TCS NQT Interview Experience (Oct 2020)

TCS organized its national qualifier test(NQT) in October 2020 for hiring students graduating in 2021. The test consisted of the following sections:

1. Aptitude
2. Programming MCQ
3. Coding

Aptitude Section: It was a fairly moderate level which consisted of three sections numerical ability, verbal ability, and reasoning ability, decent practice, and mock tests on various websites such as Geeksforgeeks, indiabix, and faceprep would really help.

No negative marking was there, and we could neither switch to a different section while attempting a particular section, nor we could switch to a different question while attempting questions of a particular section, though the number of questions in each section was known beforehand(Verbal 24Q, Reasoning 30Q, Numerical Ability 26Q in oct2021 NQT) but the question numbers were not mentioned in each question thus it was a bit difficult to keep track of questions vs time, so these were the little tricks played by TCS to increase the difficulty of the test.

Programming MCQ(10 ques): It was a moderate difficulty section and studying it from Geeksforgeeks is more than sufficient, negative marking wasn’t there in this section.

Coding: It consisted of 2 questions one easy and other one medium level, I got a medium(rather lengthy and story type) ques from array manipulation and an easy question from the strings’ topic. I was able to solve both of them. A little grip on competitive programming would be sufficient.

People who have solved even one coding question in NQT got the opportunity to give a digital exam so was I. The digital exam consisted of 2 coding questions and students who solved both the questions gave an interview digital, and the rest of them gave a ninja interview. I gave the ninja interview.

Interview experience: The panel consisted of three people technical, managerial, and hr, it was an online interview on Microsoft Teams.

Technical Questions:

1. Difference b/w echo and print in PHP (project)
2. Challenges faced in the project.
3. Program of factorial(any approach-recursion/loops)
4. Difference between c and c++ and few other easy questions related to DBMS and c language, overall quite easy questions was asked in this section.

Managerial Questions:

1. You are on a basketball team, how would you impress your coach to make you the captain of the team.
2. Would there be any difference in team performance on the field if the captain is cool nature vs short-tempered?
3. Your teammate is not performing up to the expected levels how would you deal with it?
4. A real-life example of an Operating system
5. Hobbies

Questions in these sections were quite tough, do prepare well, beforehand for this section lest you won’t be able to answer questions.

HR Questions:

1. Any issues in relocation?
2. Any issues in the night shift.

And few other straightforward questions which could be easily prepared from the internet.

Overall my interview lasted for 15-20 mins. I got selected for the ninja role. From my end, I would suggest you remain calm and answers the questions with full confidence and never ever try to bluff the interviewers you would easily be caught, keep a water bottle and a pen-notebook along with you during the online interview.

Best Of luck!