MAQ Software Placement Papers 2026: Test Pattern & Syllabus

MAQ Software’s written test has two sections: 30 minutes of aptitude and 30 minutes of coding, with no published cutoff score and no negative marking.

MAQ Software builds analytics and AI-assisted products on Microsoft Power BI, Azure, and Office 365. The company recruits fresh graduates from CSE, IT, and MCA programmes across India. Drive announcements and eligibility criteria are posted on MAQ Software’s careers page; check there before your placement season opens.

What the MAQ Software test looks like

The written test is the first elimination round. Clear it and you advance to interviews. The format has been consistent across campus drives:

Section	Questions	Time	Focus
Aptitude	30	30 minutes	Mathematics, reasoning
Coding	2	30 minutes	Programming, data structures

Total duration: 60 minutes. Two things distinguish this format from longer campus assessments. First, the coding section asks you to write working code, not answer MCQs. Second, no negative marking has been reported in campus placement reports, so attempt every aptitude question regardless of confidence level.

Most campus drives use a browser-based IDE with a built-in compiler. Practise compiling your solutions locally before the test day so you are not losing time to environment issues during the actual assessment.

Aptitude section: syllabus and focus areas

The aptitude section tests high school mathematics at easy-to-medium difficulty. The budget is one minute per question across 30 questions.

Topics covered:

• Number Series: identify the pattern and find the missing or next term
• Algebra: linear equations with one or two variables, word problems
• Time and Work: combined work-rate problems, pipe and cistern
• Time, Speed and Distance: relative speed, trains, rivers and streams
• Percentages: successive discounts, percentage change calculations
• Probability: basic probability with equally likely outcomes
• Permutations and Combinations: arrangements and selections
• Profit and Loss: cost price, selling price, marked price chains
• HCF and LCM: prime factorisation and related word problems
• Geometry: cyclic quadrilaterals, angles, basic mensuration

The standard strategy for this format: answer algebra, profit-and-loss, and percentage questions first since they yield the fastest answers. Leave probability and geometry for the second pass if time allows. Do not spend more than 90 seconds on any single question; an unanswered question costs the same as a wrong one when there is no negative marking.

Coding section: what to expect

Two problems, 30 minutes. These are implementation problems: the goal is a clean, correct solution that handles all test cases, not an elaborate algorithm. Accuracy and completeness matter more than code elegance.

Languages accepted in most drives: C, C++, Java. Some recent drives have also accepted Python.

Problem types that appear regularly:

• Array manipulation: maximum subarray sum, finding maximum stock profit, two-pointer pattern
• Number theory: nearest prime to a given n, finding HCF and LCM, checking Fibonacci membership
• String operations: capitalise the first word of each sentence, classify a character as uppercase, lowercase, digit, or special character
• Recursion and iteration: Fibonacci sequence, factorial computation, palindrome checking

Finish one working solution before starting the second problem. Partial credit is not standard in these campus assessment formats, and a working brute-force solution scores higher than an elegant incomplete one.

Sample aptitude questions with solutions

The questions below are drawn from past MAQ Software campus drives. All solutions are re-derived from first principles.

• Q1: The difference between two numbers is 11 and one-fifth of their sum is 9. Find the numbers.

  • Step 1: Let x and y be the two numbers. Then x - y = 11 and (x + y)/5 = 9, so x + y = 45.
  • Step 2: Adding the two equations: 2x = 56, so x = 28. Then y = 45 - 28 = 17.
  • Answer: 28 and 17.

• Q2: How many integers from 1 to 100 are divisible by 7?

  • Step 1: The largest multiple of 7 that does not exceed 100 is 7 × 14 = 98.
  • Answer: 14.

• Q3: When a number is multiplied by 13, it increases by 180. Find the number.

  • Step 1: 13n = n + 180, so 12n = 180, giving n = 15.
  • Answer: 15.

• Q4: In 24 minutes, through what angle does the hour hand of a clock move?

