2 files, 100 questions each, dated 4 October 2025, Shifts 1 and 2, each marked paperType "memory-based" with isPYP true in file metadata — labelled memory-based on this page, never official.
- IBPS notification CRP CSA-XVI dated 1 August 2026 (revised CSA pattern), as cited in the IBPS Clerk syllabus note on this site.
- IBPS website, www.ibps.in — scorecards and "Process for Arriving at Scores" documents; no question papers published.
Last checked: 2 November 2026. This page will be updated if further memory-based 2025 papers are added, and when the 2026 cycle produces memory-based papers after its Mains.