TCS NQT 2026: Most repeated coding questions and preparation strategy?

Question

I am appearing for the upcoming TCS NQT drive. What are the most frequently asked coding patterns in Question 1 and Question 2? Any tips for clearing the Advanced Coding section for Digital / Prime roles?

Vikram Rao · Accepted Answer

Here is the exact pattern breakdown based on the recent drives:

### 1. Section Breakdown
- **Foundation Section (Question 1 - 15 mins):** Typically basic array manipulation, string frequency, or number theory (prime numbers, Armstrong numbers, GCD/LCM, palindrome checks).
- **Advanced Coding Section (Question 2 - 30 mins):** Usually sliding window, prefix sums, binary search on answers, or dynamic programming (subset sum / coin change variations).

### 2. Common Repeated Problems
1. **Subarray with Given Sum:** Find contiguous subarray adding up to $K$ (use Prefix Sum + Hash Map for $O(N)$).
2. **Equilibrium Index of an Array:** Find index where left sum equals right sum.
3. **Word Frequency & Anagram Grouping:** String hashing.
4. **Matrix Rotation (90 degrees clockwise):** Transpose and reverse rows.

### 3. Strategy to Qualify for Digital (7 LPA) / Prime (9 LPA)
- Solve Question 1 with 100% test cases passing in under 10 minutes.
- On Question 2, even passing **all public test cases + 3 private test cases** often qualifies you for the Digital interview call.
- Always handle edge cases: empty strings, single-element arrays, negative numbers, and integer overflow ($10^9$ limits require `long` in Java/C++).

Aditya Singh · Answer

Does Python have time limit issues on the TCS compiler?

TCS NQT 2026: Most repeated coding questions and preparation strategy?

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