IBPS Clerk Exam Analysis 2025 October 4: Shift 1, 2 & 3 Prelims Review, Difficulty Level, Good Attempts and Questions

The IBPS Clerk Prelims Exam 2025 started today, October 4, and will be held across four shifts each day on October 4 and 5. With the first three shifts of Day 1 now over, candidate feedback suggests that the overall paper was easy to moderate, with the English section being the easiest, while Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude featured a few tricky questions, particularly in puzzles and arithmetic.

This analysis provides insights into section-wise difficulty levels, memory-based questions, and the number of good attempts that can be considered safe for this year’s exam.

Overall Exam Review

The difficulty level across all three shifts on October 4 was easy to moderate. English was straightforward, featuring questions from reading comprehension, cloze test, para jumbles, and grammar-based topics. Reasoning included several puzzles and seating arrangements, while Quantitative Aptitude tested candidates with simplification, arithmetic, and data interpretation.

Good Attempts

In Shift 1, candidates attempting between 75 to 81 questions out of 100 with accuracy can consider themselves in the safe zone. English had around 24–26 good attempts, Reasoning ranged between 26–28, while Quantitative Aptitude saw 25–27 good attempts.

Questions Asked – Memory-Based Review

Reasoning Ability

The Reasoning section was dominated by puzzles such as floor-based, square seating, and floor-flat arrangements. Other topics included syllogism, inequalities, direction and distance, word-based problems, and mixed series with letters, numbers, and symbols.

Quantitative Aptitude

This section featured around 12 questions from simplification, along with arithmetic problems on topics like partnership, averages, simple and compound interest, and boat and stream. Data interpretation questions appeared in both table and bar graph formats, alongside a few missing number series questions.

English Language

English was the easiest section of the exam. Candidates reported questions from reading comprehension, para jumbles, error detection, fill-in-the-blanks, misspelt words, and column-based problems. The comprehension passages were considered direct and easy to solve.

Shift Timings

The IBPS Clerk Prelims was conducted in four shifts. The first shift began at 9:00 AM and ended at 10:00 AM, followed by the second shift from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, the third from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, and the last shift from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Candidates were required to report an hour earlier for verification and the handwriting sample session.

Conclusion

The IBPS Clerk Prelims of October 4, 2025, was generally manageable with maximum marks scored in English. However, Reasoning and Quant were slightly tricky, especially the puzzle and arithmetic-based questions. In all, the paper was as per expectation and gave the others appearing in later shifts a chance to strategize.