Video summary

TCS Prime Interview Experience | How to crack TCS PRIME

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / lessons from the video

  • The guest shares a full roadmap of how they cracked TCS NQT Prime, with emphasis on NQT test + interview performance.
  • Aptitude (especially basic Quant) is described as the most underestimated and potentially hardest part.
  • For coding, consistent practice on LeetCode (easy–mid level) is presented as sufficient for clearing the coding rounds.
  • The interview heavily tests in-depth knowledge of your projects, including:
    • architecture walkthrough (front-end/back-end communication, APIs/routing)
    • tech choices (e.g., Spring vs Spring Boot, standalone vs microservices)
    • willingness/ability to adapt if assigned to less familiar tech
  • The interviewers verify CV claims closely, probing every listed technology and expecting justification.
  • HR checks for academic gaps and backlogs (the guest had to justify a gap).

Methodology / “what to do” (detailed bullet points)

1) NQT preparation strategy (as described)

Coding practice

  • Do daily ~1 LeetCode question.
  • Focus on topics matching the test difficulty:
    • strings
    • arrays
    • hash maps
    • plus common patterns:
      • sliding window
      • greedy
  • Suggested difficulty range they felt prepared for: easy to mid / easy to moderate.
  • LeetCode is positioned as the main coding driver (DSA/coding not viewed as the hardest compared to aptitude).

Aptitude focus (highest emphasis)

  • Don’t underestimate Quant aptitude.
  • Expect the Quant test to include:
    • Basic Quant (they found it unexpectedly harder)
    • Advanced Quant (they found it more manageable after gaining momentum)
  • They practiced since around 2022, but still struggled on basic quant due to:
    • time limits
    • question volume
  • They emphasize aptitude readiness because many people delay it and remember it late.

Mock/test sheets / resources mentioned

  • They used Striver NQT sheets (described as more than enough for basic-level questions).
  • They also mention using “NQT sheets” generally and doing “mild moderate / easy to moderate” practice.
  • Banking questions: if doing aptitude, they claim these helped a lot and created a measurable performance gap vs people who didn’t practice them.

2) NQT exam structure (as described by the guest)

  • Two coding questions
  • An aptitude round that combined:
    • basic quant
    • advanced quant
    • general reasoning
    • English

Their specific experience:

  • Reasoning + English: felt easy
  • Basic quant: felt much harder than expected and they were time-constrained
  • Advanced quant: felt like it “clicked,” allowing them to maintain speed + accuracy

3) Prime interview structure (as described)

They state there were three interview rounds.

Round 1: Initial + Technical (architecture/project deep dive)

  • Interview started with general questions, including:
    • where they are from
    • why they had a sore throat (they felt nervous due to low speaking ability)
  • Technical portion included CV-guided probing:
    • Interviewers glanced at the CV and asked the candidate to:
      • draw project architecture on pen and paper
      • explain end-to-end flow:
        • data retrieval
        • API calls
        • front-end vs back-end integration
        • routing behavior with React (front-end) + Spring Boot (back-end)
  • Project deep probing:
    • If React wasn’t listed on the CV, they asked how the candidate worked with it
      • the guest said a friend handled React, but they were questioned on the full system anyway
    • Spring Boot deeper questions:
      • why Spring Boot
      • standalone vs microservices
  • Detail check / correction moment:
    • interviewer used the term controller
    • the guest suggested rest controller
    • the interviewer corrected/confirmed
  • Database questioning:
    • they felt less confident in MongoDB and described being “grilled” to validate understanding
  • Cloud computing basics:
    • SaaS vs PaaS
    • private cloud
    • virtual private cloud differences

Round 2: Scenario-based / HR-to-technical handoff (project/role adaptability)

  • Hypothetical questions tied to project/tech mismatch, such as:
    • what would you do if you’re sent to a project that doesn’t use all your known tech/languages or uses “boring” technologies?
  • Their response:
    • priority is company needs; they would do what is assigned if required
  • They say the interviewer was satisfied and proceeded to HR.

Round 3: HR round

  • HR asked:
    • whether they have backlogs (they said no)
    • about a two-year academic gap (they had to justify it)
  • They asked the backlog question multiple times to confirm.
  • Outcome:
    • they were passed forward and the interview concluded.

4) After interview: timeline/selection (as described)

  • After NQT, they received a shortlisted message for Prime interview.
  • Interview scheduling happened relatively quickly (they say didn’t even take a month).
  • After interviews, they got the result/shortlisting in about 7 days.
  • Offer letter date mentioned: December 20th (they accepted it).

Speakers / sources featured

  • Anubhav Shah (guest; candidate who cleared TCS NQT Prime and received an offer)
  • Ashish (host/interviewer; asks questions and leads the discussion)
  • TCS employees / interviewers (mentioned in the process as):
    • two TCS employees who helped during the coding runtime issue
    • technical interviewers (including “ma’am” and “HR sir”) — no names given

Original video