TCS Syllabus, Exam Pattern, Eligibility, Important Dates

Each drive has its own paper. TCS publishes the duration and the section names, and nothing else.

The aptitude core, verbal and numerical and reasoning, turns up everywhere. The fourth section is what changes: optional coding for Ignite, a pharmacy paper for Sigma, business aptitude for MBA. Atlas is the odd one out, with four of its five sections testing the candidate's own degree.

No question counts, per-section timings, marks or negative marking rule appear on any drive page. Patterns circulating elsewhere with question counts against each section are reconstructions, and TCS changes drive names and structures from cycle to cycle, so they date quickly.

Mode and centre

• In person, at a TCS iON centre. TCS's FAQ for Atlas and MBA: candidates would be required to visit the allotted TCS iON Centre to appear for the in-person test.
• The centre is chosen while submitting the application, at Apply for Drive, and no further changes will be permitted once the above selection has been completed.
• For B.Sc Ignite, seats go first come first served and a city closes once it fills.

TCS publishes section names, not syllabi. There is no topic list for any drive, so what a section covers has to be read off its name and the degree the drive recruits from.

These are aptitude tests for entry-level roles, not qualifying exams, which is why there is no syllabus to revise. Treat the section names as the scope and the degree requirement as the depth: Atlas expects a statistician's statistics, Sigma a pharmacist's pharmacy, everything else graduate aptitude.

Eligibility is where TCS is most specific, and it is what disqualifies most candidates. The rules repeat across drives, so the common set comes first.

Common to every drive

Drive by drive

The two floors differ, 50 per cent for Ignite and 60 for Atlas and MBA, and both are an aggregate of all subjects in all semesters, not a final-year figure.

BPS and Sigma also want candidates comfortable working in a 24x7 work environment in rotational night shifts, and the role types differ: Sigma is a Trainee Intern Requirement, B.Sc Ignite an Entry Level Requirement, BPS a Trainee Requirement. Atlas accepts up to 2 years of prior work experience, with documents. TCS checks all of it more than once: at any point of time if you are found ineligible, or data shared by you is found discrepant or misrepresented, your candidature will be disqualified.

Every drive follows the same shape.

1. Register on TCS NextStep

TCS NextStep is the single front door for all India campus hiring. TCS's steps:

• Click Register Now.
• Select category as IT, or BPS for the BPS drive. Register under the wrong category and the profile has to be deleted by writing in before you can register again.
• Fill in details to generate a Reference ID.
• Click Apply for Drive. TCS repeats this even for candidates who already hold a Reference ID, because registration alone is not an application.
• Submit the form. The status should then read Application Received or Applied for Drive.

If Apply for Drive does not appear, TCS says to log out and log back in, then check for missing registration fields and for a profile created under the wrong category.

2. Choose a test centre, once

Picked while submitting the application, and no further changes will be permitted once the above selection has been completed. For B.Sc Ignite, seats go first come first served and a city closes when it fills.

3. Sit the test at a TCS iON centre

TCS iON is the test provider for every drive, and communication related to the test will be shared with you by TCS iON.

4. The rest, in person

From the BPS page: the selection process will be in-person and the details of the schedule will be shared on your registered e-mail ID as provided by you in the TCS application form. Carry all original documents as applicable: 10th marksheet, 12th marksheet, graduation marksheets of the semesters completed till date. Declared gaps and work experience are verified against documents too.

Fraud warnings

Three statements appear on every drive page:

• TCS does not send job offers or any hiring related communication from unofficial email ids like Gmail, Rediff mail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail etc.
• TCS does not ask candidates to deposit any money for job offers.
• TCS is not associated with any external agency or company to conduct any interviews or make offers of employment on its behalf.

TCS keeps a separate recruitment fraud alert page. Helpdesks are tcsbps.support@tcs.com for BPS and ilp.support@tcs.com for the rest, both on toll-free 1800 209 3111.

TCS publishes no salary figure against any of its entry-level drives. No pay band, no CTC and no stipend appears on the BPS, B.Sc Ignite, Sigma, Atlas or MBA pages.

It makes one statement about progression, on the B.Sc Ignite page: accelerate your career with a compensation structure designed to reward performance and growth, offering potential increases of up to 2.5x, within 1 to 2 years of employment. That is a claim about multiples, not a starting number, and TCS attaches the word potential to it.

