DEV Community: Team Astra

How Many Gap Years Can You Have? Policies at 28 Indian Employers

Team Astra — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 04:00:37 +0000

Ten of the 28 companies in Astra's campus database publish a numeric gap year limit. The limits run from one year to three. Sixteen decide case by case, and which group a company sits in tells you more than the number does.

A gap year, whether from a break in education, a repeated year or a late graduation, is one of the most common reasons students rule themselves out of drives they would clear. Here is what the eligibility criteria say.

The companies that publish a number

Limit	Companies
Up to 1 year	Accenture, Capgemini, LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra
1 to 2 years	HCLTech
Up to 2 years	TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Mphasis
Up to 3 years across all education	Wipro

Wipro has the most permissive numeric policy here: no more than three years of gap across your entire education. TCS, Infosys and Cognizant, the three largest mass recruiters in the set, all settle on two years. Mphasis frames the same idea as "recent graduates within 2 years eligible", which also covers students who graduated earlier and have not yet been placed.

The one year group is where most students get caught. Accenture, Capgemini, LTIMindtree and Tech Mahindra all draw the line at a single year.

The 16 that decide case by case

Adobe, Amazon, Coforge, Cyient, Deloitte USI, EY, Hexaware, IBM, Intuit, L&T Technology Services, Microsoft, Oracle, Persistent Systems, PwC, S&P Global and Zoho.

This group splits along a clear line. Almost every product company and consulting firm in the dataset sits here, and almost every high volume IT services recruiter does not.

There is a practical reason. A mass recruiter processing tens of thousands of applications needs mechanical filters, and a fixed gap limit is cheap to apply at scale. A company running four interview rounds for a much smaller intake can afford to ask why the gap exists.

In practice, case by case means:

The gap will come up, usually in the HR round. It is not being ignored.
A gap with a clear explanation, such as illness, family circumstances, exam preparation, a failed startup or supporting family income, is usually survivable.
An unexplained gap is the problem, rather than the gap itself.
Nothing is guaranteed. The decision is discretionary and outcomes vary by recruiter and hiring year.

PSUs work differently: age, not gap

ISRO and Bharat Electronics do not count gap years. They apply age limits instead.

Organisation	Constraint
ISRO	Age limit around 28
Bharat Electronics (BEL)	Roughly 25 to 32, depending on the post

For a student with several gap years this is often more favourable than the private sector. A 26 year old with a three year gap is ineligible at Accenture and eligible at BEL. Both organisations also set the rest of their eligibility per notification, which changes each recruitment cycle, so the notification is the document that matters.

How to answer the gap question

The question is asked in almost every process here. 24 of the 28 companies run an HR round focused on fit. Three things work.

State it in one sentence. "I took a year out in 2024 to support my family after my father's illness." No apology and no long preamble.

Say what you did with the time. Certifications, freelance work, self study, caregiving or exam preparation. Anything concrete is better than a blank.

Move to the present. "I graduated in 2026 and I have been building X since." Interviewers are checking for evasiveness rather than punishing the gap.

Hiding the gap, adjusting dates on the form or over explaining all work against you. Every company here verifies academic records before joining, so a date that does not match a transcript costs the offer.

Where to apply first with a long gap

PSUs. ISRO and BEL, where the constraint is age rather than gap length.
Wipro. The most permissive numeric policy in the private sector at three years.
The case by case group, particularly Zoho, which combines discretionary treatment of gaps with no CGPA requirement and no backlog bar. Of all 28 processes it filters least on your record and most on your code. See the Zoho recruitment process.
TCS, Infosys, Cognizant and Mphasis if your gap is two years or under.

One caveat

Gap year policies are revised often, and several companies apply them differently for on campus and off campus routes. Confirm against the current notification before ruling yourself out.

Source: Astra campus recruitment database, covering 28 companies hiring in India. Eligibility data verified August 2026. Full per company guides at useastra.in/campus.

Aptitude, Not DSA, Is the Main Filter: What 28 Test Patterns Show

Team Astra — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 04:00:34 +0000

Across the 28 recruitment processes in Astra's campus database, quantitative aptitude appears as a key topic at 16 companies and logical reasoning at 15. Data structures appears at 6. If you are preparing for Indian campus placements with LeetCode alone, you are preparing for the wrong filter.

This is not an argument against learning data structures and algorithms. It is an argument about order. The round that removes most candidates at most companies is the online aptitude test, and it happens before anyone looks at your code.

What the 28 companies list as key topics

Topic	Companies listing it
Quantitative aptitude	16
Logical reasoning	15
Verbal ability	11
Data structures	6
DBMS	5
Arrays and strings	3
Object oriented programming	3
Operating systems	3
Pseudocode	3

Aptitude topics outrank data structures by roughly three to one. That ratio holds because 13 of these 28 companies are mass or volume recruiters, and volume hiring depends on a cheap first filter that scales. Aptitude tests do that job.

