UPSC Civil Services Exam and IBPS Bank PO Exam

A lot of people who take the UPSC civil services also try their hand at various other exams including the bank Probationary Officers (PO) exams conducted by various banks and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). The two exams are in no way at the same level in terms of difficulty level and the scope of the syllabus. But the PO exams also offer candidates the chance of a good, steady career in banking institutions. This article shares details on the structure of IBPS PO exam structure and gives a crisp comparison of the IBPS PO exam and UPSC Civil Service Exam.

Candidates preparing for UPSC Civil Service Exam can visit the link IAS Exam for more information.

IBPS PO – Exam Structure

The UPSC CSE exams are conducted in three stages, as every IAS aspirant would know. Since 2015, the IBPS PO exam is also conducted in three stages, which are listed below:

Phase I: Preliminary Exam

Phase II: Main Exam

Phase III: Interview

The candidates have to get the minimum cutoff required to clear each phase and move on to the next phase.

IBPS PO Prelims Exam (Duration: 1 hour)

IBPS PO Mains Exam (Duration: 3 hours 30 minutes)

Comparison of UPSC Civil Service Exam and Bank PO

1. The main point of difference between both the exams is that the PO exams are online whereas the UPSC exam is not online.
2. The Prelims exam of the PO exam has many topics common to the UPSC CSE Prelims such as English, logical reasoning and mathematics.
3. In both cases, the prelims exam is objective type with negative marks. In the PO exams, one question carries one mark, and the penalty for a wrong answer is a deduction of 0.25 marks. In the UPSC prelims exam, the penalty for an incorrect answer is one-third of the total marks allocated to that question.
4. The mains exam in case of the UPSC is descriptive in nature with there being 9 papers.
5. In the case of PO exam, the mains exam is also objective. The negative marking scheme here is the same as that of the PO prelims exam. There is only one main exam.
6. Finally, the interview rounds are held in both the cases for those candidates who clear the required cutoff.
7. As you saw, there can be no comparison in terms of the syllabus vastness and number of subjects to study for both the exams. The UPSC syllabus is definitely more diverse and voluminous. PO exams are relatively easier although there is more emphasis on mathematical ability here.

Candidates preparing for UPSC 2022 can visit the link for more information.