Cognizant GenC Elevate Test Pattern for 2022

Introduction

Cognizant GenC Elevate is an incredible opportunity for freshers or entry-level working professionals to join this massive conglomerate. The company has experienced massive growth in terms of revenue and profit, earning itself a respectable spot in the Fortune 500 list last fiscal year. The company ranked between 480 and 490 during 2010-2012 but has bumped up to 185 now. This is incredible as this makes the MNC one of the top 200 companies in the world, both in terms of revenue and reach. 

Notably, Cognizant GenC Elevate provides an opportunity for individuals with foundational programming and DBMS skills to join this respectable organisation. Freshers or professionals who join through GenC Elevate are segregated according to their expertise and then taught additional skills so that they can be deployed into business units as efficiently as possible.

Cognizant is truly a great company to work with the US-based corporation being involved with hundreds of processes that need IT and outsourcing (knowledge process outsourcing and business process outsourcing) support. It works with dozens of massive corporations that are equally as big or are Fortune 500 companies.

The US-based giant also has its own projects that require immense resources and skilled human assets. Thus, Cognizant is always open to hiring skilled personnel and provides ample opportunities for its employees to grow once they start working with the company. 

To apply for the GenC Elevate route, programming or coding skills are mandatory. However, due to this reason, you also get a skill-based ‘joining bonus’ alongside the promised Rs 4 lakh per annum salary package. GenC Elevate is different from the GenC route, so you must also be careful to not mix up the two routes. 

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for Cognizant GenC Elevate, applicants must be proficient in programming concepts and must have foundational coding skills. The application process requires candidates to submit evidence or proof of this as well, when applying and self-profiling. Let us check the different eligibility criteria for the GenC Elevate route.

Qualification: B.E./M.E., B.Tech/M.Tech, M.Sc (IT) and MCA students from IT, ECE, ETE, ISE, CSE, EEE and other relevant or associated branches

Grade 10 marks: 60% or more (all subjects will be considered)

Grade 12 marks: 60% or more (all subjects will be considered)

UG and PG marks: 60% or 6.0 CGPA (and more). If students have applied for re-evaluation, then the aggregate marks of all the subjects divided by the number of subjects in the last semester will be taken into consideration.

Additional academic requirements: Candidates should not have any remaining backlog or supplementary paper. Applicants must also not have an education gap of more than two years.

Nationality: Indian nationals or others with PIOs and OCIs

Programming languages: C, C++, Java or Python (and SQL)

Age: 18 to 28 years

Exam Pattern

There are fundamentally three main rounds that decide if an applicant is selected for GenC Elevate or GenC. Once the first two rounds are cleared, candidates proceed to the third round which decides the outcome of the test. Candidates might get selected for either GenC or GenC Elevate depending on the final round and their performance throughout the three rounds.

Here are the rounds:

Round 1: Skill Based Assessment or Conceptual and Code Analysis (15 questions)

Round 2: Technical Round or Coding Challenge (4 questions)

The total time given for the first two rounds will be 1 hour and 40 minutes. Once the first two technical rounds are cleared, candidates will get an interview call within one week.

Round 3: HR discussion and HR interview

Previously Asked Questions

The coding challenges and technical MCQs will mainly be of medium-level difficulty and thus can be easily cleared with just a bit of preparation. 

Here are some previously asked questions from Cognizant’s coding challenges or technical assessments:

• Given two numbers, ‘X’ and ‘Y’. Find the greatest common divisor of the given two numbers. The greatest common divisor of any two integers is the largest number that divides both integers.
• Arrange a few numbers in the ‘N’ number of rows. The first row contains 1 number, the second row has two numbers, the third row has 4 numbers, and so on. Numbers must be placed in increasing order, with absolute difference 1, starting from 1 and continuing till you encounter 9, and then again restarting from 1. You are given an integer ‘N’ denoting the given number of rows. Can you print the pattern that needs to be created? Pattern for N = 4.
• Find ‘X’ to the power ‘N’ (i.e. ‘X’ ^ ‘N’). Where ‘X’ and ‘N’ are two integers. For this question, you can assume that 0 raised to the power of 0 is 1.
• If given a pattern, print the same pattern for ‘N’ number of rows.
• If given an integer ‘N’, print the following pattern for the given N number of rows.

Prerequisites

There are no particular prerequisites other than it being compulsory for candidates to know foundational programming. Also, candidates must have evidence of their certifications (programming languages, concepts or libraries) and the candidates must be from IT, ECE, ETE, ISE, CSE, EEE and other relevant branches.

Here are the documents required for registration:

• Resume or CV with updated information about qualifications, projects and extra-curricular activities
• College ID card and documents
• All academic documents including grades 10 and 12 mark sheets
• All UG and PG documents including semester results
• Certificates
• Internship documents or project documents
• Aadhaar card or passport
• PAN card
• Passport size pictures

How to Register?

Before registering, here is some information you should be aware of:

• Applying in both the GenC and GenC Elevate categories will lead to the application being rejected. Thus, you must only apply for one route, which is GenC Elevate in this case.
• Candidates must select one basic skill or skill cluster for applying to GenC Elevate.
• If you have previously used the platform, you can choose to use your old credentials to log in or for registering.
• New users must click on the register now button and fill in the necessary details.
• Ensure that your information such as name, DOB, and educational details match with your academic documents such as 10th, 12th, and UG results.
• Make sure you profile yourself as accurately as possible in order to not get rejected later on.
• Please declare any education gap with valid reasons. Cognizant GenC Elevate will also ask for evidence of the same (valid cause for the gap).

Here is the link to register for the Cognizant GenC Elevate test. You can also check the student handbook provided by Cognizant here.

Preparation Tips

Here are the topics you should prepare for the Conceptual and Code Analysis round:

• Object-oriented Programming and other programming concepts
• Data Structure and Algorithms: Arrays and Trees
• Control Structure
• Class and Structure
• Basic Query Language and SQL
• Databases and DBMS
• Data Querying
• Fetch
• Sorting and Searching
• Utility API: Data and Strings in C++ or Java
• Exception Handling in C++ or Java
• Pointers
• Simple Joins

Here are the topics you should prepare for the Coding Challenge round:

• Stacks
• Dynamic Programming
• Data Structures
• Arrays
• Operations on Strings and Numbers

Here are some examples of algorithm applications which you should be practising as well for the Coding Challenge round:

• N Queen’s Problem
• Tower of Hanoi
• Knapsack
• Dining Philosopher

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaway

Cognizant GenC Elevate is a truly life-changing opportunity for young programmers and individuals interested in web or software development. The syllabus for this route or test is also focused on coding as compared to other Cognizant hiring processes such as GenC NEXT or standard Cognizant on-campus hiring. For freshers and entry-level professionals, this is the best opportunity to get into this massive IT giant.

The examination is completely skill-based and depends immensely on your self-profiling, thus, providing ample scope for you to show your skills and sit for assessments that will evaluate the topics you are actually good in. So, why wait? Register for GenC Elevate now and use the skills you already possess to crack it!