IBPS reasoning guide
IBPS reasoning: what is on the paper, and how to practise it daily
Reasoning Ability is 35 questions and 35 marks in both IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk prelims, inside a 20-minute sectional window — roughly 34 seconds a question. Puzzles and seating arrangement usually take the largest share of those 35, often 15 to 20 questions. That makes IBPS reasoning a speed problem far more than a theory problem, and a daily timed puzzle is the practice that moves it.
The pattern, stage by stage
Reasoning appears in every IBPS stage, but it is a different section each time — prelims tests raw speed on a narrow topic list, mains folds in computer aptitude and gives you harder, multi-variable puzzles.
| Paper | Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBPS PO Prelims | Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 min (sectional) |
| IBPS PO Mains | Reasoning & Computer Aptitude | 45 | 60 | 60 min |
| IBPS Clerk Prelims | Reasoning Ability | 35 | 35 | 20 min (sectional) |
| IBPS Clerk Mains | Reasoning Ability & Computer Aptitude | 50 | 60 | 45 min |
Question counts and timings follow the most recent official notifications. Exam boards do revise the pattern between cycles — confirm every figure against the current year's notification before you plan around it.
Which topics actually carry the marks
The IBPS reasoning syllabus is long, but the marks are not spread evenly across it. Ordered by how much of a typical prelims paper they take:
- Puzzles and seating arrangement. The single biggest block — floor, box, scheduling, categorised and linear/circular/double-row seating. Commonly 15–20 of the 35 prelims questions, in sets of 5.
- Inequality. Direct and coded. Fast marks once the convention is automatic; typically a 3–5 question set.
- Syllogism. Usually 3–5 questions, including reverse syllogism in mains. Pure rule-following once you stop reasoning from real-world meaning.
- Alphanumeric and number series. A 5-question set that is mostly about not panicking at a wall of symbols.
- Blood relations, direction sense, order and ranking. Two to five questions between them. Each is quick if you draw rather than hold it in your head.
- Coding-decoding. Often a 5-question set, and increasingly the new-pattern kind where the code has to be inferred from example sentences.
- Data sufficiency, input-output, logical reasoning. Mains territory. Input-output in particular rewards recognising the machine's rule in one pass.
What to practise daily
- Warm up for two minutes. Re-read yesterday's mistake note, not a fresh question. Starting cold on a hard puzzle trains frustration, not speed.
- Solve one timed puzzle for five minutes. Deduce serves one fresh puzzle per difficulty per day across 28 reasoning types, so a week of dailies covers seating, floors, scheduling, syllogism, series and data sufficiency without you having to plan a rotation.
- Review for five minutes. Three questions only: which clue was the anchor, which clue did I skip past, and where did I guess instead of deduce?
- Log one mistake for two minutes. Name it specifically — "missed immediate-left", "mixed above/below", "did not test the second case". A named error is one you can stop making.
- Do it again tomorrow. One serious puzzle daily beats ten unfocused ones on a Sunday, because a 20-minute sectional is a motor habit, not a knowledge test.
What Deduce covers — and what it does not
Deduce is the daily practice layer, not a course and not a mock-test platform. It generates a fresh, server-validated puzzle every day, checks your answer on the server, limits attempts and keeps a streak — which is useful once you already know the topic and need exam-speed deduction. It does not teach theory from scratch, does not cover the computer-aptitude half of IBPS mains, and does not replace full-length mocks. Pair it with a question bank for volume and a mock series for stamina.
Free and paid practice PDFs
Free reasoning puzzle PDF →
20 exam-format reasoning puzzles with full solutions. No email, no sign-up — the file downloads directly.
The reasoning puzzle book →
100 seating and arrangement puzzles with worked solutions, for when the daily is not enough volume.
The other section
The other half of the paper has its own daily. ComputePrep's IBPS quant guide covers the calculation side — same makers, same free-daily model.
Frequently asked questions
How many reasoning questions are there in IBPS PO prelims?
35 questions carrying 35 marks, with a 20-minute sectional time limit. IBPS Clerk prelims has the same 35-question reasoning section.
Which reasoning topic carries the most marks in IBPS?
Puzzles and seating arrangement. They usually account for 15 to 20 of the 35 prelims questions, and they are the topic most candidates run out of time on.
Is IBPS Clerk reasoning easier than IBPS PO reasoning?
The topic list is the same and the question count is the same. Clerk puzzles tend to involve fewer variables and fewer floating constraints, so they are faster to close, but the sectional clock is just as tight.
Is one puzzle a day enough for IBPS reasoning?
It is enough to hold and slowly improve a habit, and it is far better than nothing. It is not enough on its own during peak preparation — add timed sets and full mocks in the two months before the exam.
What order should I learn IBPS reasoning topics in?
Start with the quick, rule-based ones — inequality, syllogism, blood relations, direction sense, order and ranking — because they convert to marks within days. Then coding-decoding and series. Leave puzzles and seating for last in learning order but first in daily practice time, since they need the most repetitions.
Related guides
SBI reasoning guide · SSC reasoning guide · RRB reasoning guide · Reasoning puzzle types explained · Puzzle questions for bank exams · A daily reasoning routine for bank exams
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Deduce is not affiliated with IBPS, SBI, SSC, RRB or any other examination authority.