A preliminary round was held in order to reduce the number of teams competing in the next round to 32 and featured 14 teams from Serbian lower divisions. The matches were played on 31 August 2011.[2]
Note: Roman numerals in brackets denote the league tier the clubs participated in during the 2011–12 season.
Round of 32
In this round, seven winners from the previous round were joined by all 16 teams from Serbian SuperLiga from 2010 to 2011, as well as the top 9 teams from Serbian First League from 2010 to 2011. The draw was held on September 9, 2011.[3] The matches were played on 20, 21 and 27 September 2011. In total, around 23,050 spectators attended the games (avg. 1,441 per game).
Note: Roman numerals in brackets denote the league tier the clubs participate in during the 2011–12 season.
Quarter-finals
The eight winners from the Second Round qualified for this round. The draw for this round took place on 2 November 2011. Teams were seeded and unseeded based on the last season's league standings. Seeded teams: Partizan, Red Star, Vojvodina and Spartak Subotica. Unseeded teams: OFK Beograd, Javor Ivanjica, Borac Čačak and Smederevo. The matches took place on November 23, 2011. In total, around 6500 spectators attended the games (avg. 1625 per game).
The four winners from the previous round qualified for the semi-finals. As in the 2010-11 Serbian Cup the semi-finals were played over two legs. First leg matches were scheduled for March 21, 2012. The second legs were played on April 11, 2012. There was no seeding in the draw for this round.