GR-1.1 How fresher hiring works
You can name the seven kinds of company that hire freshers, say what a first year at each looks like and what its entry gate is, and read a hiring notice for what it actually requires, with its date.
Most students prepare for placements as if it were one process. It is seven, because the companies that hire freshers do seven different kinds of work: IT services and technology consulting, software and product companies, global capability centres, semiconductor and electronics, industrial and engineering R&D, telecom, and business and professional consulting. Each has a typical first year and an entry gate of its own, and the gate is what decides the preparation. Everything here about a named drive is quoted from that company's own careers page, fetched on 2 September 2026, with the batch and the date it applies to; a pattern that recurs but is not published as permanent policy is called a common expectation, never a rule. Nothing here carries a pay figure, because pay figures change every season and a page that carried one would be wrong within a year.
Work through these
Write the seven kinds of company on one page, with the work a fresher does in the first year at each
IT services and technology consulting, software and product, global capability centres, semiconductor and electronics, industrial and engineering R&D, telecom, and business consulting. The first-year work differs more between these seven than between any two companies inside one of them.
Against each kind, write its entry gate: aptitude paper, coding round, core technical interview, case interview, or a mix
The gate is what decides the preparation. IT services runs an aptitude paper and a coding round; product companies weigh data structures and one project; core and semiconductor firms interview on your own subjects; business consulting runs a case interview.
Read the TCS NQT page end to end and copy out its eligibility rules exactly, with the batch years and the registration status
A published criterion for a named drive, stated with its drive and date. As fetched on 2 September 2026 the page for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 batches asked for a 60 percent aggregate, no pending backlog, an education gap under 24 months and an age of 18 to 28, and showed registration as closed.
TCS: All India NQT Hiring (batch of 2024, 2025 and 2026) · ReferenceRead the TCS NQT test pattern and map each section to a topic in this module or in the programming subject
The drive's own pattern, as published: a foundation part with numerical, verbal and reasoning sections, and an advanced part with harder quantitative work and coding. Each section is one of the aptitude topics here or the algorithms module, which is the point of reading it.
TCS: All India NQT Hiring (batch of 2024, 2025 and 2026) · ReferenceRead the HackWithInfy page and write down what it is, who may enter, and what a finalist is offered
An alternative official entry route: a coding contest for the 2027 graduating batch, as the page read on 2 September 2026, with pre-placement interview opportunities for those who go far. It is a second door into the same company, and it is decided by code rather than by an aptitude paper.
Infosys: HackWithInfy · ReferenceRead the Infosys graduates page and note what it does not publish: there is no permanent company-wide percentage cut-off on it
The figure of around 60 percent repeated for this company everywhere is published nowhere on its own page, which makes it a common expectation and not a rule. Learn to tell the two apart on every notice you read; the difference decides whether you apply.
Infosys: Careers for graduates · ReferencePick two drives you will actually apply to, find each one's official page, and write its rules with the date you read them
Rules change every season, and a rule without a date is a rumour. The official page is the only source that counts, and the date beside it is what tells you, in six months, whether to read it again.
Sign in to keep your progress.
Free resources
We haven't checked most of these for screen reader use yet.
Links last checked 2 Sept 2026.
Stuck here?
Ask a mentor. A real person answers, and they can see exactly which topic you're on. Usually within a couple of working days.
Checking your session…
Topics shown in module order.