Tata Consultancy Services – Information Technology Consulting Company
About
TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT)
TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT) is a multi-level assessment to assess the following competencies and skills:
- 1. Competence on the core cognitive processes required for entry-level jobs
- 2. Industry-specific knowledge and insights
- 3. Specialisation on skills required to perform various job roles
NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score
Performance measure of cognitive skills in the areas of verbal, numerical and reasoning abilities
Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test) Score
Psychometric Test to assess personality traits and dispositions relevant to the workplace
Industry NQT Score
Performance measure of the understanding of industry-specific dimensions
Subject NQT Score
Performance measure of role-specific skills on the dimensions of knowledge and ability
About the Test
- NQT (Cognitive Skills) is a prerequisite for all the tests
- Two-year validity of NQT Score
- Conducted online (at home) and physical In-Centre at TCS iON Authorised Exam Centres
- Candidates with NQT Score will be eligible to apply on the TCS iON Job Listing Portal
- Apply for any entry-level role in any corporate with the NQT Score
Who can Apply
- UG, PG and Diploma students in their pre-final and final year
- Students with any degree and specialisation/discipline
- Freshers with less than 2 years of experience
*NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score is a prerequisite for all the tests.
What is TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT)?
TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT) is an Ability Test that assesses a candidate’s competencies and skills. Each candidate who completes the TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT) gets an NQT Score. The NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score is applicable for all industries and job roles. The TCS National Qualifier Test (TCS NQT) is planned to be conducted every quarter. Candidates can take the tests again to improve their previous scores, if desired. There are four Variants – NQT (Cognitive Skills), Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test), Industry NQT and Subject NQT.
Note:
NQT (Cognitive Skills) is a mandatory test to be taken to register for Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test), Industry NQT and Subject NQT.
All tests will be conducted in English language only and there will be no negative marking.
Candidates who have appeared for NQT earlier and would like to improve their NQT Score, can purchase NQT Variant(s) and appear for it in May 2021 or take any of the upcoming tests.
Candidates will be able to view/edit their details and add test(s) on/before the registration closure date.
What is NQT (Cognitive Skills)?
NQT (Cognitive Skills) is a General Ability Test that assesses a candidate in the following areas:
Verbal Ability: This section assesses English grammar, appropriate usage of the same, and reading comprehension.
Reasoning Ability: This section assesses identifying words and numeric patterns, problem-solving, figural and factual analysis, decision-making, propositional reasoning and visual-spatial reasoning.
Numerical Ability: This section assesses number system, arithmetic, elementary statistics, data interpretation.
Note: The score of this test will be called as NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score.
What is Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test)?
Attitude is a broad component covering work styles, personality traits and dispositions relevant to the workplace. Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test) assesses the attitude alignment framework relevant for entry-level position and provides an assessment report. The score of this test will be called as Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test) Score.
Note: NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score is a prerequisite to appear for Attitudinal Alignment NQT (Psychometric Test).
What is Industry NQT?
Industry NQT assesses awareness and understanding on a specific industry in the following areas:
Industry structure – domains/sub-domains
Operative language, processes and practices
Regulatory environment
Specific business and technological trends
Competitive landscape
Each candidate who completes the Industry NQT gets an Industry NQT Score for that particular industry. For example, Industry NQT- Banking. Industry NQTs are planned to be conducted every quarter. The candidates can take the tests again to improve their previous scores, if desired.
There are Industry NQTs for multiple industries. The candidates wanting to showcase their expertise in multiple industries can appear for as many Industry NQTs as desired.
Note: NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score is a prerequisite to appear for Industry NQT.
What is Subject NQT?
Subject NQT assesses knowledge and skill in specific subjects pertaining to job roles in the following areas:
Test of Knowledge: Candidates will be assessed on Pseudocode, Algorithms, Programming constructs, basic Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and its stage-wise documents, implementation using C, C++ and Java.
Test of Application: Candidates can code in any one of the programming languages like C, C++, Java, Python, and PERL.
Hands-on Exercise.
Each candidate who completes the Subject NQT gets a Subject NQT Score for that particular subject. For example, Subject NQT – Cloud Computing. Subject NQTs are planned to be conducted every quarter. The candidates can take the tests again to improve their previous scores, if desired.
There are Subject NQTs for multiple subjects. The candidates wanting to showcase their expertise in multiple subjects across industries can appear for as many Subject NQTs as desired.
Note: NQT (Cognitive Skills) Score is a prerequisite to appear for Subject NQTs.
TCS NQT Exam Pattern
Section | Number of questions | Duration (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
Verbal Ability | 24 | 30 |
Reasoning Ability | 30 | 50 |
Numerical Ability | 26 | 40 |
Programming Logic | 10 | 15 |
Coding | 2 | 45 |
TCS NQT Syllabus
1) Verbal Ability –
This section is going to test 24 questions in 30 minutes. The question that are expected in this Verbal Ability section are:
Reading Comprehension
Sentence Correction or Error-Spotting (Covering topics such as Subject Verb Agreement, Pronoun Agreement, Parallelism, Prepositions, Articles, Tenses, Modifiers etc.)
Sentence Completion
Para-Jumbles
Cloze Passage
Vocabulary
Phrasal Verbs and Idioms
Voices and Forms of Speech and more
2) Reasoning Ability –
This is a brand new section, which will have 30 questions to be solved in 50 minutes. The questions are expected from:
Data Arrangements (Linear, Circular and Multi-dimensional)
Blood Relations
Coding, Decoding, Series and Visual Reasoning
Data Interpretation
Data Sufficiency
Clocks, Calendars
Cubes and Direction Sense
Logical Connectives and Syllogisms
Venn Diagrams
Inequalities
3) Numerical Ability –
The Numerical Ability section will have 26 questions to be solved in 40 minutes. The questions are expected from:
Permutation and Combination
Number System
Probability
Time Speed and Distance
Equations
Geometry, Mensuration and Progressions
Ratios and Proportions
Functions, Logarithms and Graphs
Clocks, Direction Sense
Profit and Loss, Averages, Mixtures and Alligations
Puzzles
Physics
Base Conversion
4) Programming Logic
This section will consist of 10 questions which you have to solve in 15 minutes.
Last year, this section had questions from Fundamentals of Programming in C, C++ and Java on the following topics.
Operators
Looping statements
Control statements
Arrays
Strings
Functions
There were also questions on:
Object Oriented Programming (OOPS)
Object Modeling
Compiler Design
Threading
Data Structures: Linked List, Stack, Queue, Trees and Graphs
Recursion
For this year, do also prepare on:
Pseudo coding
Algorithms
Basic Software Development Cycle
5) Coding
The Coding section will consist of 2 questions to be solved in 45 minutes. The questions are expected to be of easy to medium difficulty level.
The exact construct of this section will be:
1 Question for 15 minutes
1 Question for 30 minutes
The languages allowed will be C/ C++/ Java/ Python 2.7/ PERL.
You are expected to master Fundamentals of Programming in any 1 language of your choice to be able to crack this Coding Section.
