Let me tell you something nobody in the coaching industry wants to say out loud: the problem isn't that you're not working hard enough. The problem is that this entire system is designed to make you fail and then blame yourself for it.
RBI Grade B had 322 seats in 2021. In 2026, it has 60 Seats. For the entire country.
Five lakh people are expected to apply. That's 1 seat for every 8,333 human beings who showed up, studied monetary policy at 2 AM, sacrificed weekends, and told their families "bas ek aur attempt." One. In eight thousand three hundred and thirty three.
UPSC CSE gives you a 0.0075% shot. Let that number breathe.
Out of roughly 13 lakh people who register, about 979 get selected. Not 9,790. Not 97,900. You are more likely to get struck by lightning twice than crack UPSC CSE on your first attempt as a random applicant off the street. And what do we tell our kids? "Work hard, clear UPSC, become an IAS officer." Sure. We also tell them fairy tales, but at least those come with a "once upon a time" warning.
People spend 3, 4, 5 years for these kind of exams. Real years of their lives their mid-20s, the years where compounding returns on career and savings begin, the years where private sector peers are getting promoted, buying cars, starting families. And the system rewards this sacrifice with a 0.0075% shot.
SBI PO used to have 2,056 seats. Now it has 541 (2025)
SBI PO is the dream of lakhs of banking aspirants. It's the "safe prestige" pick not as brutal as RBI Grade B, not as life consuming as UPSC. And for years it made sense. 2,000 seats is at least a visible target.
Then came 2024: 600 seats. 2025: 541. The reason? Automation. Digital banking. Workforce "optimization." In plain language the bank decided machines are cheaper than you, so they stopped hiring humans in bulk.
Nobody told you this when you enrolled in that coaching institute for Rs. 80,000 in 2022. Nobody said "by the way, the bank is quietly automating half the jobs you're training for." They just kept cashing your fees and selling you mock tests.
IBPS PO at least isn't lying to your face.
5,208 seats in 2025. It's fluctuated wildly 3,049 in 2023, then back up to 5,973 in 2024 but it hasn't crashed into irrelevance like RBI or SBI. And it covers 11 different banks, so your preparation isn't a single point bet.
This is as close to "reasonable" as the system gets. And it's still a 1 in 961 shot. Think about that. In any other field, a 0.1% acceptance rate would be considered elite. In the Indian government exam ecosystem, it's the most accessible option we have.
That's how broken this is.
The coaching industry is the only winner in all of this.
While seats fall, registrations don't. 50 lakh people apply for IBPS PO. 13 lakh for UPSC. 5 lakh for RBI Grade B. Every single one of them spent money on coaching, test series, books, study material, and online courses. The industry makes thousands of crores. Every year. Regardless of how many people actually get selected. The institute doesn't lose money when RBI cuts seats from 322 to 60. You do. They just run the next batch.
And yet, we're told the problem is our attitude??????
"Stay consistent." "One more mock test.". "Just 6 more months." The entire discourse around these exams is designed to keep you in the pipeline, keep you consuming content, keep you paying while the actual structural problem, vanishing vacancies, gets zero airtime.
When was the last time you saw a coaching institute make a video called "RBI Grade B now has 60 seats, here's an honest assessment of whether you should even attempt it"? Never. Because that video doesn't sell subscriptions.
I'm not saying quit. I'm saying be honest with yourself. Lemme know what do y'all think about this in the comments below.
Note: All data that I have used in this post have been compiled from official notifications and multiple public sources.
Analysis cross checked and structured using AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok.
Edit 1: Made a couple of corrections after rechecking the data:
- RBI Grade B: 1.07 lakh applications were received for 2025 (General stream)
- IBPS PO: The earlier figure of 50 lakh was incorrect, actual estimates suggest around 6–12 lakh applicants.
Apologies for the earlier inaccuracies. Open to more such corrections if you spot anything.
Edit 2: As suggested by Adorable-Rip404
- RBI Grade B → 120 vacancies, ~1.07 lakh applicants → ~1:892 (~0.11%)
- SBI PO → 541 vacancies, ~6.57 lakh applicants → ~1:1214 (~0.08%)
- IBPS PO → 5,208 vacancies, ~6.50 lakh applicants → ~1:125 (~0.80%)
- UPSC CSE → 979 vacancies, ~10 lakh applicants → ~1:1021 (~0.10%)
- SSC CGL → 14,582 vacancies, ~28.15 lakh applicants → ~1:193 (~0.52%)