Academic snapshot
Floor: Often 7.0 / 70%
Degrees: B.E./B.Tech/M.Tech/MCA
Backlogs: None active
Year: Final year / NCG
Visa Placement Papers 2026
Visa is a global digital payments network connecting consumers, merchants, and financial institutions worldwide. Founded in 1958, it processes billions of transactions across its payment infrastructure. India engineering hubs in Bengaluru and Mumbai recruit software engineers for payments, security, and platform development roles.
Explore: Online Assessment · Download PDF · Placement Process · Interview Experience · Preparation Guide · Certifications & Career
Visa eligibility & CGPA (2026)
Visa does not publish one universal CGPA cutoff for every India NCG / SDE drive. Campus JDs and careers posts differ. Treat numbers below as candidate-reported (as of August 2026).
Who this hub is for
- For: Students targeting New College Grad Software Engineer / SDE roles on Visa’s payments and platform teams - mostly Bengaluru, some Mumbai.
- Not the same track: Assuming “Visa = credit-card sales job.” This hub is engineering. Store or ops roles are a different path.
- Experienced hires: Deeper distributed systems, Java/Spring, payments domain. Use fresher sections as a base.
Bengaluru ncg vs off-campus hybrid
Campus NCG is a batch event: one OA window, one PPT, then a stack of Teams interviews. Off-campus SDE posts (Payment Digitization-style teams have listed Java, REST, TDD, Agile, 0-2 years) are rolling. Same DSA bar; more resume noise. If you are 2024-2026 batch applying off-campus, still treat CodeSignal/HackerRank as the exam. A hybrid Bengaluru JD does not mean you can stay in another city and never visit. Lead interviewers ask about joining logistics and hybrid norms because payments on-call is real. If you need to finish final exams in June, say the date early rather than surprising them after the offer.
NCG vs 0-2 YOE posts: some Bengaluru SDE listings welcome freshers and people with up to two years. The loop still starts with coding. Do not assume a year of internship experience skips DSA. It may only change the resume conversation in Technical 2. Internships help when you can name a metric or a bug; they do not replace a 70-minute CodeSignal. Treat extra YOE as extra questions, not a shortcut. The panel will ask what you owned. “We used Spring” is not ownership; “I wrote the JWT filter and this test failed until I fixed X” is. Write that sentence before the call so you are not inventing it under a 70-minute clock. Charge the laptop, test Teams audio, keep a blank page for LRU, and close extra tabs before CodeSignal starts. Log in ten minutes early and keep your college ID ready.
Degree, projects, and “is 7.0 enough?”
Yes - 7.0 / 70% meets the commonly reported floor. A 2025 Bengaluru on-campus select explicitly listed 7 CGPA + no active backlogs. It is not a selection guarantee. A 7.1 with two fully passing OA solutions beats an 8.8 who freezes on LRU.
Projects that help: any API with auth, a small payments/wallet demo, Spring Boot services, a cache, a SQL-backed order system. A certificate pile with zero “what I built” talk dies in Technical 2.
On-campus vs off-campus
| Route | What usually changes | What stays the same |
|---|---|---|
| Campus NCG | Batch OA (e.g. CodeSignal 70 min), PPT, printed 7.0 | DSA bar |
| Careers / off-campus | Resume volume; hybrid Bengaluru JDs | Still expect coding OA |
| Referral | Visibility | Interviews stay hard |
Off-campus does not mean easier DSA. It often means more applicants on the same filter.
Documents and portal hygiene
- Keep CGPA consistent with the form.
- Screenshot invite: CodeSignal vs HackerRank and duration.
- If you listed Spring/JWT/Git on the resume, you will be asked - a 2025 loop spent an hour there.
- Bengaluru hybrid is common on recent JDs; be ready to relocate.
- Clear active backlogs before offer paperwork.
Detailed eligibility criteria breakdown
| Item | Typical expectation (candidate-reported) | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| CGPA / % | 7.0+ / ~70% | 2025 NCG select cited 7.0 exactly as listed |
| Degree | B.E./B.Tech/M.Tech/MCA | Related computing on many posts |
| Branch | CS, IT, ECE (and related) | Strong DSA can help adjacent |
| Year | Final year + recent grads | Some JDs allow 0-2 YOE |
| Backlogs | No active backlogs | Hard filter in many campus rules |
| Languages | Java, Python, C++ | Java/Spring common in Bengaluru |
| Location | Bengaluru / Mumbai | Hybrid on some posts |
Skills & focus
Primary: Medium DSA
Secondary: Reliability + payments vocab
First filter: Timed OA (often 4Q / 70 min)
Differentiator: Idempotency / auth talk
Selection feel by CGPA band
| CGPA range | Rough chances | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| Below 7.0 | Often filtered on-campus | Off-campus only if JD allows |
| 7.0-7.4 | Meets many listed floors | Need strong OA + resume depth |
| 7.5-8.5 | Common shortlisted chatter | OA still decides |
| 8.5+ | Strong academically | Lead round still tests thought process |
Visa previous year paper PDFs
Download 2026 Visa placement papers
2026 in detail
2025 placement papers
2024 placement papers
Previous year question papers
Comments & Suggestions
What Visa previous year papers actually train
Visa does not publish one permanent official paper set. “Previous year papers” on this site are pattern trainers - not leaked live CodeSignal tests.