  • Step 1: The hour hand completes 360° in 12 hours, so it moves 0.5° per minute.
  • Step 2: In 24 minutes: 0.5 × 24 = 12°.
  • Answer: 12°.

• Q5: A 20% reduction in chocolate price lets a person buy 12 more chocolates for Rs. 15. What was the original cost of 16 chocolates?

  • Step 1: Let P be the original price per chocolate. The new price is 0.8P.
  • Step 2: Difference in quantity: (15 ÷ 0.8P) - (15 ÷ P) = 12. Simplifying: 15 × 0.25 ÷ P = 12, so P = 5/16 per chocolate.
  • Step 3: Cost of 16 chocolates at original price: 16 × (5/16) = Rs. 5.
  • Answer: Rs. 5.

• Q6: How many integers from 300 to 600 are divisible by 9?

  • Step 1: First multiple of 9 above 300: 9 × 34 = 306. Last multiple of 9 below 600: 9 × 66 = 594.
  • Step 2: Count: 66 - 34 + 1 = 33.
  • Answer: 33.

• Q7: Three identical containers hold petrol and kerosene in ratios 4:1, 5:2, and 6:1 respectively. Find the ratio of petrol to kerosene in the combined mixture.

  • Step 1: Each container holds the same total volume. Petrol fractions: 4/5, 5/7, 6/7.
  • Step 2: Convert to 35ths. Total petrol: 28/35 + 25/35 + 30/35 = 83/35.
  • Step 3: Total kerosene: 7/35 + 10/35 + 5/35 = 22/35.
  • Answer: 83:22.

Sample coding problems

The five problem types below cover the range of what MAQ Software’s coding round tests. The goal is a complete, compilable solution for each.

• Problem 1: Find the nearest prime number to a given integer n.

  • Approach: write an is_prime(k) helper. Check n itself first. If not prime, alternate between n-1 and n+1, expanding outward until a prime is found.

• Problem 2: Find the HCF and LCM of two given numbers.

  • Approach: use the Euclidean algorithm for HCF. Then LCM = (a × b) / HCF.

• Problem 3: Capitalise the first letter of each sentence in a paragraph.

  • Approach: split on sentence-ending punctuation, strip leading whitespace from each segment, capitalise the first character, then rejoin.

• Problem 4: Given a daily stock price array, find the maximum profit from a single buy-sell pair.

  • Approach: track the running minimum price seen so far. At each index, compute profit as current price minus the running minimum. Return the maximum profit across all steps.

• Problem 5: Check whether a given number n is a Fibonacci number.

  • Approach: a positive integer n is a Fibonacci number if and only if 5*n*n + 4 or 5*n*n - 4 is a perfect square.

How to prepare in the four weeks before your test

The MAQ Software test rewards candidates who are fast and accurate on standard aptitude topics, not candidates who have studied advanced algorithms. Four weeks of deliberate practice is enough.

Week	Focus	Daily commitment
1	Percentages, profit and loss, algebra	45 minutes
2	Time-work, time-speed-distance, number series	45 minutes
3	Probability, permutations and combinations, HCF and LCM, geometry	45 minutes
4	Full-length mock tests and coding drill	60 minutes

For the coding drill in Week 4: write each of the five problem types in your primary language. Get every solution to compile and run correctly against at least two input cases before moving to the next one. Speed under pressure comes from having solved the same pattern before.

If you are also preparing for other analytics-focused companies, the EY placement paper guide covers a three-section format with detailed worked questions, the ZS Associates placement paper guide covers another quant-heavy campus test, and the Mu Sigma placement paper guide covers one of India’s most quant-intensive campus assessments.

MAQ Software builds analytics and reporting products on Power BI, Azure, and Office 365. The coding skills the placement test probes (array manipulation, algorithms, data processing) are the same skills that translate into Python data pipeline work. If you want to explore where that trajectory intersects with LLM tooling, TinkerLLM at ₹299 is a low-commitment entry before committing to a longer structured programme.