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TCS NQT — Foundation + Advanced

The full aptitude half of the NQT: the Foundation gate plus the Advanced questions that decide Digital and Prime.

The pattern and syllabus · 13 sample questions

No negative markingSectionally timedDecides Ninja / Digital / Prime

The sitting

1h 40m

total time

80

questions

5

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

Numerical Ability

20 Q

25 min

Quantitative Aptitude · Data Interpretation

2

Verbal Ability

25 Q

25 min

Verbal Ability

3

Reasoning Ability

20 Q

25 min

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

4

Advanced Quantitative Ability

10 Q

17 min

Harder arithmetic and algebra, with geometry and trigonometry in range.

Quantitative Aptitude

5

Advanced Reasoning Ability

5 Q

8 min

Logical Reasoning

Before you start

One sitting of the TCS NQT decides Ninja, Digital and Prime eligibility at once. Foundation is the gate; the Advanced section is what separates the tracks.

  • Five sections, sectionally timed.
  • Advanced Quantitative and Advanced Reasoning are harder and shorter — fifteen questions between them, and the reported cut-offs are steep: roughly 9–12 of 15 for Digital, 12–15 for Prime.
  • No negative marking anywhere.

The ninety-minute Advanced Coding round is not part of this paper.

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TCS NQT — Foundation + Advanced: Pattern, Syllabus & Mock Test

TCS NQT — Foundation + Advanced pattern: 80 questions in 100 minutes across 5 sections. Sample questions, a preparation guide and a free timed mock.

  • Pattern: TCS
  • Duration: 100 minutes
  • Questions: 80
  • Timing: Sectional — each section on its own clock
  • Negative marking: None

The full aptitude half of the NQT: the Foundation gate plus the Advanced questions that decide Digital and Prime.

  • No negative marking
  • Sectionally timed
  • Decides Ninja / Digital / Prime

Sections

SectionQuestionsTimeKindMarks each
Numerical Ability2025 minMultiple choice1
Verbal Ability2525 minMultiple choice1
Reasoning Ability2025 minMultiple choice1
Advanced Quantitative Ability1017 minMultiple choice1
Advanced Reasoning Ability58 minMultiple choice1

TCS NQT — Foundation + Advanced syllabus

Numerical Ability

Verbal Ability

Reasoning Ability

Advanced Quantitative Ability

Advanced Reasoning Ability

Instructions

One sitting of the TCS NQT decides Ninja, Digital and Prime eligibility at once. Foundation is the gate; the Advanced section is what separates the tracks.

  • Five sections, sectionally timed.
  • Advanced Quantitative and Advanced Reasoning are harder and shorter — fifteen questions between them, and the reported cut-offs are steep: roughly 9–12 of 15 for Digital, 12–15 for Prime.
  • No negative marking anywhere.

The ninety-minute Advanced Coding round is not part of this paper.

How to prepare for this pattern

A guide to the full aptitude half of the TCS National Qualifier Test: the Foundation gate plus the Advanced questions that separate the Ninja, Digital and Prime tracks.

What the paper looks like

Five sections, sat in a fixed order: Numerical Ability, 20 questions in 25 minutes; Verbal Ability, 25 questions in 25 minutes; Reasoning Ability, 20 questions in 25 minutes; Advanced Quantitative Ability, 10 questions in 17 minutes; and Advanced Reasoning Ability, 5 questions in 8 minutes. That is 80 questions in 100 minutes. Every question is worth one mark and there is no negative marking. Each section runs on its own clock and closes when you leave it. In the real test the two Advanced sections share one 25-minute window; here that window is split so each has its own clock. The paper is not adaptive. The first three sections are the Foundation gate. The fifteen Advanced questions are harder, and sources report steep thresholds on them: roughly 9 to 12 of 15 for Digital and 12 to 15 for Prime.

How to prepare, section by section

The ninety-minute coding round is not part of this paper; sit it separately as the Advanced Coding mock.

On the day

There is no negative marking, so leave nothing blank in any section. The Foundation sections allow 60 to 75 seconds a question. The Advanced sections give about 100 seconds a question for questions that take longer, and each is one of only fifteen that separate the tracks, so work the ones you can finish carefully rather than skimming all of them, then guess the rest before the clock closes the section. Leaving a Foundation section early saves nothing for the Advanced ones, since minutes do not carry over.

