SBI PO Final Merit: How the Main (230 → 75) and Interview (50 → 25) Combine

The SBI PO final list is not built on raw marks. The advertisement converts the Main exam to 75 marks and the group exercise plus interview to 25, and ranks candidates category by category on the total out of 100. In 2026-27 the Main is out of 230, so every Main mark is worth about 0.33 of a final mark, while every Phase III mark (group exercise or interview, out of the combined 50) is worth 0.5. This guide explains the conversion, the separate qualifying rules at each stage, what does not count at all, and how ties are broken — with a calculator.

SBI advertisement CRPD/PO/2026-27/09.

So the 2026-27 final score is Main × 75/230 + (group exercise + interview) × 25/50 — about 0.326 per Main mark and exactly 0.5 per Phase III mark (our arithmetic from the advertisement). The Main carries three times the weight of Phase III overall, but per mark the interview is worth half as much again as the Main. A candidate who gains five interview marks adds 2.5 to the final score; the same five marks in the Main add about 1.6.

1. Prelims → Main. Candidates are ranked category-wise on the aggregate prelims marks, with no sectional cut-off, and about ten times the category vacancies are called to the Main.
2. Main → Phase III. You must reach the Bank’s minimum in each of Tests I, II, III and IV and the descriptive paper; SBI decides these sectional minimums “depending upon the number of vacancies”. Qualified candidates are then ranked category-wise on the Main aggregate, and up to about three times the vacancies are called, subject to a minimum aggregate.
3. Phase III. The group exercise and interview have their own minimum qualifying marks, “as decided by the Bank”.

The final merit list is then drawn up category by category, top-down, on the combined score out of 100. Because SBI does not publish the minimums at any of these gates, nobody outside the Bank can state an official cut-off. SBI’s own FAQ defines a cut-off simply as “the marks secured by last candidate who is called for that particular activity”.

All three recent advertisements use the same rule: where more than one candidate has the same marks at the cut-off point of the final list, they are ranked by age in descending order — the older candidate is placed first. The advertisements state only this age rule for ties and mention no other tie-break.

Ten extra Phase III marks (out of 50) are worth about the same as 15 extra Main marks (out of 230). That is why candidates who scrape into Phase III can still finish well up the list with a strong interview — and why a candidate with a comfortable Main score cannot afford to under-prepare for the group exercise and interview.

The combined score is only calculated for candidates who have cleared every gate. That makes SBI PO different from exams ranked on a single total. A candidate with an excellent Data Analysis score and a weak English score may never reach Phase III, because the Bank sets a minimum in each Main test and in the descriptive paper; the advertisement is explicit that these sectional minimums are decided “depending upon the number of vacancies”. Only then is the Main aggregate used to rank candidates for Phase III, and only after Phase III is the final score out of 100 computed. The practical consequence is balance: a steady score across all four tests and the descriptive paper protects the attempt, and the aggregate then decides the rank.

Because the Main is scaled to 75 and makes up three-quarters of the final score, most of the ranking is decided in the written exam. But Phase III is not a formality. Group exercise and interview together give 25 marks, and between candidates whose Main totals are close, the interview decides the order. In 2025-26 SBI’s Main result (dated 06.11.2025) listed 1,412 roll numbers for Phase III against 541 posts (our count of that PDF), so more than half of those interviewed were not selected. A worked example from the conversion: 110/230 in the Main plus 35/50 in Phase III gives 35.87 + 17.50 = 53.37, which beats 125/230 plus 25/50 (40.76 + 12.50 = 53.26). Ten Phase III marks made up fifteen Main marks. Preparation for the group exercise and interview — current banking and economic affairs, a clear account of your own background, and practice in structured discussion — is worth time once the Main is done.

SBI publishes no cut-off document for any stage or cycle. Its careers pages carry advertisements, corrigenda, booklets, roll-number result lists and “marks secured” utilities that show a candidate their own marks after they enter their roll number, date of birth and a CAPTCHA. Coaching sites say the individual score cards show category cut-offs; that could not be checked without candidate credentials. The figures in circulation disagree with each other — two well-known sites give different 2025 Main cut-offs for OBC — so treat any “official SBI PO cut-off” table with caution. Our funnel guide shows what the official counts do tell you.