Deloitte Recruitment Process 2026: NLA Test Pattern, Coding and Interview Rounds
Deloitte hires most engineering freshers in India through one online test, the National Level Assessment, followed by interviews. The test mixes aptitude, English, technical questions and coding in about 90 minutes. Here’s how each stage works in 2026 and how to prepare.
One caveat first. Deloitte doesn’t publish a fixed test pattern, and prep sites report different question counts for the same year. What follows is the shape candidates and placement sites describe for recent drives. Treat your invitation and the on-screen instructions as the final word.
The process at a glance
| Stage | What it checks | Format (as reported) |
|---|---|---|
| Application and screening | Degree, marks and backlogs | Campus registration or the careers site |
| National Level Assessment (NLA) | Aptitude, English, technical basics and coding | One sitting of about 90 minutes, proctored |
| Technical interview | Your project, one language, SQL and CS basics | One round, 30 to 45 minutes |
| HR interview | Communication, fit, location and shifts | One short round, sometimes merged with the technical one |
Pattern as reported for 2026 drives. Some campuses add a group discussion or a spoken English round; yours may differ.
Which Deloitte, and which roles
Most fresher hiring in India is for Deloitte’s US-India offices, often written as Deloitte USI, with large centres in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram and Chennai. Engineering graduates usually join as an Analyst or Analyst Trainee in consulting, technology, risk or tax teams. The work is client delivery: development, testing, data, cloud, ERP and cyber security.
Reported eligibility is around 60% or 6.0 CGPA through school and degree with no active backlogs, and reported pay for analyst roles varies a lot between sites and service lines. Check the drive notice for the first and your offer letter for the second.
The National Level Assessment
The NLA is a single online test, taken from home or on campus with a webcam on. Sources agree on the length, about 90 minutes, and on the four kinds of content. They disagree on the number of questions in each part, so prepare for the content rather than for a count:
- Quantitative and logical aptitude: percentages, ratios, time and work, time and distance, profit and loss, series, arrangements, blood relations, data interpretation.
- English: reading comprehension, grammar and error spotting, sentence completion, vocabulary.
- Technical questions: programming basics and output prediction, OOP, DBMS and SQL, operating systems, networks, and sometimes cloud or software engineering basics.
- Coding: usually two problems inside the same 90 minutes.
No negative marking is the common report, so attempt every multiple-choice question. Time is the real limit: with two programs to write, you have well under a minute for each of the other questions.
The coding questions
The two problems are usually easy to medium: strings, arrays, simple maths, sorting, counting with a hash map, and now and then a basic recursion or matrix problem. You can normally write in C, C++, Java or Python.
- Do the easier one first and get it fully passing before you open the second.
- Read the input and output format twice. Marks come from hidden test cases, and a wrong format fails a correct idea.
- Budget the clock: about 35 to 40 minutes for both programs, the rest for the multiple-choice sections.
- Test edge cases yourself: an empty input, one element, repeated values, the largest size.
The TCS coding round guide covers the editor mistakes that fail correct solutions; they apply to any test-case-based round.
The technical interview
What candidates commonly report being asked:
- Your final-year project: what it does, your own part, the design choices and what you’d change.
- One language in depth: usually Java or Python. OOP with examples, collections, exception handling.
- SQL: joins, GROUP BY with HAVING, subqueries, and the second-highest salary.
- A small program: reverse a string, check a palindrome, find duplicates in an array.
- CS basics: normalization, processes versus threads, what happens when you open a URL.
- A small case or puzzle: Deloitte is a consulting firm, so expect one question on how you’d approach a problem you haven’t seen.
Explaining matters as much as knowing. The interviewer is judging whether you could talk to a client, so answer in short, ordered steps and say your assumptions out loud.
The HR interview
Introduce yourself, why Deloitte, why consulting rather than a product company, a time you worked in a team, a time you handled pressure, and whether you can relocate and work in shifts that overlap with US hours. Know what the service line you applied to actually does; “Deloitte is a Big Four firm” is not an answer to “why Deloitte”.
A three-week plan
Week 1: a timed aptitude set and a timed English set every day, weakest topic first. Week 2: technical revision, one subject a day (your language, OOP, DBMS and SQL, OS, networks), plus two easy coding problems a day in an online editor. Week 3: two full 90-minute mocks, and interview answers practised out loud: your introduction, your project, and five SQL queries you can write without help. Our tech interview plan has a routine for that part.
Practising the interview with Keeter
The NLA is proctored. Don’t use outside help of any kind during it, AI tools included; you can be disqualified. Follow the rules Deloitte sets for every round.
The interviews are where a clear, confident answer wins the offer, and that takes spoken practice. Keeter, an AI interview assistant, runs mock interviews from your resume: it asks questions out loud, you answer by voice, and you get feedback after each answer and a report on your weak areas. The first 5 minutes are free, then it’s ₹4 a minute with no subscription.
Quick answers
What is the Deloitte NLA?
The National Level Assessment is Deloitte’s online test for fresher hiring in India. It covers aptitude, English, technical questions and coding in one sitting of about 90 minutes.
Is there negative marking in the NLA?
None is reported for recent drives, so attempt every question. Confirm on your test screen.
How many coding questions are there?
Two is the common report, at an easy to medium level, inside the same 90 minutes as the other sections.
How many interview rounds does Deloitte have?
Usually two, a technical interview and an HR interview. Some drives merge them into one conversation, and some campuses add a group discussion.