Tech Mahindra Aptitude Test: Rounds, Essay and Practice

The Tech Mahindra aptitude test is the first online round in its fresher hiring in India. Candidates describe it as logical reasoning and quantitative MCQs plus a short essay, followed by a technical round with programming MCQs and an Automata Fix coding task, then an automated spoken English test. Tech Mahindra does not publish the pattern officially, so this guide marks clearly what comes from candidate reports and gives nine practice questions in the same style.

Who takes the test

Tech Mahindra hires freshers for software and associate roles through campus drives, pooled drives and off-campus drives, often run with a placement partner or a hiring platform. Graduates in BE/BTech, MCA, MSc and some BCA/BSc batches are typical, but eligibility (percentage cut-offs, backlogs, passing year) is set per drive.

Tech Mahindra's internship portal adds a second route: it says the company hires its best-performing interns each year, and that shortlisted interns must clear the required assessments before an offer is made. So interns sit the assessments too.

Before you click any test link, check where it came from. Tech Mahindra's recruitment fraud notice warns that offers sent from public or free email domains are fake, and advises campus candidates to verify recruiter details with their placement officer.

Rounds and format

No official pattern is published, and drives differ. The table summarises what candidate reports and prep sites describe for recent drives.

Round Reported content Reported format
Online aptitude test Logical reasoning, quantitative aptitude; verbal ability in some drives Timed MCQ sections, often around 15 minutes each
Essay or story writing One topic, written response Commonly reported as 200–400 words
Technical and psychometric test Programming MCQs (pseudocode, output prediction), computer science MCQs (OS, DBMS, networks, data structures), personality questionnaire MCQ plus self-report
Coding Automata Fix style debugging and short coding problems Usually 2 tasks
Communication assessment Read aloud, listen and repeat, fill in blanks, short spoken answer Automated, AI-scored
Technical and HR interviews Projects, fundamentals, relocation and shift flexibility Face to face or video

Some prep sites also mention an optional higher-tier coding challenge in certain drives that leads to a better-paid role. If your drive has one, the notice will say so. Do not rely on salary figures from coaching sites, which differ between batches.

What makes this test different

Three features come up again and again in candidate reports:

  1. Sectional timing with no going back. Each section has its own clock, and once you submit an answer or a section, you cannot return. This rewards a steady pace over the skip-and-return approach that works in other tests.
  2. An essay inside the aptitude round. Many freshers prepare only for MCQs and lose marks on the written task. It checks grammar, structure and staying on topic.
  3. Automata Fix. Instead of writing a program from scratch, you get mostly written code with a bug or a missing part. Reading someone else's code quickly is the skill being tested.

Scoring and cut-offs

Tech Mahindra does not publish cut-off scores. Candidates describe the aptitude and communication rounds as elimination stages, meaning a low score ends your process there regardless of your other results. Some reports from recent drives also mention negative marking in the MCQ sections, while others do not. Treat the instruction screen as the final word: if it states a penalty, avoid blind guesses; if not, answer everything.

Practice questions

Questions 1 to 6 cover the aptitude round, 7 to 9 the technical round.

Question 1

A shopkeeper marks an item 25% above cost price and then gives a 10% discount on the marked price. What is the profit percentage?

A. 15% B. 12.5% C. 13.5% D. 10%

Answer: B. Take a cost price of 100. Marked price = 125. After a 10% discount the selling price is 112.5, so the profit is 12.5%.

Question 2

A train 240 metres long passes a pole in 12 seconds. What is its speed in km/h?

A. 72 B. 60 C. 80 D. 54

Answer: A. Speed = 240 / 12 = 20 m/s. Multiply by 18/5 to convert: 20 × 18/5 = 72 km/h.

Question 3

If CODE is written as DPEF, how is TECH written in the same code?

A. UFDI B. UFCI C. SFDI D. UGDI

Answer: A. Each letter moves one place forward: T → U, E → F, C → D, H → I.

Question 4

Pointing to a man, Anita says, "He is the son of my paternal grandfather's only son." How is the man related to Anita?

A. Brother B. Cousin C. Uncle D. Father

Answer: A. Her paternal grandfather's only son is Anita's father. The son of her father is her brother.

Question 5

Ravi walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, then turns right again and walks 9 km. Where is he now relative to his starting point?

A. 5 km south-east B. 5 km north-east C. 7 km south-east D. 4 km south

Answer: A. He ends 3 km east and 4 km south of the start (5 north minus 9 south). The distance is √(3² + 4²) = 5 km, towards the south-east.

Question 6

Choose the word most nearly opposite in meaning to "meticulous".

A. careful B. careless C. precise D. thorough

Answer: B. Meticulous means paying close attention to detail. The other three options are near-synonyms.

Question 7

Which SQL command removes all rows from a table while keeping the table structure?

A. DROP B. TRUNCATE C. ALTER D. REMOVE

Answer: B. TRUNCATE empties the table but leaves its definition in place. DROP deletes the table itself, ALTER changes its structure, and REMOVE is not a standard SQL command.

