Online assessment pattern, reported

Infosys, Online Assessment pattern

Infosys SP & DSE Hiring Test (Specialist Programmer / Digital Specialist Engineer online coding assessment)

180 min totalDifficulty: moderate-hard3 sections

Compiled from public sources, verify before you rely on it. Infosys revises this test regularly. Source corroboration: Reasonably corroborated. Re-checked 2 Nov 2026 (OPR-RES-010) against Infosys's own SE sample paper and 2024-26 candidate reports; the SP/DSE coding test (3 problems in 3 hours) is consistent across prep sites and candidates. Infosys publishes no current blueprint, so confirm the structure, languages and cutoffs on the drive notification you receive.

Test structure

Reported

SectionQuestionsMinutesTopics

Coding Problem 1 - Easy

~30-40 (suggested; 180-min pool is shared across all 3)

Arrays
Strings
Basic math/implementation
Linear & Binary Search
Sorting
Hashing basics

Coding Problem 2 - Medium

~45-60 (suggested; shared pool)

Greedy algorithms
Stacks & Queues
Linked Lists
Trees / BST
Recursion & Backtracking
Two-pointer / sliding window

Coding Problem 3 - Hard

~60-75 (suggested; shared pool)

Dynamic Programming (knapsack, LIS, subsequence, grid DP)
Graphs (BFS/DFS, shortest path, union-find)
Advanced/optimized algorithms
Complexity optimization to pass all test cases

Reported, infytq.onwingspan.com, geeksforgeeks.org, geeksforgeeks.org, prepinsta.com, prepinsta.com, prepinsta.com, mygreatlearning.com, fita.in, geeksforgeeks.org, knoffcampusjobs.com, lets-code.co.in, prepinsta.com, unstop.com, prepinsta.com, Reasonably corroborated

How the test works

Reported

TWO DISTINCT FRESHER TRACKS - don't confuse them. (1) Systems Engineer / SE (mass hiring, ~3.6 LPA): an aptitude-style MCQ test. Infosys's own sample paper (undated) has 5 sections in 100 minutes: Reasoning 25 min, Technical/Mathematical 35 min, Verbal 20 min, Pseudocode 10 min (2 marks a question) and Puzzle Solving 10 min, with partial marks on some multi-select items. Candidates since 2024-25 describe 7 sections in about 120 minutes, adding English Grammar and an essay (reported, not in the official sample). Prep sites report sectional cutoffs; one Jan-2025 candidate reported no sectional timing. (2) Specialist Programmer (SP, ~9-9.5 LPA) & Digital Specialist Engineer (DSE, ~6.25-8 LPA) - the test named in this request: a single ~3-hour (180 min) proctored CODING round with 3 problems of increasing difficulty (1 Easy, 1 Medium, 1 Hard). This SP/DSE OA is coding-only - there is NO separate aptitude/MCQ section, which is the key thing that distinguishes it from the SE test. How the SP/DSE test works: pure DSA. Q1 is arrays/strings/basic algorithms; Q2 leans greedy / stacks-queues / trees; Q3 is the differentiator - Dynamic Programming and/or Graphs. Languages allowed: C, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript. Scoring is partial and test-case-based (candidate reports: Easy needs ~all cases, Medium ~80%, Hard ~75% to count as fully 'solved'; a brute-force that passes most cases still earns partial marks). Reported marks split is roughly Q1 ~20 / Q2 ~30 / Q3 ~50 - directional, varies by drive. The per-question times above are self-paced suggestions; the 180 minutes is one shared pool. The SAME test streams you into a role: candidate-reported heuristic is 2+ questions solved cleanly -> SP shortlist, ~1-1.5 -> DSE. After the OA come a technical interview (deep-dive on your own OA solutions, DSA, OOP, DBMS, projects; sometimes puzzles) and an HR round. Channels: on-campus, off-campus drives, plus HackWithInfy (coding contest -> SP/Power Programmer fast-track) and InfyTQ (certification -> interview fast-track). Caveats: exact question counts, marks, and cutoffs are NOT officially published by Infosys and shift per cycle/college/drive, so treat all specific numbers as directional and confirm against your own drive notification.

How the interviews go

Reported

1SE: one combined Technical + HR (about 20 min)
2DSE: Technical + HR
3SP: optional in-panel coding task, then Technical (live coding) + HR, 45-70 min

SE: resume/project, OOP basics, a simple program, relocation. DSE/SP: explain and optimise OA solutions, live coding, DBMS/OS/CN fundamentals, project deep-dive; SP interviews are the hardest and can downgrade an SP shortlist to DSE/SE.

Based on several candidates' reports, checked 2 Nov 2026. Interviews vary by drive and interviewer.

Reported by, Infosys SE (GfG), Infosys SP via HackWithInfy (GfG), Infosys SP (takeUforward), Infosys DSE (GfG)

What to prep

Dynamic Programming end-to-end - knapsack, LIS, subset/subsequence, edit distance, grid DP (this is the make-or-break Q3 topic)
Graphs - BFS/DFS, shortest path (Dijkstra/BFS), connected components, union-find/DSU
Core DSA - arrays, strings, hashing, stacks/queues, linked lists, trees/BST, recursion & backtracking
Greedy algorithms and two-pointer / sliding-window patterns for the medium problem
Grind LeetCode Medium->Hard, Codeforces, and PrepInsta/HackWithInfy SP-DSE previous-year sets under a timer
Write full-test-case-passing, edge-case-clean solutions fast in ONE strong language (C++ with STL, Java, or Python)
Optimize brute force to target complexity - partial credit is real, but role allocation rewards fully solving 2-3
If routed to the SE/general test instead: quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning, verbal + English grammar, pseudocode MCQs (C/OOP output-prediction), and puzzles

Cut-offs and eligibility (indicative)

Reported

Both a sectional cut-off and a total cut-off apply, but Infosys does NOT publish exact values - they vary by drive, college and cycle. Candidate-reported (unofficial) heuristic for SP/DSE: solving 2 or more of the 3 coding problems with high test-case pass rates trends toward an SP interview shortlist (~9-9.5 LPA), while roughly 1 to 1.5 problems trends toward the DSE role (~6.25-8 LPA). For the general SE aptitude test, sectional percentile cutoffs (often cited ~70-80 percentile / 3-4 correct on tougher sections) are similarly unofficial and drive-dependent. Do not treat any of these numbers as guaranteed.