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HCLTech

HCLTech — Written Test

Four sections, fifteen questions, fifteen minutes each. A flat seventy per cent cut-off on every one.

The pattern and syllabus · 12 sample questions

70% cut-off per sectionNo negative markingNo time carried over

The sitting

1h

total time

60

questions

4

sections

None

negative marking

Start the test

The clock starts as soon as you click. Your paper is drawn fresh, so a second sitting is a different set.

Proctored sitting

  • Laptop or desktop only, with a webcam. Phones and tablets can't start a test.
  • The test runs full screen, with the site's navigation hidden.
  • Your webcam stays on and is checked on your computer — nothing is recorded or uploaded.
  • Leaving full screen, switching tab or window or minimising blurs the paper — and so does the camera seeing no one, someone else, a phone, or you looking away. The clock keeps running.
  • Each is a warning; the third ends the sitting. It is graded so you can review it, but marked disqualified and never counted as your best.
  • Pasting, copying, right-click and printing are off.

The paper

1

Quantitative Aptitude

15 Q

15 min

Quantitative Aptitude · Data Interpretation

2

Logical Reasoning

15 Q

15 min

Number & Letter Series · Coding & Decoding · Blood Relations · Direction Sense · Syllogisms · Seating & Puzzles · Analogies & Classification · Mathematical Reasoning

3

Verbal Ability

15 Q

15 min

Verbal Ability

4

Technical

15 Q

15 min

Programming Fundamentals · Data Structures & Algorithms · OS, DBMS & Networks

Before you start

The cleanest pattern of the lot: four sections of fifteen questions, fifteen minutes each.

  • A seventy per cent cut-off on every section — about eleven of fifteen. Aim for twelve.
  • Time does not carry over. Finishing a section early does not lengthen the next one.
  • No negative marking.

HCLTech runs its coding in the technical interview rather than the written test, so nothing is missing from this paper.

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HCLTech — Written Test: Pattern, Syllabus & Mock Test

HCLTech — Written Test pattern: 60 questions in 60 minutes across 4 sections. Sample questions, a preparation guide and a free timed mock.

  • Pattern: HCLTech
  • Duration: 60 minutes
  • Questions: 60
  • Timing: Sectional — each section on its own clock
  • Negative marking: None

Four sections, fifteen questions, fifteen minutes each. A flat seventy per cent cut-off on every one.

  • 70% cut-off per section
  • No negative marking
  • No time carried over

Sections

SectionQuestionsTimeKindMarks each
Quantitative Aptitude1515 minMultiple choice1
Logical Reasoning1515 minMultiple choice1
Verbal Ability1515 minMultiple choice1
Technical1515 minMultiple choice1

HCLTech — Written Test syllabus

Quantitative Aptitude

Logical Reasoning

Verbal Ability

Technical

Instructions

The cleanest pattern of the lot: four sections of fifteen questions, fifteen minutes each.

  • A seventy per cent cut-off on every section — about eleven of fifteen. Aim for twelve.
  • Time does not carry over. Finishing a section early does not lengthen the next one.
  • No negative marking.

HCLTech runs its coding in the technical interview rather than the written test, so nothing is missing from this paper.

How to prepare for this pattern

A guide to the HCLTech written test, the most regular pattern in this catalogue: four sections of fifteen questions, fifteen minutes each.

What the paper looks like

Four sections, sat in a fixed order: Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability and Technical, each 15 questions in 15 minutes. That is 60 questions in 60 minutes. Each question is worth one mark and there is no negative marking. Each section is timed separately and closes when you leave it, and time does not carry over: finishing a section early does not lengthen the next. The paper is not adaptive. The reported cut-off is 70 per cent on every section, about eleven of fifteen, so aim for twelve. There is no coding section in this pattern, so nothing is left out of this paper.

How to prepare, section by section

On the day

A 70 per cent bar on every section changes the arithmetic. You can afford four wrong answers in each section, not four across the paper, so a weak section cannot hide behind a strong one; find your weakest section in practice and spend your preparation there. At a minute a question, answer everything you can do in under a minute on the first pass, then use the remaining time on the questions you skipped. With no negative marking, put an answer against every blank before the section closes, since a guess can only help you towards the twelve.

This mock is modelled on the published four-by-fifteen pattern, the shorter and better-attested of two reported variants; CodeKairo is not affiliated with HCLTech.