Question 8

Automata Fix. The function below should return the sum of the even numbers in the array, but it returns the wrong value. Which change fixes it?

int sumEven(int arr[], int n) {
    int sum = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        if (arr[i] % 2 == 1)
            sum += arr[i];
    }
    return sum;
}

A. Change arr[i] % 2 == 1 to arr[i] % 2 == 0 B. Change i < n to i <= n C. Initialise sum to 1 D. Return sum / 2

Answer: A. The condition currently selects odd numbers. Testing for a remainder of 0 selects even numbers. Option B would read past the end of the array.

Question 9

What does this C code print?

int i = 0, s = 0;
while (i < 5) {
    s += i * i;
    i += 2;
}
printf("%d", s);

A. 20 B. 30 C. 14 D. 56

Answer: A. The loop runs for i = 0, 2 and 4, adding 0, 4 and 16. The sum is 20.

For more practice of the question types in 1 to 6, use our numerical reasoning practice questions and logical reasoning practice questions.

Writing the essay

The essay topics candidates report are usually general: technology in daily life, remote work, a memorable experience, or the role of youth in society. A simple structure works best under time pressure:

  • Opening (2–3 sentences): state your view clearly.
  • Two body paragraphs: one point each, with a concrete example from your college, internship or city.
  • Closing (1–2 sentences): restate your view in fresh words.

Stay within the word range shown on screen. Short, correct sentences score better than long sentences with grammar errors. Leave a minute at the end to check spelling, tenses and articles, as these are the most common errors in freshers' essays.

Strategy and time management

Pace for no return. With reported sectional timing and no going back, divide the section time by the number of questions and check your pace every few questions. If one question takes too long, make your best choice and move on.

Learn the shortcuts for quant. Percentage-to-fraction conversions (12.5% = 1/8), the 18/5 factor for speed and standard work-rate formulas save seconds on every question.

Revise computer science basics in short bursts. OS (processes, deadlock, scheduling), DBMS (keys, normal forms, SQL commands), networks (OSI layers, TCP vs UDP) and data structures (stack, queue, linked list) come up in candidate reports.

For Automata Fix, read the function name and expected output first, then look for the usual suspects: wrong comparison operator, off-by-one loop limit, wrong initial value, or a return in the wrong place.

For the communication test, sit in a quiet room with a headset, speak at a normal pace and keep answering even after a slip.

Common mistakes

  • Skipping essay practice. Write at least three timed essays before the test.
  • Guessing when negative marking applies. If the instructions mention a penalty, a wild guess can cost you more than a blank.
  • Starting the test on an unstable connection. Timed sections keep running if your connection drops.
  • Trusting unofficial links. Fraudulent "Tech Mahindra" offers circulate. Check the sender's domain and your placement cell.
  • Underestimating the personality questionnaire. Answer honestly and consistently. Contradictory answers stand out more than any single response.

A two-week preparation plan

Days Focus
1–3 Quant: percentages, profit and loss, time-speed-distance, time and work
4–5 Logical: coding-decoding, blood relations, directions, series
6 Verbal: synonyms and antonyms, error spotting, sentence completion
7–8 Essay: three timed essays, then correct your own grammar
9–10 Technical MCQs: pseudocode output, OS, DBMS, networks
11–12 Automata Fix and two short coding problems a day
13 Spoken English: read aloud and record, listen-and-repeat drills
14 Full timed mock with no going back, then review

Timed aptitude practice is in our all test package, and the numerical reasoning test page is a good place to begin on quant. If you are also sitting an employability test, the AMCAT test guide covers its Automata Fix module.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is asked in the Tech Mahindra aptitude test?

Candidate reports describe logical reasoning and quantitative aptitude MCQs, verbal ability in some drives, and an essay or story-writing task. A later round covers programming and computer science MCQs, a personality questionnaire and coding. Check your drive notice for the exact pattern.

Is there negative marking in the Tech Mahindra test?

Some candidate reports from recent drives mention negative marking in the aptitude and technical MCQs, while older reports do not. Tech Mahindra does not publish this, so read the instruction screen. If a penalty applies, skip pure guesses.

Can I go back to previous questions in the Tech Mahindra test?

Many candidates report that sections are timed separately and that you cannot return to earlier questions once you move on. Plan as if every answer is final when you click next.

How do I check that a Tech Mahindra test invitation is genuine?

Tech Mahindra’s recruitment fraud notice says offers from public or free email domains are fake and that genuine communication comes from the techmahindra.com domain. For campus drives, confirm details with your placement officer.

What is Automata Fix?

Automata Fix is a debugging format in which most of the code is already written and you correct or complete it so that it passes the test cases. Candidates report it in the Tech Mahindra coding round, and it also appears as a module in AMCAT.

About the author

Ingmar van Maurik is a specialist in test and interview preparation who helps candidates perform better in recruitment processes.

References