What the Ignite page offers in place of pay: parity with engineering entry, since TCS says Ignite graduates enjoy career opportunities, work quality, and growth potential that are aligned with those of traditional engineering graduates; curated postgraduate programmes in which the TCS Initial Learning Program contributes 50 per cent toward academic credit; and training in cloud computing, blockchain, AR, VR and XR, artificial intelligence, machine learning, generative AI, robotics and digital engineering.

The closest thing to a pay signal TCS gives is the role type: BPS is a Trainee Requirement, B.Sc Ignite an Entry Level Requirement, Sigma a Trainee Intern Requirement. A trainee internship is not a direct entry-level post. Any specific CTC figure attached to a TCS drive elsewhere on the internet did not come from TCS.

One portal for every drive: TCS NextStep. Register once, get a Reference ID, and apply to drives from the same account.

There is no application fee for any of these drives, and TCS does not ask candidates to deposit any money for job offers. A request for money at any stage is not from TCS.

Mind the OTP rule, from the Atlas and MBA FAQs: after 3 unsuccessful OTP attempts, your account will be locked for 4 hours. You will get 2 more OTP attempts after 4 hours, however if still wrong OTP inputs are given, your account will be locked in for the day. Five wrong OTPs lock you out until the next calendar day.

For B.Sc Ignite, apply early: the selection of preferred cities will be restricted once the seats are full.

Tata Consultancy Services Limited hires into its own workforce. There is no commission, no board and no external recruiter: TCS advertises, sets the eligibility and makes the offer.

TCS iON, a TCS unit, is the test provider on every drive, in TCS's own words for Atlas, MBA and B.Sc Ignite alike. It runs the centres too, and communication related to the test will be shared with you by TCS iON. That is the source of a persistent confusion:

TCS also runs campus drives with colleges, but NextStep is the common route either way. Afterwards a candidate joins TCS Ignite, the Science to Software programme B.Sc hiring feeds, or the TCS Initial Learning Program. There is also an internship programme and TCS CodeVita.

Every TCS drive is tested in centre, in person, at a TCS iON centre: the test will be conducted in In-centre mode. Candidates would be required to visit the allotted TCS iON Centre to appear for the in-person test.

How a centre is chosen

• At Apply for Drive, while submitting the form, you pick a preferred centre.
• No further changes will be permitted once the above selection has been completed. Atlas and MBA carry those words identically.
• For B.Sc Ignite: the allotment of seats in the respective centres will be on a First-Come-First Serve basis and hence it is important to register and apply at the earliest to select your preferred test centre. The selection of preferred cities will be restricted once the seats are full.

TCS publishes no list of centre cities. They appear in the application form when you apply, and vary by drive and by cycle.

TCS iON, not TCS, tells you where and when: communication related to the test will be shared with you by TCS iON, our test provider. Keep the email address on the application form live. The rest of the selection is in person too, and for BPS the schedule will be shared on your registered e-mail ID.

TCS publishes dates per drive, in the FAQs on each drive page, and they move every cycle. These are what the drive pages carried as at 12 September 2026.

Atlas and MBA both left about four weeks between the closing date and the test. That is the whole preparation window a drive gives once applications shut.

Each drive also names a batch year, which is the harder deadline. Atlas and MBA ran for the batch of 2026, BPS for the batch of 2027, where TCS says 2027 year of passing can only apply. The wrong batch is not eligible whatever else is true. Live drives and their dates are on the India entry-level careers page.

There is no TCS admit card. Test details come from TCS iON, the test provider, to the email on your application. First check that Track Your Application on NextStep reads Applied for Drive. For BPS, carry original 10th and 12th marksheets and graduation marksheets for every completed semester.

TCS publishes no score, scorecard, merit list or result date for a hiring drive. Track your status under Track Your Application on NextStep; the next stage's schedule arrives at the email on your application. An offer from a Gmail or Yahoo address, or one asking for money, is a fraud (see the fraud alert).

TCS publishes no cut-off for any hiring drive: no overall or sectional mark and no shortlisting ratio. What it enforces is the eligibility floors in the eligibility section. Live drives are listed on the India entry-level careers page.

Read the drive page for the degree you actually hold

There is no single TCS test. A B.Pharmacy candidate sits 140 minutes with a pharmacy section; an M.Sc statistician sits 115 minutes with four subject sections; an MBA sits 90 minutes with business aptitude. Preparing from a generic TCS pattern prepares for none of them.

Fix the eligibility before the aptitude

TCS checks percentages across all subjects in all semesters, backlogs, full-time course status and academic gaps up to 24 months, at several stages. Three weeks of quantitative practice does nothing for a candidate who will fail one of those. Be honest too: a declared 20-month gap is within the rule, a hidden 8-month gap is a discrepancy, and misrepresented data is itself a disqualification.

