Latest TCS Aptitude Questions: All Three NQT Sections

The TCS NQT Cognitive Skills test places 80 questions across three timed sections, and your combined percentile on them determines whether you qualify for the Ninja, Digital, or Prime hiring track.

Each section tests a different skill set, with its own pace pressure. Knowing the topic patterns before test day is more efficient than encountering every question type for the first time during the exam.

The TCS NQT Cognitive Skills test: structure and scoring

All NQT candidates sit the three Cognitive Skills sections, regardless of which track they are targeting.

Section	Questions	Time
Verbal Ability	24	30 minutes
Reasoning Ability	30	50 minutes
Numerical Ability	26	40 minutes

No negative marking applies to any of the three sections. That single fact shapes the right strategy: attempt every question, prioritise accuracy on the types you know well, and use remaining time on the harder ones.

Candidates targeting Digital or Prime also complete an Advanced section after Cognitive Skills. The Advanced section adds a Programming Logic block and a Coding problem. Getting the Cognitive Skills percentile right is the prerequisite for both tracks. See the TCS NQT cutoff guide for how percentile ranges map to each track.

Numerical Ability: worked examples and topic patterns

Numerical Ability runs 26 questions in 40 minutes, about 92 seconds per question. The topic spread across test cycles is consistent, so knowing which types appear and how they are framed pays off more than drilling random problems.

Common topic areas:

• Percentages and profit/loss
• Time, speed, and distance
• Time and work
• Ratio and proportion
• Permutations and combinations

For approaches that cut calculation time across all these types, see shortcut methods for quantitative aptitude.

Percentages and profit/loss

Questions typically involve two successive changes (a markup then a discount, or two successive price movements) and ask for the net result. The common error is applying the second percentage to the wrong base.

• Q: A shopkeeper marks an item up by 40% over cost price, then offers a 15% discount on the marked price. Find the profit percentage.
• Step 1: Let cost price = 100. Marked price = 100 x 1.40 = 140.
• Step 2: Selling price = 140 x (1 - 0.15) = 140 x 0.85 = 119.
• Step 3: Profit = 119 - 100 = 19. Profit percentage = 19%.
• Answer: 19%

Time, speed, and distance

Train-crossing problems appear regularly. When a train crosses a platform, the total distance covered equals the length of the train plus the length of the platform.

• Q: A train 150 m long passes a stationary pole in 6 seconds. How long does it take to cross a platform 300 m long?
• Step 1: Speed = 150 / 6 = 25 m/s.
• Step 2: Total distance = 150 + 300 = 450 m.
• Step 3: Time = 450 / 25 = 18 seconds.
• Answer: 18 seconds

Time and work

Work problems use a rate-addition approach. Find each person’s individual rate (fraction of the job per day), add the rates, then invert to get the total time.

• Q: A can complete a job in 10 days. B can complete the same job in 15 days. How long do they take working together?
• Step 1: A’s rate = 1/10 job per day. B’s rate = 1/15 job per day.
• Step 2: Combined rate = 1/10 + 1/15 = 3/30 + 2/30 = 5/30 = 1/6 job per day.
• Step 3: Time = 6 days.
• Answer: 6 days

Permutations and combinations

Arrangement problems ask how many ways to arrange r items chosen from n. The formula is nPr = n! / (n-r)!. Selection problems ask how many ways to choose r from n: nCr = n! / ((n-r)! x r!).

• Q: How many 3-digit numbers can be formed using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 without repetition?
• Step 1: This is an arrangement of 3 digits chosen from 5, so 5P3.
• Step 2: 5P3 = 5! / (5-3)! = 5! / 2! = 120 / 2 = 60.
• Answer: 60

Reasoning Ability: worked examples and topic patterns

Reasoning Ability packs 30 questions into 50 minutes, the largest section by question count. It tests deductive logic (what must follow from given statements) and inductive pattern recognition.

Common topic areas:

• Syllogisms
• Number and letter series
• Coding-decoding
• Blood relations
• Data arrangement and seating puzzles

Syllogisms

A syllogism gives two or more statements and asks which conclusions necessarily follow. The standard trap is accepting a conclusion that is plausible but not guaranteed by the given statements alone.

