RBI Grade A Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility

There's no single Grade 'A' pattern. Each post's scheme is in its own advertisement. The two most recent ones couldn't be more different.

Library Professional (Assistant Librarian): interview only

No written exam. See the selection process for how the shortlist is drawn.

Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha): two papers and an interview

• Negative marking for every wrong answer in Paper I.
• Both papers are on the same day, in the same session, with no break.
• Paper II tests translation from Hindi to English and back, and basic knowledge of the Official Language Policy of the Government of India.
• Paper II is marked only if you clear the aggregate and the minimum in each test of Paper I, as decided by the Board.
• Papers other than the English test are in Hindi and English, and you can answer, and take the interview, in either.

There's no common Grade 'A' syllabus. RBI prints the syllabus inside the advertisement for each post, usually as an appendix, where a written exam applies.

Library Professional (Assistant Librarian)

No written exam. The advertisement's job requirement is the best guide to what the interview covers:

• Working knowledge of standard library software for cataloguing, acquisition and circulation, serial control and subject indexing
• Computerised search, online and offline, including retrieval through search engines
• Digitisation: building a digital library, metadata and content management
• Preservation and conservation of library materials

Desirable: a diploma in computer applications, NET, SLET or SET, and a short course on a content management system such as Joomla or Drupal.

Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha)

• Reasoning, 35 marks
• English Language, 35 marks
• General Awareness with special reference to Banking, Economics, Commerce and allied subjects, 35 marks
• Test of Professional Knowledge including Official Language, 45 marks
• Descriptive paper on the Official Language, 50 marks: translation from Hindi to English and back and basic knowledge of the Official Language Policy of the Government of India

The job is the rest of the syllabus: translating references, documents, manuals and publications both ways, implementing Government instructions on the use of Hindi in the Bank, and running the Hindi Teaching Scheme for staff.

Every other Grade 'A' post

Curator, Fire Officer, Architect and Assistant Manager (Protocol and Security) each have their own qualification, experience and selection scheme. Read the advertisement when it comes out.

Nationality, for every RBI post

A citizen of India, or a subject of Nepal or Bhutan, or a Tibetan refugee who came to India before 1 January 1962 to settle permanently, or a person of Indian origin who migrated from Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zaire, Ethiopia or Vietnam to settle permanently.

The last four groups need a certificate of eligibility from the Government of India. They can sit the exam, but the offer of appointment waits for the certificate.

Library Professional (Assistant Librarian)

Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha)

A second class Master's degree by one of four routes: in Hindi or Hindi Translation with English at bachelor's level; in English with Hindi at bachelor's level plus a PG diploma in translation; in Sanskrit, Economics or Commerce with English and Hindi at bachelor's level plus a PG diploma in translation; or Master's degrees in both English and Hindi or Hindi Translation, one of them second class.

Age 21 to under 30, up to 32 with a Ph.D.

CGPA conversion

Where the university defines none, RBI uses a 10-point table: 6.75 = 60%, 6.25 = 55%, 5.75 = 50%, on the aggregate over the whole course. A scale other than 10 is normalised first.

Reservation and PwBD

SC, ST, OBC and EWS candidates can apply even where no vacancy is reserved for their category, but without relaxation; SC and ST candidates still pay no fee.

PwBD reservation is horizontal and applies only to posts identified as suitable. For Assistant Librarian that covers low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, several locomotor disabilities, autism spectrum disorder (mild), specific learning disability, mental illness, and multiple disabilities among those. Candidates with 40% or more disability and a limitation in writing may use a scribe they arrange and pay for.

Eligibility is checked only at the interview

Everyone who pays the fee is admitted on what they put in the form. The Board checks eligibility only at the final stage. False information found then cancels the candidature, bars you from the interview with no travel reimbursement, and allows removal from the Bank's service without notice if you've already joined.

Library Professional (Assistant Librarian)

1. Apply online through the Bank's website. There's no other mode.
2. Screening of applications to shortlist candidates for interview.
3. Interview of 100 marks. That's the whole scored selection.