Seconds per question

Section counts on their own are misleading. Divide the time by the question count and the purpose of each test becomes clearer.

Company	Section	Questions	Time	Seconds per question
Tech Mahindra	Psychometric	72	15 min	12
Infosys	Verbal Ability	40	35 min	52
Wipro	Aptitude	50	48 min	58
Accenture	Cognitive Ability	50	50 min	60
HCLTech	Each of 4 sections	15	15 min	60
Cyient	Each of 3 sections	15	15 min	60
TCS	Verbal Ability	25	26 min	62
TCS	Numerical Ability	20	25 min	75
TCS	Reasoning Ability	20	25 min	75
Cognizant	Aptitude	25	35 min	84
TCS	Advanced Quantitative	15	25 min	100
Infosys	Quantitative	15	25 min	100
Infosys	Pseudocode	5	10 min	120
Infosys	Logical Reasoning	10	35 min	210
Zoho	Aptitude	25	90 min	216

Four points follow from this table.

Sections under 60 seconds per question are speed tests. Wipro sets 50 questions in 48 minutes and Accenture 50 in 50. These do not contain hard mathematics. They contain ordinary mathematics that you have to do without hesitating. Preparation means drilling and shortcut recall rather than depth, and you should practise with a timer or you will not finish.

Infosys runs two different tests in one paper. Verbal at 52 seconds per question is the tightest section in the dataset and is purely about speed. Logical Reasoning at 210 seconds per question is the opposite, with 10 questions across 35 minutes, which only makes sense if the puzzles are involved. Candidates who pace the whole paper evenly rush the puzzles and then run short on verbal.

The Zoho aptitude round is not a standard aptitude round. 25 questions in 90 minutes gives 3.6 minutes each, and no routine quantitative question needs that. It is a problem solving paper under an aptitude label, which fits Zoho being the only company in the dataset with no CGPA cutoff. It filters on reasoning rather than records.

The Tech Mahindra psychometric section is not something to prepare for. 72 personality items in 15 minutes is built to capture first instinct. Answer consistently and quickly.

The coding rounds are shorter than expected

Company	Coding section	Time
Microsoft	3 problems	90 min
Intuit	3 problems	90 min
Amazon	2 problems	90 min
TCS	2 problems, Advanced Coding	90 min
Wipro	2 problems	60 min
LTIMindtree	2 problems	60 min
Zoho	10 programs	60 min
Accenture	2 problems	45 min
Cognizant	Automata Fix	45 min
Tech Mahindra	2 problems, Automata	45 min
Mphasis	2 problems, optional	45 min
Persistent Systems	Coding	40 min
IBM	6 problems	30 min
HCLTech	2 problems	20 min

Two entries stand out. IBM sets 6 problems in 30 minutes, which is five minutes each and points to small self contained problems rather than algorithmic set pieces. HCLTech allows 20 minutes for two. Neither is testing whether you can derive an optimal dynamic programming solution. Both are testing whether you can write correct working code quickly.

At the other end, Microsoft and Intuit allow 90 minutes for three problems and run the whole online assessment as a single coding section, with no aptitude, verbal or psychometric component. For those two companies, DSA first preparation is the right strategy.

How to prepare

Start with quantitative and logical reasoning if you are targeting service companies. It is the filter you are most likely to fail and the fastest to improve, because the topic list is finite.
Practise at the pace the company actually sets. Preparing for Wipro at 58 seconds per question is a different exercise from preparing for Zoho at 216.
Do not skip verbal. It appears at 11 of 28 companies and carries the tightest timing in the dataset, and students often assume they will pass it without practice.
Learn pseudocode separately. Infosys, Capgemini and others test it as its own section, and it is not the same skill as writing code in an editor.
Save deep DSA work for the companies that weight it, which are the product companies, where the interview rounds cover algorithms and design rather than the assessment.

Practice sets by topic are at aptitude questions by topic, and the round by round breakdown for each company is at useastra.in/campus.

One caveat

Test patterns change between hiring cycles, and several companies run different assessments for different tracks. The Capgemini coding section applies only to the Senior Analyst track, and Mphasis makes coding optional. Treat these numbers as the shape of each test rather than a guarantee of what appears on the day.

Source: Astra campus recruitment database, covering 28 companies hiring in India. Test pattern data verified August 2026.

Mass Recruiter or Product Company? How 28 Hiring Processes Differ

Team Astra — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 04:00:34 +0000

Of the 28 companies in Astra's campus database, 13 hire at mass or volume scale, 5 run smaller volume programmes, 6 hire as product or selective employers, 2 are consulting firms and 2 are PSUs. Only 6 of the 28 are rated high difficulty, and two of those are ISRO and Zoho.

