TCS Ninja Application and NQT Exam Pattern 2026

TCS Ninja is a hiring track, not a separate exam; every engineering student who registers for TCS sits the same NQT (National Qualifier Test), and the track offered depends on how they score in each section.

TCS Ninja is a track, not a separate test

TCS replaced campus-specific written tests in 2019 with one centralised exam: the TCS NQT. The old campus-specific formats used at different institutions are gone. Whether you register through an on-campus TCS drive or via the TCS NextStep off-campus portal, you sit the same NQT. The track assigned depends on your score in each part, not on how you register.

The three tracks and their current CTC bands:

Track	Starting CTC	Evaluated on	Min CGPA
TCS Ninja	₹3.5 to 3.9 LPA	Foundation only	6.0+
TCS Digital	₹7.0 to 7.5 LPA	Foundation + Advanced	~7.0 to 8.0+
TCS Prime	₹9.0 to 11.0 LPA	Foundation + Advanced	6.0+ (top NQT scorers)

TCS Smart Hiring, which covers BSc/BCA/BCom graduates, uses a separate funnel. That stream is out of scope here; this article covers the engineering-student path only.

2026 eligibility criteria for TCS NQT

Eligibility is defined by TCS NextStep and updated with each hiring cycle. The criteria for engineering graduates applying to the 2026 NQT:

Criterion	Requirement
Eligible degrees	BE/BTech/ME/MTech (all specializations); MSc in CS, IT, or related disciplines; MCA
Minimum academic aggregate	60% throughout: Class X, XII, Diploma (if applicable), UG, PG (if applicable)
Pending backlogs	At most 1 at the time of appearing for the test
CGPA cut-off (Ninja)	6.0 and above
Academic gap	Overall gap in academics not exceeding 2 years
Course completion	All degrees completed within the prescribed duration

The aggregate threshold applies to every academic stage in the table, not just the final degree. A shortfall at any one level disqualifies the candidate even with strong performance elsewhere. Check the active TCS NextStep drive notification for the batch-year bracket, as TCS specifies eligible passing years in each hiring announcement.

How to register on TCS NextStep

Registration for TCS NQT runs through the TCS NextStep portal at nextstep.tcs.com. Steps for an off-campus application:

1. Go to nextstep.tcs.com and click Register.
2. Select IT as the work stream and complete the personal details form (name, contact, date of birth, identity document number).
3. Enter academic records for each qualifying stage: board or university name, year of passing, aggregate percentage, and CGPA.
4. Upload required documents: latest academic transcript, government-issued identity proof, and a recent photograph.
5. Submit and save your TCS NextStep login credentials. All test invites, admit card links, and result notifications arrive through the same portal account.

For on-campus TCS drives, your college’s training and placement cell coordinates the registration. The written test is identical regardless of registration route; only the coordination process differs.

After completing the profile, test dates and test-centre allocations appear on the NextStep dashboard. TCS may offer TCS iON-proctored online delivery for off-campus candidates in addition to physical centre tests. Monitor the dashboard in the weeks after registration and respond promptly to any test-slot confirmation prompt. Delays in confirming a slot can result in losing the allocated date.

NQT exam pattern for 2025-26

The TCS NQT official careers page describes the NQT as an integrated test of 190 minutes with two mandatory sections: Foundation (Part A) and Advanced (Part B). No negative marking applies in either section.

Section	Questions	Duration
Foundation (Part A)	65	75 minutes
Advanced (Part B)	18	115 minutes
Total	83	190 minutes

Foundation section: 65 questions, 75 minutes

Sub-section	Questions	Time
Numerical Ability	20	25 minutes
Verbal Ability	25	25 minutes
Reasoning Ability	20	25 minutes
Foundation total	65	75 minutes

Each sub-section runs on a separate 25-minute timer; the sub-sections cannot be reordered during the test. Ninja-track placement is determined by Foundation performance alone.

Older prep resources (textbooks, blog posts, and videos predating 2024) describe an 80-question, 120-minute Foundation section. That was the format before TCS revised the NQT structure. The current Foundation section, per TCS NextStep, is 65 questions in 75 minutes.

Advanced section: 18 questions, 115 minutes

Sub-section	Questions	Time
Advanced Quantitative + Reasoning	15	25 minutes
Advanced Coding (3 problems)	3	90 minutes
Advanced total	18	115 minutes

Ninja-track candidates sit the Advanced section too, but their track assignment relies only on Foundation scores. Digital and Prime candidates are evaluated across both parts. The 25-minute window for Advanced Quant and Reasoning is shared; candidates manage the split between the two sub-sections themselves within that single timer.

For timed practice across all three Foundation sub-sections, the TCS NQT aptitude questions and solutions guide covers worked examples for each type. Full timed mock sets with answer keys are in the TCS Ninja mock tests.

After the NQT: interview rounds

Clearing the NQT Foundation cut-off for Ninja leads to two interview rounds.

Round	What it covers
Technical interview	Data structures, OOP, basic SQL, one or two live coding problems
HR interview	Background, motivation, team-situation questions

The technical depth expected at Ninja level is solid fundamentals. A final-year student from a Tier-2 or Tier-3 CSE or IT programme who has covered arrays, linked lists, trees, OOP concepts, and basic SQL is well-placed for this stage. The breadth of topics is wide; the depth expected at each topic is standard undergraduate level, not competitive programming. For coding-specific preparation, the TCS coding questions and solutions guide covers the types that appear most often in TCS technical interviews.

The HR interview is a fit-and-articulation check. Expect questions on your academic background, your interest in joining TCS, and how you approach team situations. The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) works well for scenario-based questions; keep answers specific and factual.

For Digital and Prime, the technical interview probes the same topics at a higher bar. Prime adds an extended round where candidates walk through an AI or data project from their portfolio. Clearing the NQT Foundation cut-off is necessary for all three tracks; the Advanced section and the extended interview stages determine which track each candidate lands in.

The 2026 hiring context: fewer seats, higher AI tilt

TCS CHRO Sudeep Kunnumal stated at the AI Impact Summit in March 2026 that 60% of TCS’s FY26 fresher hires are AI-skilled, up from 10 to 15% three years ago. The Prime and Digital cadres have grown as a share of overall fresher hiring. Separately, the total FY27 fresher intake has been cut to around 25,000 from 44,000 in FY26.

For Ninja-track candidates, the NQT Foundation pattern described above is unchanged. What is shifting is the composition of who gets routed where. An engineering student who clears the Foundation with a strong score, and then builds demonstrable AI project work before the next hiring cycle, moves into Digital or Prime consideration.

The Foundation section gets you into the room. What you do in the months before and after the NQT determines which offer comes out of it. Building a working AI project starts at ₹299 on TinkerLLM, which puts real LLM API calls in your hands from day one. That output, a deployed project with real API integration, is exactly what Prime interviewers ask candidates to walk through in the extended technical round.