A method of operating a semiconductor memory device according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes performing a program loop, including a program operation and a program verification operation, in order to store input data in selected memory cells, performing a first error bit check operation for comparing the number of error bits of data not identical with the input data, with the number of correctable error bits, if the number of error bits is equal to or smaller than the number of correctable error bits, performing a second error bit check operation for comparing the number of error bits with the reference number of bits for replacement determination, and if the number of error bits is greater than the reference number of bits for replacement determination, updating failed column address information by adding the column address of a memory cell, having the error bits, to the failed column address information.