The Board can raise the minimum experience to cut the number called to fit the vacancies, and meeting the minimum doesn't guarantee an interview. With one vacancy, the shortlisting is the competition.

Shortlisted candidates email self-certified scanned copies of age, qualification and experience documents to the Board, and are told the interview place and date later.

Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha)

1. Paper I, objective and online, 150 marks in four timed tests, with negative marking.
2. Paper II, descriptive, 50 marks in one hour, straight after Paper I. Marked only for those who clear the Paper I aggregate and each test's minimum.
3. Interview, 35 marks. Shortlisting is on the total of Paper I and Paper II, and the Board decides how many to call.
4. Final selection on exam and interview together, out of 235.

Each advertisement sets out the scheme for every post in it separately. Don't assume the next one matches the last.

Grade 'A' sits below Grade 'B' in RBI's officer ladder. RBI doesn't publish one Grade 'A' pay figure: librarians, translators, curators, fire officers, architects and security officers each get their pay and perquisites stated in their own advertisement. Look there, on the Current Vacancies page, when a post opens.

RBI's own page on the roles an officer may play describes the work.

Vacancies in the Panel Year 2022 advertisement

The whole recruitment was 10 posts:

Apply online only, through www.rbi.org.in. Instructions for the form are an appendix to each advertisement.

Fee

Bank charges are yours, and nothing is refunded. Staff status is checked at interview; if you don't qualify as staff, apply as non-staff and pay.

The window is short

In the Panel Year 2022 recruitment it ran 29 May 2023 to 20 June 2023, until 18:00, about three weeks.

Certificate deadlines

• OBC non-creamy-layer: in the prescribed format, issued after 1 April of the closing year and no later than the closing date.
• EWS income and asset: in the Government of India format for the relevant year, issued on or before the closing date.
• PwBD: the latest certificate from a competent authority under the RPwD Act 2016, subject to re-verification.

Corrigenda and fake letters

A corrigendum, if any, appears only on the Bank's website. RBI warns that fraudsters have sent fake appointment letters from domains made to look like RBI's. Call letters, interview schedules and final results are published only at opportunities.rbi.org.in.

Problems with the form, fee or admit card go to the Candidate Grievance Redressal System at cgrs.ibps.in.

The recruiter is the Reserve Bank of India Services Board, "the Board" in its advertisements, which recruits for the Reserve Bank of India.

Grade 'A' is the entry officer grade for specialists. Above it is Grade 'B': the flagship Officers in Grade 'B' (Direct Recruit) general, DEPR and DSIM recruitment, and specialist posts like Legal Officer in Grade 'B' and Manager (Technical-Civil). Lateral hires at Grade 'D', such as Chief Archivist and Superintending Engineer (Vigilance), sit higher. Below the officers, RBI recruits Assistants by an annual panel-year exam and Security Guards from ex-servicemen.

Grade 'A' posts come bundled. The Panel Year 2022 advertisement covered four posts across two grades, each with its own eligibility and selection section. Read only the section for your post.

Interview-only posts such as Assistant Librarian have no exam centres; shortlisted candidates are told the place and date of interview later.

For posts with a written exam, the advertisement lists centres and you pick a preference. The date, time and venue are on the admit card.

Where there are two papers, as for Rajbhasha, they run back to back with no break, so plan for three hours straight.

No mobile phone, even switched off, and no calculator, pen drive, smart watch, camera, voice assistant or Bluetooth device. Breaking this can mean a ban from future exams. There's no safe-keeping at the venue, so leave valuables at home.

PwBD candidates with 40% or more disability may use a scribe they arrange themselves; candidate and scribe both sign an undertaking with the scribe's photograph.

Grade 'A' has no calendar. RBI's Grade 'B' and Assistant recruitments run on a panel year; Grade 'A' posts are advertised as vacancies arise, with no fixed month and no guarantee of one in any year. Watch Current Vacancies.

Panel Year 2022, the most recent published

Grade 'A' posts advertised in recent years

As at 10 September 2026 the live items were the Grade 'B' (Direct Recruit) exam for Panel Year 2026, a lateral recruitment of Site Engineers on contract, an engagement of Young Professionals, and Bank's Medical Consultant engagements at regional offices.