Service company or product company is the usual way students frame placement choices. The data supports the distinction, though not always in the expected direction.

The five hiring models

Model	Companies
Mass or volume (13)	TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Accenture, Capgemini, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, LTIMindtree, IBM, Mphasis, Hexaware, Coforge
Volume, smaller programmes (5)	Cyient, Deloitte USI (Analyst), L&T Technology Services, Persistent Systems (Martian), S&P Global (Apprentice and Operations)
Product and SDE (4)	Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle
Selective (2)	Intuit, Zoho
Consulting and advisory (2)	EY, PwC
PSU and government (2)	ISRO, Bharat Electronics (BEL)

Difficulty and prestige are different things

Six companies are rated high difficulty: Adobe, Amazon, Intuit, Microsoft, ISRO and Zoho. The other 22 are moderate.

Two of those six are not product multinationals. The ISRO written exam is 80 branch technical questions in 120 minutes and tests core engineering depth rather than software skill. Zoho runs an offline written test and then interviews you on code you wrote yourself. Both are hard in different ways from an Amazon interview.

Every mass recruiter in the dataset is rated moderate, including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant and Accenture. Their filtering power comes from volume and eligibility criteria rather than difficulty in any single round.

The round that usually does not change

Most processes here end the same way, with a technical interview followed by an HR interview focused on fit. 24 of the 28 companies run one. It is not a formality, but it is the most predictable part of campus hiring.

The four companies with no standalone HR round are Amazon, Microsoft, Intuit and ISRO. All four are rated high difficulty. Each closes with something harder instead: the Amazon Bar Raiser, the Microsoft As Appropriate round, the Intuit values interview, and for ISRO no behavioural round at all, only technical depth.

The rounds that differentiate

Company	Distinctive round	Stated focus
Amazon	Bar Raiser	Leadership Principles
Microsoft	As Appropriate Round	Depth and culture
TCS	Managerial Round	Situational
Cyient	L2 Client Round	Project fit
Intuit	Behavioural and fit	Values
Zoho	Technical Interview	Your own code
ISRO and BEL	Technical Interview	Core branch depth

Each of these rewards something specific.

The Amazon Bar Raiser is run by someone outside the hiring team who holds a veto, and it is explicitly about the Leadership Principles. Preparing STAR format stories mapped to those principles is the round, not extra advice around it.

The Microsoft As Appropriate round is a final discretionary interview, usually with a senior leader, covering both technical depth and culture.

The TCS Managerial Round is situational. It is the reason TCS runs three interview rounds rather than two, and it is the one candidates most often enter unprepared.

The Cyient L2 Client Round is unusual in campus hiring, since it assesses fit against a specific client project rather than the company in general.

Zoho interviews you on code you wrote. Not a whiteboard problem, but your own work. This is the strongest argument in the dataset for having real projects rather than tutorial clones.

Rounds per company

The number of stages runs from 2 at ISRO to 5 at Hexaware and Zoho, with most companies at 3 or 4. More rounds does not mean harder. Hexaware runs five moderate difficulty rounds, while the two ISRO rounds are rated high.

For mass recruiters the usual shape is an online assessment, then a technical interview, then HR. For product companies it is an online assessment, then two or more technical interviews, then a values or bar raising round. Consulting firms sit between the two. EY and PwC lean on situational judgement and game based testing rather than coding, and the PwC assessment has no coding section at all.

Where to spend your preparation

There is a real trade off here.

Preparing for mass recruiters means aptitude drilling, speed, pseudocode and CS fundamentals at breadth. The return is a high chance of clearing 13 companies with near identical filters, since clearing the pattern once makes you eligible for most of them. The ceiling is lower.

Preparing for product and selective companies means depth in data structures, algorithms and system design, plus real projects. The return is concentrated in 6 companies with high difficulty ratings and much smaller intakes. The ceiling is higher and the hit rate is lower.

Preparing for PSUs is a separate track built on core branch engineering rather than software, with age limits instead of gap year limits and eligibility set per notification.

Most students do not have to choose. The mass recruiter track is cheap insurance, since the aptitude preparation is finite and it makes you eligible for the largest block of hiring in the dataset. Build that floor first, then spend the remaining time on the depth that product companies reward.

Zoho is the exception, since it rewards neither pattern. It has no CGPA cutoff, accepts active backlogs, and interviews you on your own code. See the Zoho recruitment process.

One caveat

Hiring models shift year to year. Companies that ran mass drives in one cycle sometimes run selective ones the next, and the difficulty ratings here reflect the process as documented in August 2026.

