Overview

TCS National Qualifier Test (NQT) is one of the most popular tests for software engineers aspiring to be a part of Tata Consultancy Services. If you are successful in cracking this test, you get be a part of TCS in various profiles like the TCS Ninja and TCS Digital. Hundreds of thousands of candidates who meet the TCS NQT Eligibility criterion are competing with each other and appearing for the TCS NQT exam every year. A gateway to one of the largest software services organizations in the world. TCS NQT consists of a comprehensive assessment pattern that evaluates candidates on various different skill sets. I would like to highlight that the skills you get assessed on in TCS NQT are essential for succeeding in the software industry.

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The TCS NQT exam has eligibility requirements. The TCS NQT Eligibility Checker Tool below will help you find if you can apply for the TCS NQT Exam.

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TCS NQT Eligibility

TCS National Qualifier Test (NQT) has specific eligibility requirements and only those candidates who meet this eligibility criteria can apply. Preparation for this exam often starts several months ahead and continues until the day of the exam.

Educational Degrees

TCS NQT is open for candidates graduating in the coming year with the academic degrees B.Tech., B.E., M.Tech., M.E., M.C.A., M.Sc., M.S. The degrees can be attained in any specialization by recognized universities. For queries, you can reach out to ilp.support@tcs.com or at 1-800-209-3111. There may be a delay in response due to the huge volume of queries received from candidates. If you are not from any of the above backgrounds you still may qualify in other TCS profiles if you have the expertise. You can also reach out to me if you have queries regarding a specific situation you are in or have a unique scenario regarding your eligibility that you want to get clarified.

Percentage Criteria

Candidates should have 60% or 6 CGPA and above in each of Class X, Class XII, Diploma (if applicable), Graduation and Post-Graduation (if applicable). Thus, the minimum required percentage marks you should have maintained on average is 60%. There might have been a few semesters in your college where you did not manage to achieve 60%, but as long as your overall degree certificate percentage reflects equivalent of 60% and above you are eligible for the TCS NQT exam. Do you have a backlog, arrear, or ATKT (Allowed to Keep Terms)? TCS says you cannot have more than 1 pending active backlog, arrear, or ATKT when you are appearing for the TCS Selection process. Moreover, if you are selected via TCS NQT, you cannot have any backlogs, arrears, or ATKT at the time of joining Tata Consultancy Services. You must clear any backlog, arrears, or ATKT within the stipulated course duration of your university.

Read more: TCS NQT Syllabus »

Gap in Education

You may have gaps in education. To apply for TCS NQT, it is mandatory to declare any gaps in education if you have. If you do not declare educational gaps, and it is discovered in the later stages of the recruitment process, you risk the chances of being disqualified. The total academic gap duration allowed to be eligible for TCS NQT is 24 months until your highest qualification. There should be relevant documents that support your gap in education. Make sure to include these documents in your portfolio and be ready to present them when asked for. You may find there is no requirement to provide these documents in the initial stages of the TCS NQT recruitment process, but it is important to keep them available. Education gaps for genuine reasons are not something to be hidden, instead it could disclose qualities of you as a person that might even help during your interview. Do you have queries regarding your education? Ask me above or comment below.

Courses Eligible

To be eligible for the TCS NQT recruitment process, you must be attending full-time courses. I have come across candidates doing part-time courses in various institutes and enquiring about the process. Students who have completed their secondary and/or higher secondary course from National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) are also eligible if they have done full-time courses during graduation and post-graduation (if applicable). There are many courses that are part-time and correspondence which often take the same amount of work and time to complete them. The syllabus is also often the same or at par with full-time courses. The knowledge gained from such part-time courses are often at par with many full-time courses. We may think there is no difference often between the quality of learning between effective part-time or correspondence courses and full-time courses. However, due to very specific requirements regarding the institutes that candidates complete their education from, the only courses that are considered for TCS NQT are full-time courses for now.

Age Requirements

TCS NQT age requirements mention students with prior work experience of up to 2 years are eligible to apply. Hence, if you have been working after graduation for example, and then you quit working and completed your post-graduation, as long as you have worked for 2 years or less you are eligible to apply for TCS NQT. Your age range is also calculated accordingly with a minimum of 18 years, and a maximum of 28 years. If you are within this age range you are eligible to apply for the Tata Consultancy Services National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT). Once you are part of TCS via TCS NQT, you can upgrade your skills using the different learning platforms and move to other profiles. Your salary and package will thus also be revised when you grow expertise in different fields.

Keep reading: TCS NQT Package »

Have you been working for more than 2 years and still looking to join TCS? Well, maybe TCS NQT is not the right fit for you. But there are many other profiles available for you to explore and be a part of TCS. Tata Consultancy Services provides services in such a vast category of domains, it needs personnel of a variety of skill sets across different business units. The requirements vary based on the client needs, starting from technical skillset, leadership skillset, to non-technical skill sets. There are certain policies where ex-TCSers may face difficulty rejoining TCS except special scenarios. But if you are looking forward to joining TCS for the first time then there is a variety of roles and opportunities that you can explore where you might be a good fit. Check out the articles above, comment below, or ask me about how you can apply for a career in TCS.