| Round (typical) | What to practice |
|---|---|
| Online assessment | Timed DSA accuracy (4 problems / 70 min style) |
| Technical 1 | Projects + CS fundamentals + light DSA |
| Technical 2 | Deeper resume, LRU, SQL, APIs, auth |
| Lead / HR | AI tools, load, encryption vs hashing, Why Visa |
Themes that keep repeating (2024-2026)
- 2024 cycles: Payments-tech flavour: coding OA then interviews. Public sectional dumps were thinner; students still needed medium DSA and CS viva.
- 2025 loops: A Bengaluru on-campus NCG select (Sept 2025) reported CodeSignal, 70 min, 4 DSA (count substrings of length 3 with a vowel; repeatedly remove smallest peak; grid cells unique vs row/col; DP). Interviews on MS Teams + CodeSignal: 30-min fundamentals, 70-min resume/Spring/JWT/LRU/SQL/APIs, 30-min lead (AI tools, tough subject, encryption vs hashing).
- 2026 prep expectation: Keep four-problem OA stamina. Add payments reliability (double charge, retries). Treat PDFs as pattern catalogs.
How to use one paper set in a single sitting
- Timed: 70 minutes, 4 prompts (or 90 minutes / 2-3 if that matches your invite).
- Untimed review: rewrite the cleaner solution; list three payment-flavoured edges (empty, duplicate id, timeout).
- Map each miss to a theme and pull cousins from coding questions.
- 15 minutes: explain idempotent pay or LRU out loud.
- Log one STAR story (load, production bug, unclear requirements).
Related problems to practice
| Theme you saw | What to drill next | Why Visa asks it |
|---|---|---|
| Valid parentheses / strings | Stack + sliding window | OA strings |
| Two sum / hashing | Maps | Classic OA |
| Merge intervals | Sort + merge | Windows, settlements |
| Peaks / arrays | Simulation + edges | 2025 OA-style |
| Grid identity / counting | Nested loops + sets | 2025 OA-style |
| LRU cache | Hash + DLL | Tech 2 |
| Min window substring | Sliding window | Reported DSA |
2025 sets often drill “count substrings with a vowel.” Own the window/count template, then drill a related problem. That transfers; memorising Q1 text does not.
Free practice packs. Full archive: previous year question papers.
Visa hiring rounds in 2026
Visa hires NCGs through campus cells, usa.visa.com / Visa careers, and referrals. After resume screen, the shape is product/fintech: timed OA, two technicals, lead/HR.
Application methods
Campus recruitment
Eligibility list → CodeSignal/OA → PPT → 2 tech + lead. One 2025 select finished this as an on-campus Bengaluru NCG.
Online applications
Visa careers for Software Development Engineer / NCG. Follow the invite for platform.
Referrals
Better resume visibility. You still need passing OA code.
1. Resume / eligibility screen
7.0+ / 70%, no active backlogs, CS-related degree. Projects with Java/Spring/SQL help. This is a gate - OA is the filter. A referral or a pretty GitHub does not skip CodeSignal.
PPT after OA (as in the 2025 campus select) is still worth attending. Teams mention reliability, Bengaluru hybrid, and the product surface you should echo in Why Visa. Skipping it to “rest before interviews” is how people walk into lead with zero company sentence.
2. Online Assessment (example: codesignal 70 min / 4 DSA)
A September 2025 on-campus NCG reported:
| Item | Reported detail |
|---|---|
| Platform | CodeSignal |
| Duration | 70 minutes |
| Questions | 4 DSA |
| Q1 | Count substrings of length 3 with at least one vowel |
| Q2 | Repeatedly remove smallest peak; return removal order |
| Q3 | Grid cells where rest of row and column are identical |
| Q4 | DP-style problem |
Your invite may differ. Languages: Java, Python, C++ typically.