Source: Astra campus recruitment database, covering 28 companies hiring in India. Process data verified August 2026. Full per company guides at useastra.in/campus.

I tracked 3,529 job posts in India for 30 days. Here's what "fresher" actually means.

Team Astra — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 05:12:19 +0000

Every fresher I talk to says the same thing: "Every job wants experience." So I checked.

I'm building Astra, a job platform for Indian freshers. It collects openings every day from company career pages and applicant tracking systems such as Greenhouse, Lever and Ashby. In the 30 days to 30 October 2026, 3,529 new roles opened in India.

Only 1,079 of them (31%) were entry-level. 1,563 (44%) were senior roles, and 879 (25%) were mid-level.

So yes, most jobs do want experience. But about 36 entry-level roles still open every day, and most freshers miss them, because those posts don't look the way freshers expect. Here's what an entry-level job in India actually looks like right now.

1. Fresher jobs almost never say "fresher"

If you search job sites for "fresher", "trainee" or "graduate", you're searching for the rarest words in entry-level titles. Here's how often each word appeared in the 1,079 entry-level job titles:

Word in the title	Entry-level roles
Associate	277
Engineer	167
Analyst	140
Executive	119
Specialist	84
Junior	29
Trainee	14
Graduate	6

"Associate" alone appears in 26% of entry-level titles. "Trainee" and "Graduate" together cover 2%. Another 47 titles marked the level with a number, such as "Software Engineer I" or "Analyst 1".

What to search for instead: Associate, Analyst, Engineer I, Associate Software Engineer, and the word "Executive" for business roles. Then filter by experience, not by title.

2. Excel is asked for more than Python and SQL combined

811 of the entry-level posts listed the skills they wanted. The most common ones:

Skill	Entry-level posts asking for it	Share of the 811
Microsoft Excel	287	35%
Microsoft Office	135	17%
Microsoft Word	131	16%
Microsoft PowerPoint	118	15%
Python	110	14%
SQL	103	13%
CRM software	57	7%
Power BI	41	5%
Git	37	5%
AWS	36	4%
Java	34	4%
Tableau	33	4%

Excel shows up in 287 posts. Python and SQL together show up in 213.

That's because most entry-level jobs in India aren't software jobs. Analyst, operations, finance and customer roles all run on spreadsheets. Among the technical skills, Python and SQL are far ahead of everything else. Java, which most Indian CS curriculums lead with, shows up in only 34 posts.

If you're a CS student: Python plus SQL is the safest pair to show on a resume right now. If you're open to analyst roles, put Excel on your resume as a real skill (pivot tables, lookups, charts), not as a filler line.

3. Pay is rarely listed, and when it is, it's modest

Only 89 of the 1,079 entry-level posts (8%) stated a salary. Among those 89:

The median was ₹4 LPA.
Half paid between ₹3 and ₹7 LPA.
The highest was ₹17 LPA.

The ₹20+ LPA fresher packages you see on LinkedIn are real, but they usually come through campus placements at a small number of companies, not through open job posts.

4. Where the jobs are, and who's hiring

Bangalore had 306 of the 1,079 entry-level roles (28%). Hyderabad (103), Gurugram (94), Mumbai (91), Pune (75) and Chennai (71) followed. Only 68 (6%) were remote.

The roles came from 575 different companies. That's the other surprise: no single employer dominates. The ones that posted the most were Marriott International (23), EY (14), Swiggy (12), Tata Capital (12), Moody's (11), Kotak Mahindra Bank (11), DHL (10) and Amazon (10).

Most of these are not "dream companies" in college WhatsApp groups. That's worth using: a role that fewer of your classmates are watching is a role with less competition.

What I'd do differently as a fresher

Search by level, not by the word "fresher". Use Associate, Analyst, Engineer I and Executive, then filter by experience.
Lead with Python and SQL, and list Excel properly if you'd take an analyst role.
Look beyond the 20 famous names. 575 companies hired entry-level people this month. Banks, consultancies, logistics and hospitality groups all run tech and analyst teams in India.
Apply early. About 36 entry-level roles open every day, and many close within a few weeks.
Expect ₹3 to 7 LPA from open postings, and treat higher offers as the exception, not the plan.

How I collected this

Astra pulls openings daily from company career pages and applicant tracking systems (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and others). This post covers every role in India first seen in the 30 days to 30 October 2026, excluding international roles. "Entry-level" is Astra's classification from each role's title and description. Skills come from the skills each post listed, and salaries only from posts that stated one; estimates are excluded.

I'm building Astra to make this easier: every entry-level role in one place, with direct apply links. New roles also go out daily on Telegram. If you want a cut of this data I didn't cover, ask in the comments and I'll run it.