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Cognizant Interview Process 2026 — Rounds, Tips & Questions

Published July 22, 2026 · Updated July 22, 2026

Everything about the Cognizant interview process: rounds, what each round tests, difficulty level, and 6 real questions asked by engineers who cleared the loop.

3 rounds
6 real questions
141 engineers asked

Interview Rounds at Cognizant

  1. Online test / phone screen
  2. Technical interview
  3. Managerial / HR round
Insider tip

Prepare well for the technical interview with questions from Cognizant's previous loops.

Real Questions Asked at Cognizant

Cognizant Medium Technical round 3–5 YearsPython

What is the difference between cache() and persist() in Spark? When should you use StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK?

↑ 76 upvotes · 59 engineers asked this · Data Engineer
Cognizant Hard Technical round 2-6 yearsSQL

Write a query to find, for each department, the employee with the second-highest salary, using window functions instead of a correlated subquery.

↑ 33 upvotes · 25 engineers asked this · Developer
Cognizant Easy Technical round 0-3 yearsSQL

Explain the difference between INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, and FULL OUTER JOIN with a simple example of Orders and Customers tables.

↑ 30 upvotes · 22 engineers asked this · Developer
Cognizant Medium Technical round 2-5 yearsSQL

A SELECT query filtering on a non-indexed column takes 8 seconds on a 10 million row table. Would adding an index always help? What's the trade-off of adding too many indexes?

↑ 26 upvotes · 15 engineers asked this · Developer
Cognizant Medium Technical round 1-4 yearsSQL

What problem does database normalization (1NF, 2NF, 3NF) actually solve? Give an example of an update anomaly in an unnormalized table.

↑ 21 upvotes · 12 engineers asked this · Developer
Cognizant Medium Technical round 2-5 yearsSQL

How would you find out why a specific SQL query is slow before making any changes to it?

↑ 19 upvotes · 8 engineers asked this · Developer

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What Cognizant asks by topic

Data Engineering / PySpark SQL / Joins SQL / Indexing SQL / Normalization SQL / Window Functions SQL / Query Optimization

Cognizant questions by technology

Cognizant SQL

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Frequently asked questions

What is the Cognizant hiring process?
The Cognizant hiring process has 3 stages: Online test / phone screen, Technical interview, Managerial / HR round. Most candidates report 6 distinct questions across these rounds.
How many rounds does Cognizant interview have?
Cognizant typically has 3 rounds: Online test / phone screen, Technical interview, Managerial / HR round.
What happens in a Cognizant technical interview?
The technical round at Cognizant focuses on Data Engineering / PySpark, SQL / Joins, SQL / Indexing. Prepare well for the technical interview with questions from Cognizant's previous loops.
What topics does Cognizant ask in technical rounds?
Data Engineering / PySpark, SQL / Joins, SQL / Indexing, SQL / Normalization, SQL / Window Functions, SQL / Query Optimization. Based on 6 questions reported by engineers.
How hard is the Cognizant interview?
Difficulty ranges from Medium, Hard, Easy. Prepare well for the technical interview with questions from Cognizant's previous loops.