• Q: Statements: All engineers are graduates. All graduates can read.
• Conclusion I: All engineers can read.
• Conclusion II: Some graduates are engineers.
• Step 1: From “All engineers are graduates” plus “All graduates can read,” all engineers can read by transitivity. Conclusion I follows.
• Step 2: “All engineers are graduates” means the set of engineers is a subset of graduates, so some graduates (the ones who are engineers) are engineers. Conclusion II follows.
• Answer: Both conclusions follow.

Number and letter series

Series questions ask for the next term in a pattern. Find the rule before attempting to compute.

• Q: 2, 5, 10, 17, 26, ?

• Step 1: Differences between consecutive terms: 3, 5, 7, 9. Each difference increases by 2.

• Step 2: Next difference = 11. Next term = 26 + 11 = 37.

• Answer: 37

• Q: AZ, BY, CX, DW, ?

• Step 1: First letter moves forward: A, B, C, D, E.

• Step 2: Second letter moves backward: Z, Y, X, W, V.

• Answer: EV

Coding-decoding

Coding questions map words or numbers to a code, then ask you to apply the same rule to a new input. Write the rule explicitly before applying it.

• Q: If FACE is coded as 6135 using the rule “replace each letter with its position in the alphabet,” what is the code for BEAD?
• Step 1: F=6, A=1, C=3, E=5. Rule confirmed: position number.
• Step 2: B=2, E=5, A=1, D=4.
• Answer: 2514

Verbal Ability: question types and scoring patterns

Verbal Ability covers 24 questions in 30 minutes, averaging 75 seconds per question. It is the fastest-paced section. Three question types appear in every test cycle: reading comprehension, sentence correction, and vocabulary in context.

Reading comprehension

Passages are typically 150 to 250 words long. Each passage carries two or three questions on the central idea, a specific detail, or the author’s tone.

Approach for central-idea questions:

• Read the opening and closing sentence of each paragraph first.
• Identify the recurring subject across paragraphs.
• The central idea is the argument or observation the passage builds, not a detail from a single paragraph.

For detail questions, scan for the specific keyword from the question, locate the relevant sentence, and check whether the answer choice paraphrases or distorts it.

Sentence correction

Sentence correction presents one or more underlined segments and asks which version is grammatically correct. Subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, and pronoun reference are the most common error types.

Common patterns:

• Collective nouns take singular verbs in formal register (“the team is” not “the team are”)
• Dangling participles: “Running to catch the bus, my bag fell” is wrong — the bag was not running
• Misplaced modifiers: the modifier must be adjacent to the noun it describes

Vocabulary in context

Vocabulary questions ask for the meaning of a word as used in a specific sentence. Context clues are more reliable than memorised definitions. Read the sentence, determine whether the word carries a positive or negative charge and whether it implies an increase or decrease, then eliminate options that contradict those clues before choosing between the remaining two.

How your NQT percentile determines the hiring track

Track	CTC band	Post-NQT process
TCS Ninja	Rs 3.5 to 3.9 LPA	Technical interview + HR interview
TCS Digital	Rs 7.0 to 7.5 LPA	Advanced section + technical interview + HR
TCS Prime	Rs 9.0 to 11.0 LPA	Advanced section + extended technical + AI/data project review + HR

The Cognitive Skills percentile is the first filter. Candidates who clear the Ninja-level cutoff proceed to interviews; those scoring in the Digital or Prime range also sit the Advanced section first.

In FY26, 60% of TCS’s fresher hires are AI-skilled, up from 10 to 15% three years ago, per TCS CHRO Sudeep Kunnumal at the AI Impact Summit in March 2026. That shift is most visible at the Prime level: the extended technical interview now includes a review of AI or data projects. For Ninja, the aptitude score still does most of the filtering work.

According to Financial Express, TCS reduced its FY27 fresher intake target to approximately 25,000, down from 44,000 onboarded in FY26, with the smaller cohort weighted toward AI-skilled candidates.

Getting to the Prime percentile range is one gate; the AI/data project review in the extended technical interview is the next.

TinkerLLM (Rs 299) gives you a structured environment to build and ship a first AI project before that interview slot. For the full path from first LLM calls to production-grade AI engineering, the 2026 AI roadmap for Indian engineering students maps out what preparation at that depth looks like. The TCS Ninja question pattern covers Ninja-track-specific preparation if your target is the Ninja CTC band.