This mock is modelled on the published NQT pattern, with well-corroborated Foundation counts and an Advanced split taken from two prep portals; CodeKairo is not affiliated with TCS.

Practice questions for the TCS NQT — Foundation + Advanced test

Twice now, three times before

A is twice as old as B. Ten years ago A was three times as old as B. What is B's present age?

  1. 15
  2. 18
  3. 20
  4. 25
Show the answer

C. 20 Worked solution

Average speed over two legs

A car covers 100 km at 60 km/h and another 100 km at 40 km/h. What is its average speed for the whole journey?

  1. 45 km/h
  2. 48 km/h
  3. 50 km/h
  4. 52 km/h
Show the answer

B. 48 km/h Worked solution

Profit across two products

A shop sells 200 units of product X at ₹50 each, on which its profit is 20% of the selling price, and 150 units of product Y at ₹80 each, on which its profit is 25% of the selling price.

What is the shop's total profit?

  1. ₹4,400
  2. ₹4,600
  3. ₹4,800
  4. ₹5,000
Show the answer

D. ₹5,000 Worked solution

An inference about policy

Antibiotic resistance is not a future risk but a present one. Every course of antibiotics kills the susceptible bacteria and leaves the resistant to multiply, so resistance is the predictable result of use rather than of misuse alone. Misuse merely accelerates it. This is why the response has two halves that are often confused: using existing drugs more sparingly buys time, but only new classes of drug can replace what is being lost.

Which statement follows from the passage?

  1. Reducing prescriptions alone will not permanently solve resistance.
  2. Misuse plays no part in resistance.
  3. New antibiotics would make careful prescribing unnecessary.
  4. Resistance can be eliminated within a decade.
Show the answer

A. Reducing prescriptions alone will not permanently solve resistance. Worked solution

Ordering a short paragraph

Arrange the sentences into a coherent paragraph:

P. The idea was ridiculed at first. Q. Edward Jenner tested the first vaccine in 1796. R. Within a century it had eradicated smallpox in Europe. S. But the evidence gradually won doctors over.

  1. Q P S R
  2. Q S P R
  3. P Q S R
  4. P S Q R
Show the answer

A. Q P S R Worked solution

Changing to the passive

Choose the correct passive form of: The chef prepared the meal.

  1. The meal was prepared by the chef.
  2. The meal is prepared by the chef.
  3. The meal has prepared by the chef.
  4. The meal was prepare by the chef.
Show the answer

A. The meal was prepared by the chef. Worked solution

Synonym of ELOQUENT

Choose the word closest in meaning to ELOQUENT:

  1. Articulate
  2. Silent
  3. Rude
  4. Boring
Show the answer

A. Articulate Worked solution

Ocean is to water

Ocean : Water :: Desert : ?

  1. Camel
  2. Heat
  3. Sand
  4. Dry
Show the answer

C. Sand Worked solution

I have no brother or sister

Looking at a portrait, a man said, 'I have no brother or sister, but that man's father is my father's son.' Whose portrait is it?

  1. His own
  2. His son's
  3. His father's
  4. His nephew's
Show the answer

B. His son's Worked solution

If DELHI is CDKGH

If DELHI is coded as CDKGH, how is MUMBAI coded?

  1. LTLAZH
  2. LTLAZI
  3. LULAZH
  4. NVNCBJ
Show the answer

A. LTLAZH Worked solution

Fifteen years hence, five times five back

A man's age after 15 years will be five times his age 5 years ago. What is his present age?

  1. 8
  2. 10
  3. 12
  4. 15
Show the answer

B. 10 Worked solution

The teacher joins the class

The average age of 30 students is 15 years. When the teacher's age is included, the average becomes 16. How old is the teacher?

  1. 45
  2. 46
  3. 47
  4. 48
Show the answer

B. 46 Worked solution

The odd month

Which one does not belong?

January, March, June, July

  1. January
  2. March
  3. June
  4. July
Show the answer

C. June Worked solution

About this pattern

Foundation counts are well corroborated. The Advanced aptitude split (10 quantitative + 5 reasoning in a shared 25 minutes) comes from PrepInsta and placementpreparation.io; here the shared window is split so each section has its own clock. Coding is excluded.

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

The TCS recruitment process, round by round · TCS coding questions