For posts with a written exam, download the admit card from www.rbi.org.in when it's released. It gives the date, time and venue. With it you can download an Information Handout describing the test.

Interview-only posts have no admit card. Shortlisted candidates are told the place and date, and email their self-certified documents first.

An admit card doesn't mean you're eligible; that's checked only at interview. Call letters appear only on opportunities.rbi.org.in. Download problems go to cgrs.ibps.in.

Results are posted under Recruitment related Announcements on opportunities.rbi.org.in, and nowhere else.

A backlog vacancy reserved for a PwBD category with no suitable candidate is filled by interchange among other eligible PwBD candidates, if the post suits that disability.

RBI publishes no cut-off for any Grade 'A' post. The Rajbhasha minimums for each test of Paper I are set by the Board and not announced, and for Assistant Librarian the filter can be years of experience rather than marks.

Results appear under Recruitment related Announcements on opportunities.rbi.org.in, with no category-wise cut-off tables.

1. Check whether your post even has an exam. In the last recruitment Assistant Librarian was interview-only. Don't prepare for a paper that doesn't exist.
2. For an interview-only post, your application is the exam. Make your evidence specific: the library software you've used for cataloguing, acquisition, circulation, serial control and indexing; the databases you've searched; digitisation and metadata work; preservation work. The desirable qualifications (computer applications diploma, NET/SLET/SET, a CMS course) are what separate candidates when one post draws a national field.
3. For Rajbhasha, practise against each test's own clock: 30, 30, 20 and 40 minutes. The sectional timing catches unprepared candidates, and Paper II isn't marked unless every test clears its minimum.
4. Guess carefully. Every wrong answer in Paper I costs marks. The interview's 35 marks are nearly 15% of the total.
5. Rehearse three hours in one sitting: two hours objective, then an hour of translation with no break. Practise Hindi-English translation both ways and read the Official Language Policy itself.
6. Check eligibility before you pay. Compare your degree class, percentage and experience with the advertisement's exact wording, since nobody checks it until the interview.
7. Get certificates dated right. OBC and EWS certificates must fall inside the windows in the application section.
8. Check the vacancies page regularly. Windows are about three weeks and there's no calendar to warn you.

No previous year papers are available for RBI Grade 'A' posts. RBI doesn't release them, and the interview-only posts have no paper at all.

When a post is advertised on Current Vacancies, the advertisement carries the syllabus as an appendix, and the admit card comes with an Information Handout describing the test.

• Opportunities @ RBI, the recruitment site
• Current Vacancies, with a year-by-year archive
• Recruitment related Announcements and Results
• Panel Year 2022 specialist advertisement
• Reserve Bank of India, where you apply
• What roles could you play
• Candidate Grievance Redressal System, for form, fee and call letter problems

Is there an RBI Grade A exam?

Not as one exam. Grade 'A' posts are advertised one at a time, each with its own eligibility and selection scheme. There's no annual Grade 'A' exam like Grade 'B' or Assistant.

Which posts are in Grade 'A'?

Recently: Assistant Librarian, Assistant Manager (Rajbhasha), Assistant Manager (Protocol and Security), Curator, Fire Officer and Architect.

Do all Grade 'A' posts have a written exam?

No. Assistant Librarian is selected by a 100-mark interview alone.

Is there negative marking?

Yes, in Rajbhasha Paper I, for every wrong answer.

How many vacancies are there usually?

Very few. Panel Year 2022 had one Assistant Librarian post and five Rajbhasha posts, nationwide.

What does it cost to apply?

₹600 plus GST for General, OBC and EWS; ₹100 plus GST for SC, ST and PwBD; nil for RBI staff. Non-refundable.

Does meeting the minimum requirements get me an interview?

No. The Board can raise the minimum experience to cut the list.

When is my eligibility checked?

Only at the interview. Being admitted to the exam proves nothing.

When is the next Grade 'A' recruitment?

There's no calendar. None was open as at 10 September 2026. Watch Current Vacancies.