Apply the day the drive opens

Centre seats for B.Sc Ignite are first come first served and the preferred city closes when full, and the choice cannot be changed later. A late applicant takes what is left.

Click Apply for Drive

The commonest failure, and TCS flags it twice on the Ignite page. Registering creates a Reference ID; it does not apply for anything. Confirm that Track Your Application reads Applied for Drive. Register under the right category too, IT for B.Sc Ignite, Atlas, MBA and Sigma, BPS for BPS: getting it wrong costs days.

Use the four weeks after applications close

Atlas closed on 25 January 2026 and tested on 23 February. MBA closed on 11 February and tested on 12 March. That is the whole window. Work the B.Sc Ignite sample question paper in it, whichever drive you are applying to, since its aptitude sections are shared.

Attempt the optional coding section

B.Sc Ignite's fourth section can be skipped. It is also what separates a candidate aiming at Science to Software from one aiming at anything else.

Know the role, and log in carefully

BPS and Sigma both ask for candidates comfortable working in a 24x7 work environment in rotational night shifts, and Sigma's is a Trainee Intern Requirement. Read that before the test, not after the offer. And three wrong OTPs lock a NextStep account for four hours, two more for the day: on a closing date that is the application gone.

TCS publishes no previous year papers or answer keys. Its one official specimen is the free TCS B.Sc Ignite Hiring sample question paper, linked from the Ignite drive page. Its numerical, verbal and reasoning sections are shared with the other drives.

Is there one TCS campus test?

No. TCS runs separate drives by degree, each with its own eligibility, pattern and dates. As at 12 September 2026 they were BPS, B.Sc Ignite, Sigma, Atlas and MBA, listed on the entry-level careers page.

Is a TCS drive the same as TCS iON NQT?

No. TCS iON is the test provider for TCS's drives, but TCS iON NQT is a separate product a candidate buys and can show to thousands of companies. A drive is free and is an application for a job at TCS.

What are the test patterns?

BPS 65 minutes: verbal, numerical, logical reasoning. B.Sc Ignite 120 minutes: numerical, verbal, reasoning, coding (optional). Sigma 140 minutes: numerical, verbal, reasoning, functional pharma. Atlas 115 minutes: statistics, mathematics, economics, programming, verbal. MBA 90 minutes: verbal, numerical, business aptitude.

Is there negative marking?

TCS publishes no negative marking rule, and no question counts or marks either.

Where do I apply, and what does it cost?

TCS NextStep, free. Register, pick the right category (IT for most drives, BPS for BPS), generate a Reference ID, then click Apply for Drive: registration alone is not an application. TCS does not ask candidates to deposit any money for job offers, so any request for payment is a fraud.

What percentage do I need?

50 per cent for B.Sc Ignite, 60 per cent for Atlas and MBA, in each of Class 10, Class 12, Diploma if applicable, graduation and post-graduation, aggregated over all subjects in all semesters.

Can I apply with a backlog?

Depends on the drive. BPS permits one active backlog at the selection process, Atlas up to one, B.Sc Ignite and Sigma none. The course must be completed without backlogs within the stipulated duration before joining.

I have a gap in my education. Am I out?

Not necessarily. The overall academic gap must not exceed 24 months up to the highest qualification, and must be declared with documents. An undeclared gap is a discrepancy, which is worse.

What is the age limit, and are part-time degrees accepted?

18 to 28 years across the drives, and only full-time courses will be considered. Schooling through NIOS is accepted provided graduation and post-graduation were full-time.

Is the test online or at a centre, and can I change the centre?

In centre, in person, at an allotted TCS iON centre; no drive has an at-home option. The centre is chosen when you submit the application and no further changes will be permitted once the above selection has been completed.

What is the cut-off, and is there a sample paper?

TCS publishes no cut-off; the eligibility floors are what it enforces instead. It publishes one sample paper, the B.Sc Ignite sample question paper, free from the drive page.

What documents do I need?

For BPS: 10th marksheet, 12th marksheet, graduation marksheets of the semesters completed till date, in original, plus proof for any declared gap or work experience.

My NextStep account is locked. What happens now?

Three wrong OTPs lock it for four hours. Two more after that lock it for the rest of the day, and the next attempt comes only after the date changes.

What is TCS Ignite?

The Science to Software programme B.Sc Ignite hiring feeds. TCS says compensation carries potential increases of up to 2.5x within 1 to 2 years, and the Initial Learning Program contributes 50 per cent toward academic credit in curated postgraduate programmes.