Preparing for TCS NQT

TCS provides an incredible opportunity for engineers from various geographies to be a part of their organization by the TCS NQT examination. Given the number of participants every year, the exam is highly competitive in nature. TCS also provides new questions and assessment patterns every year, much like the way I do with my TCS NQT practice tests above. Keeping the content fresh is a great way to provide you a solid learning and preparation experience. You get the NQT score when you complete your TCS NQT test using which you can apply for various industries and job roles beyond TCS. The TCS NQT examination is conducted every quarter, hence there is opportunity for candidates to prepare themselves and take the exam at a time of their choosing. If you want, you can also take the TCS NQT exam more than once to improve your score. There are different variants of the TCS NQT exam, let’s learn about them in details.

Keep on reading: Is it easy to pass TCS NQT? »

TCS NQT Cognitive Skills

The TCS NQT Cognitive Skills Test is focused on evaluating a candidate’s ability to answer questions on Verbal Skills, Reasoning Ability, and Numerical Ability. The score attained in this test will be called the NQT (Cognitive Skills) score. Let’s understand each of the topics.

• Verbal Skills - The TCS NQT Verbal Skills section is one of the most commonly overlooked section in terms of importance. However, with a little preparation we can get a good score here. I recommend practice with the mock tests given here and build up your skills before appearing for the actual exam. You get to understand what type of questions you can expect on the day of TCS NQT. Increasing your reading and comprehension skills is key to score high in this section. If you are an avid reader, you will also find it easier to spot common mistakes or fill in the blanks.

• Reasoning Ability - The TCS NQT Reasoning Ability section consists of questions that help the interviewer understand your logical reasoning ability. Take the practice tests here to get a live simulation of the actual exam. There are various types of questions in the Logical Reasoning section that can definitely be correctly answered within the time limit with strategic preparation. There are varied levels of complexity among the questions from the Reasoning section. There are techniques as well that help achieve resolutions faster which you get to grasp the more you practice.

• Numerical Ability - The TCS NQT Numerical Ability focuses on the Quantitative Aptitude skills of the candidate. Questions range from data interpretation, number system concepts to advanced numerical problems that help assess your proficiency in handling calculations and numbers. Even if you are not an expert in this field, you can score high in this section on numerical ability with good practice. There are many topics like speed, work, time, percentage, profit, and other fields based on which different types of questions can be formed. Be ready to handle different real-life scenarios as well.

TCS NQT Technical Skills

The TCS NQT Technical Skills section is a comprehensive section that helps understand your expertise in the different technical domains. Questions vary from actual coding to designing algorithms for various common as well as custom data structures. The more familiar you are with the concepts of software engineering the easier it gets for you to answer these types of questions. The questions are from subjects that you might have already read thoroughly during your graduation and post-graduation courses. Many of the questions are related to practical implementation of the concepts in the real world. How you can make use of the concepts in the actual industry. The more you get to practice with different scenarios the more robust and clear your concepts become.

• Programming Logic - TCS NQT exam consists of question on programming logics that you need to answer within the given time limits. Brush up your C programming skills, data types, functions, recursion, iteration, pointers, registers, scope, and more. Do you know more than one programming language, fine tune your SQL, Python, and Java programming skills as well. Programming is the cornerstone of everything that we do today in the information technology world. Hence, even if you do not have a knack of coding and writing codes, it is important to be fully aware of how algorithms and the different data structures work. As an interviewer, I would love to see you have a structured thought process. It definitely creates a good impression when I present you with a scenario, and you explain it to me logically step by step. You may not have the perfect solution, but your thought process helps me learn more about you.

• Hands-on Coding - What better way is there to evaluate a candidate more than writing actual hands-on codes? Even though the TCS NQT requires you to write at-most a couple of hands-on codes, it is critical you write them in the best way possible. I suggest always verify your code before finalizing, and check how it responds to various parameters and scenarios. Boundary value analysis is an example of a test scenario that is one of the most critical ones. If you are dealing with ranges of values and doing different actions based on that, I would always advise making sure you do a boundary value testing. The more validation and verification you focus on the more confident you can be of your code. Practice explaining your code to another person or to yourself as well, since I would like to ask you to explain your code to me and the different scenarios it can handle.

Read more: TCS NQT Registration Last Date »

Let’s take a look at the most recent TCS quarterly results performance. I use this to understand where the organization is headed and a general sense of understanding how the overall IT industry stands today. With the information from these quarterly performance announcements, we can also analyze the trend of hiring of employees, joining dates, salary hikes, project pipelines, new acquisitions, and global expansion strategies.