Infosys 2026 (Specialist Programmer) — online test to offer, full timeline

Got my Infosys SP offer last week. The SP track pays significantly better than SE, so competition is tougher — sharing everything while it's fresh.

Online test (3 coding questions, 3 hours)

• Q1 (easy): array manipulation — frequency counting with a twist. 15–20 minutes if you know hashmaps.
• Q2 (medium): string problem with sliding window. This is where most people's time went.
• Q3 (hard): DP problem — I only passed 60% of test cases and still got shortlisted, so partial scoring is real. Attempt it even if you can't fully solve it.

Language allowed: C++, Java, Python. I used Python throughout.

Interview (single round, ~50 minutes)

• Two live coding questions on a shared editor — a linked list reversal and a SQL query with GROUP BY + HAVING. They watch you type and ask "why" at every step.
• Project deep-dive: 15 minutes on my final-year project. They asked me to draw the architecture verbally and justify the database choice.
• Two OS/DBMS concept questions: process vs thread, and indexing.
• Five minutes of HR at the end: relocation, why Infosys SP over other tracks.

What I'd tell my past self

Speaking my thought process out loud was the differentiator. My interviewer explicitly said he cared more about how I approached the DP problem than whether I finished it. I had practised narrating my thinking during mocks and it paid off directly.

Timeline: applied on the portal → test invite in 3 weeks → interview 2 weeks after clearing the test → offer mail in 12 days.

Ask me anything about the SP process — happy to help the next batch.