IBPS Clerk Notification 2026: 11,403 Vacancies, Exam Date 10-11 October
IBPS Clerk Notification 2026: 11,403 Vacancies, Exam Date 10-11 October
Cycle status. Applications are closed. The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection released the CRP CSA-XVI notification on 1 August 2026 for 11,403 Customer Service Associate posts across eleven public sector banks. Registration ran from 1 August to 28 August 2026 after an extension from the original 21 August deadline.
What is live now is the exam. Prelims on 10 and 11 October 2026, Mains on 27 December 2026, and a Mains pattern that has been revised this cycle. This page carries the full notification detail and the vacancy tables.
IBPS Clerk 2026 at a glance
A note on the last date
You will find both 21 August and 28 August 2026 in circulation. The notification originally set 21 August. IBPS extended it to 28 August, and that extended date is the one that applied. Older coverage published before the extension still carries the earlier date, which is where the confusion comes from.
Why the post is now called Customer Service Associate
The clerical cadre has been formally renamed. The advertisement, the call letter and your appointment letter will all say Customer Service Associate, even though almost everyone still searches for it as IBPS Clerk. Nothing about the pay scale, the selection process or the branch role changed with the name.
One structural feature of this recruitment is worth calling out because it does not apply to every bank exam. IBPS advertises vacancies for every state and union territory, and posting normally stays within the state you selected. For candidates from states that some other bank recruitments skip, including Bihar and Jharkhand, that is the difference between competing at home and competing for a posting several states away with a transfer lock attached.
The trade-off is the language condition that comes with the state you chose. The side-by-side comparison is in the IBPS Clerk vs SBI Clerk guide.
Vacancy breakdown
Bank-wise
Union Bank of India is the eleventh participating bank but its figure was shown as NR, not reported, at the time of notification. The ten banks above account for the entire 11,403. If Union Bank reports later, the total could rise.
Where the posts are
Vacancies are distributed across every state and union territory. Uttar Pradesh has the largest share at 1,731, followed by Karnataka at 1,414, Maharashtra at 1,051, West Bengal at 946, Gujarat at 698 and Delhi at 415. At the other end, Ladakh has 6 and Daman and Diu 7.
The full 36-row state-wise table is in the CRP CSA-XVI notification PDF on ibps.in, and that is the version to use for anything that matters, since state-wise splits are where reproduction errors creep in.
How this compares with last cycle
The previous cycle advertised 15,751 posts. At 11,403 this one is down roughly 28 percent. Fewer posts against a similar candidate pool usually pushes cut-offs up rather than down, which is worth keeping in mind when you set a mock target from last year's figures in the IBPS Clerk cut off guide.
Eligibility
- Education. Bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university. No minimum percentage. The final result must be declared on or before the cut-off date stated in the notification.
- Age as on 1 August 2026. Minimum 20, maximum 28 years.
- Relaxation. SC and ST five years, OBC non-creamy layer three years, PwBD ten years. Further relaxation applies to ex-servicemen, widows and divorced women, 1984 riot-affected candidates and candidates domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir between 1980 and 1989.
- Computer literacy. Mandatory, through a certificate, diploma or degree in computer operations or IT, or Computer studied as a subject in school or college.
- Local language. Mandatory. You must read, write and speak the official language of the state or UT you applied for.
The language condition ends more candidatures than any other clause in this notification, and the detail is in the IBPS Clerk eligibility guide.
Application fee
Exam pattern
Prelims
Mains, revised this cycle
Three things changed from the previous cycle. Quantitative Aptitude went from 35 questions to 40, the paper total from 155 to 160, and the duration from 120 minutes to 125. Marks stayed at 200, so Quant now runs at 45 seconds per question against a little over 51 seconds before. Full breakdown in the IBPS Clerk exam pattern guide.
How selection works
Prelims, then Mains, then the Language Proficiency Test. There is no interview and has not been one at clerical level since 2016.
Prelims marks do not enter the final merit list. They shortlist you for the Mains and are then set aside. The state-wise, category-wise merit list is built from Mains marks alone, converted to a 100-point scale, and provisional bank allotment follows merit and the preference order you submitted.
Salary
Basic pay starts at Rs 24,050 and the clerical scale runs to Rs 64,480 over roughly twenty years. Gross in a metro posting is around Rs 40,000 to Rs 42,000 per month once DA, HRA and allowances are counted, and lower in smaller cities because HRA is city-linked. Structure, benefits and the promotion route are in the IBPS Clerk salary guide.
What to do with the time left
The Prelims is weeks away, not months. Sectional locks of 20 minutes mean the section you are weakest in decides the outcome, because a strong section cannot lend it time.
ExamAtlas has a free IBPS Clerk Prelims mock test series that enforces the locks and reports topic-wise accuracy. Call letter timing and the exam-day document list are in the IBPS Clerk admit card guide, and the four-week plan is in the IBPS Clerk preparation strategy guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is the IBPS Clerk 2026 application still open?
No. Registration ran from 1 August to 28 August 2026 after an extension and is closed. The next CRP CSA notification is normally issued around July or August the following year.
Was the last date 21 August or 28 August?
The notification set 21 August 2026 originally, and IBPS extended it to 28 August 2026. The extended date is the one that applied. Coverage published before the extension still shows 21 August.
How many vacancies are there and how are they split?
11,403 in total. Category-wise that is 4,740 UR, 2,815 OBC, 1,910 SC, 996 EWS and 942 ST. Bank-wise, Canara Bank has the largest share at 2,500 and Punjab National Bank 2,016, with the full count distributed across ten banks because Union Bank of India was shown as NR.
Why did vacancies fall from 15,751 to 11,403?
Participating banks report their own manpower requirements each cycle and the total moves with those. Union Bank of India reporting NR also holds the figure down, and the total could rise if it reports later.
What is the IBPS Clerk exam date for 2026?
Prelims on 10 and 11 October 2026 across multiple shifts, and Mains on 27 December 2026. Your own date and shift are printed on the prelims call letter.
What changed in the Mains pattern?
Quantitative Aptitude went from 35 questions to 40, the total from 155 to 160, and the duration from 120 minutes to 125. Total marks stayed at 200 and the four sections are unchanged.
Is there an interview in IBPS Clerk?
No. Selection is decided entirely by the Mains aggregate, with the Language Proficiency Test as a qualifying stage afterwards. There has been no clerk interview since 2016.
Which banks participate in this cycle?
Eleven public sector banks: Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India.
The line in this notification most people skip
Local language proficiency. It sits in the eligibility section between the degree requirement and the age table, reads like boilerplate, and is the reason candidates who clear the Mains still lose the post.
If you applied outside your home state because its cut-off looked easier, check your class 10 and 12 mark sheets this week rather than in January. Everything else about this cycle is in the IBPS Clerk complete guide.