Practice questions for the HCLTech — Written Test test

Looking back eight years

The present ages of two people are in the ratio 3 : 4. Eight years ago they were in the ratio 2 : 3. What is the sum of their present ages?

  1. 42
  2. 49
  3. 56
  4. 63
Show the answer

C. 56 Worked solution

A family five years on

The average age of a husband and wife was 23 years when they married. Five years later they have a one-year-old child. What is the average age of the family now?

  1. 17
  2. 18
  3. 19
  4. 20
Show the answer

C. 19 Worked solution

Attendance over a week

A training programme ran for 5 days. Attendance was 80, 92, 76, 88 and 84. Anyone attending on a given day counts once for that day.

What was the average daily attendance?

  1. 82
  2. 84
  3. 86
  4. 88
Show the answer

B. 84 Worked solution

Cubes in an analogy

4 : 64 :: 5 : ?

  1. 25
  2. 125
  3. 150
  4. 625
Show the answer

B. 125 Worked solution

The son of the daughter of my uncle's father

Introducing a boy, a girl said, 'He is the son of the daughter of the father of my uncle.' How is the boy related to the girl?

  1. Brother
  2. Nephew
  3. Uncle
  4. Son-in-law
Show the answer

A. Brother Worked solution

Letters standing for digits

In a code, ROSE is written as 6821, CHAIR as 73456 and PREACH as 961473. How is SEARCH written?

  1. 214673
  2. 214763
  3. 216473
  4. 241673
Show the answer

A. 214673 Worked solution

What the sleeping brain does

For most of the twentieth century, sleep was treated as an absence: the hours in which nothing happened. That view has been overturned. The sleeping brain consolidates the day's learning, clears metabolic waste and rehearses motor sequences. What looks like inactivity is in fact a second shift. The practical consequence is uncomfortable for a culture that prizes long hours — cutting sleep to gain working time is a trade that reliably loses more than it gains.

Which of the following is not listed in the passage as something the sleeping brain does?

  1. Consolidates learning
  2. Clears metabolic waste
  3. Rehearses motor sequences
  4. Repairs damaged muscle tissue
Show the answer

D. Repairs damaged muscle tissue Worked solution

Two blanks that agree

Fill in the blanks:

Since the instructions were ______, the team completed the task ______ than planned.

  1. unclear … sooner
  2. precise … sooner
  3. precise … later
  4. confusing … faster
Show the answer

B. precise … sooner Worked solution

A complete comparison

Choose the correct sentence:

  1. The climate of Delhi is hotter than Shimla.
  2. The climate of Delhi is hotter than that of Shimla.
  3. The climate of Delhi is more hotter than Shimla.
  4. Delhi climate is hotter than Shimla's climate is.
Show the answer

B. The climate of Delhi is hotter than that of Shimla. Worked solution

One partition step

The array [7, 2, 1, 6, 8, 5, 3, 4] is partitioned by the Lomuto scheme with the last element as pivot: a boundary index i starts at −1, every element less than or equal to the pivot advances the boundary and is swapped into it, and the pivot is finally swapped into position i + 1. What is the array after this single partition?

  1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6
  2. 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 7
  3. 2, 3, 1, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6
  4. 2, 1, 3, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6
Show the answer

D. 2, 1, 3, 4, 8, 5, 7, 6 Worked solution

Value of a counting semaphore

A counting semaphore is initialised to 10. Six wait (P) operations and four signal (V) operations are then completed on it. What is its value?

  1. 0
  2. 4
  3. 8
  4. 10
Show the answer

C. 8 Worked solution

strlen against sizeof

What does this C program print?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(void) {
    char s[] = "PLACEMENT";
    printf("%d %d", (int) strlen(s), (int) sizeof(s));
    return 0;
}
  1. 9 9
  2. 9 10
  3. 10 9
  4. 10 10
Show the answer

B. 9 10 Worked solution

About this pattern

FACE Prep's 4 × 15 × 15 pattern, independently corroborated. A longer 77-question variant with a 30-question computer fundamentals block and a coding round is also reported; this is the shorter, better-attested one.

Modelled on the published pattern; not affiliated with HCLTech. Every sitting draws a fresh paper from the aptitude bank.

The HCLTech recruitment process, round by round · HCL coding questions