TCS hires freshers through the TCS National Qualifier Test (NQT), a 190-minute in-centre test at TCS iON centres with a Foundation part (numerical, verbal, reasoning) and an Advanced part (advanced quant and reasoning plus coding). Your score decides a Prime, Digital or Ninja interview, which candidates report as technical, managerial and HR rounds.
Who can apply
- B.E./B.Tech, M.E./M.Tech, MCA or M.Sc/M.S in any specialisation, full-time; the 2026 drive took the 2024, 2025 and 2026 batches
- Minimum 60% or equivalent CGPA in 10th, 12th, diploma (if any), graduation and post-graduation
- No pending backlog at the time of the test; total education gap of 24 months or less
- Age 18 to 28 years; up to 2 years of work experience allowed
Key facts
Problems tagged TCS on placd
Interview process
- 1NQT Foundation section75 minutes in person at a TCS iON centre: Numerical, Verbal and Reasoning Ability, 25 minutes each.
- 2NQT Advanced section115 minutes: Advanced Quantitative and Reasoning (25 min) plus Advanced Coding (90 min). Mandatory if you want a Digital or Prime offer.
- 3Technical interviewResume, projects and internship, programming basics and a short coding task, e.g. string compression or pattern printing (reported).
- 4Managerial interviewProject depth, teamwork and leadership scenarios; some panels ask concepts such as cloud service models (reported).
- 5HR interviewRelocation, night shifts, other offers and document checks. Reported as same-day, either a three-member panel or three separate rounds.
Questions to expect in TCS interviews
Drawn from reported fresher tests and interviews (sources below), with short answers. Practise more on placd.
Compress a string, e.g. 'aaabbCCC' becomes 'a3b2C3'.
Scan left to right with a run counter. When the next character differs (or the input ends), append the character and its count to a StringBuilder, then reset the counter. It is case-sensitive, so 'C' and 'c' are separate runs. O(n) time, O(n) space for the output.
Find the maximum sum of a subarray of size k.
Sliding window: sum the first k elements, then slide one step at a time, adding a[i] and subtracting a[i-k], and keep the maximum seen. Every window is exactly k long, so negatives are handled. O(n) time, O(1) extra space.
Find the LCM of two numbers.
LCM(a, b) = a / gcd(a, b) * b, with gcd from Euclid's algorithm (gcd(a, b) = gcd(b, a mod b) until b is 0). Divide before multiplying to avoid overflow. O(log min(a, b)) time. Example: LCM(12, 18) = 12 / 6 * 18 = 36.
Find the frequency of each element in an array.
One pass with a hash map from element to count, then print in first-seen order (LinkedHashMap) or sorted order, as the question asks. O(n) time, O(k) space for k distinct values. If values are small non-negative integers, a counting array also works.
Explain IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, and private vs hybrid cloud.
IaaS rents raw compute, storage and network (e.g. AWS EC2); you manage the OS and apps. PaaS gives a managed platform to deploy code (e.g. Google App Engine). SaaS is finished software over the web (e.g. Gmail). A private cloud serves one organisation; a hybrid cloud combines private infrastructure with a public cloud.
Is Python compiled or interpreted? Can Python code run on another system without an interpreter?
Both, in CPython: source is compiled to bytecode (cached as .pyc files for imported modules), which the Python virtual machine then interprets. So a .py file needs a Python interpreter on the target machine. To run where Python is not installed, you must bundle an interpreter with the program, e.g. using PyInstaller.
About TCS hiring
What is the TCS NQT salary for Ninja, Digital and Prime?
Per TCS's 2026 NQT page, Prime pays ₹9.09–9.30 LPA and Digital ₹7.09–7.30 LPA for UG freshers with 0–1 year of experience, with higher PG bands. Ninja offers have a minimum of ₹3.4 LPA for UG and ₹3.6 LPA for PG. Actual pay depends on experience and job location.
Is the Advanced section of TCS NQT compulsory?
TCS's page is not fully consistent: its FAQ calls Foundation and Advanced two mandatory sections, while its test notes say everyone is encouraged to attempt both and Advanced is mandatory for a Digital or Prime offer. Attempt both. Your performance decides a Prime, Digital or Ninja interview.
Can I take TCS NQT with a backlog or a gap year?
No pending backlog is allowed when you take the test, and you need 60% or equivalent CGPA in 10th, 12th, diploma and degree. Education gaps must be declared and cannot exceed 24 months in total. The degree must be full-time and completed within the normal course duration.
Sources
- TCS All India NQT Hiring, batch of 2024, 2025 and 2026 (tcs.com)
- TCS Interview Experience, TCS NQT 2025 (GeeksforGeeks)
- TCS Interview Experience, NQT 2025, Prime category, off-campus (GeeksforGeeks)
- TCS Interview Experience for Digital Role, 2026 graduate, on campus (GeeksforGeeks)
Checked on 25 Sep 2026. Recruitment rules change each cycle — confirm dates and eligibility in the official notification.
Related guides: TCS NQT 2026: coding round and interview roadmap · Service vs product companies: which to target