Pass bar: Two solid full passes plus a serious attempt on a third beats one perfect and three blanks.
Student tip: Skim all four in 4 minutes. Bank Q1-Q2. Leave 15 minutes for the grid/DP. Do not die on Q4 at minute 20.
Example timing for 70 minutes / 4 problems
| Minute | Move |
|---|---|
| 0-4 | Read all; order easy → hard |
| 4-22 | Problem 1 full AC |
| 22-40 | Problem 2 full AC |
| 40-58 | Problem 3 |
| 58-70 | Problem 4 attempt + edge cases on 1-2 |
Deeper notes: Visa Online Assessment.
How the 2025 four-pack maps to templates (related problems, not leaked keys):
- Substring of length 3 + vowel → sliding window / count, not a 3-nested brute if n is large.
- Smallest peak removal → simulate carefully; watch ends of the array; write a tiny example on paper first.
- Grid row/col identity → precompute row and column signatures so you are not O(n²m²).
- DP → if you cannot see the state in 3 minutes, leave a brute that passes small tests and move on.
That last sentence is how you still collect points when the fourth problem is a wall.
3. Technical 1 (~30 min in the 2025 select)
Projects (LLM workflow, React hooks), pointers, 4 OOP pillars, OS (process vs thread, kernel, deadlock, thrashing, swap). Short and fundamentals-heavy. Warm syntax before the call.
4. Technical 2 (~70 min in the 2025 select)
Resume deep dive: Spring Boot / @SpringBootApplication, JWT + refresh tokens + storage, auth vs authorization, caching + replacement policies, design LRU (code + complexity), Git (add/commit/push, branching, merge conflicts), schema for customers/orders, REST routes, SQL sum of order costs last month.
Worked mini-outline - payment retry / double charge:
- Client times out after pay succeeds → retry with the same idempotency key.
- Server stores key → outcome; second call returns the first result.
- Without this, you debit twice. Say that in one sentence before drawing boxes.
5. Lead round (~30 min)
Chill but scored: questions for them, views on AI coding tools, a time you were overloaded, a subject you hated and how you cleared it, encryption vs hashing. Interviewers in that write-up cared about thought process.
| # | Round | Duration (2025 NCG example) | What they check |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OA | 70 min / 4 DSA | Timed correctness |
| 2 | Technical 1 | ~30 min | CS + projects |
| 3 | Technical 2 | ~70 min | Resume, LRU, SQL, APIs |
| 4 | Lead | ~30 min | Judgement, communication |
Timeline from application to offer
| Phase | Typical duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apply / campus register | Drive-dependent | PPT after OA on some campuses |
| OA → interviews | Days to a week | Online Teams + CodeSignal in 2025 note |
| Interview loop | 1 day campus or 1-2 weeks | 2 tech + lead |
| Offer | Days after lead | Written letter wins |
| End to end | ~1-3 weeks campus | Off-campus longer |
OA pattern cheat-sheet
| Component | Focus | Prep move this week |
|---|---|---|
| 4-Q stamina | Switch without panic | One 70-min mock |
| Strings / arrays | Easy bank | Two timed easies |
| Grids / DP | Medium | One grid + one DP |
| LRU / SQL | Tech 2 | Implement LRU once from memory |
| Why Visa | Reliability | 90-second network story |
Preparation resources for Visa
Online assessment
OA format, timing, and question types.
Coding questions
DSA patterns for OA and technical rounds.
Aptitude / mock quiz
Quant, logic, and timed mock quiz.
Interview experiences
Candidate stories and round notes.
HR interview questions
Common HR questions, sample answers, STAR tips.
Week-by-week prep
Study plan and round-by-round strategy.
A practical Visa prep plan
If a Visa invite is 3-8 weeks out, treat this hub as the map and the linked practice pages as the drills. Do not reread eligibility ten times. Check the JD once, then spend hours on the filter that actually rejects people.
Typical fresher CTC chatter for Visa sits around ₹15-28 LPA (candidate-reported - confirm the letter). Languages students mention most often: Java, C++, Python, C. Pick one and stay with it in OA and interviews.
Eligibility reminder (from student reports): Visa eligibility for New College Grad / SDE freshers is candidate-reported: often 7.0+ CGPA / 70%, B.E./B.Tech/M.Tech/MCA in CS or related fields, final-year students and recent graduates, no active backlogs. One 2025 on-campus select cited 7 CGPA + no active backlogs for Bengaluru NCG. Always verify the campus JD or Visa careers post.
What you are training for: Campus NCG loops commonly run: Online Assessment (one 2025 Bengaluru select reported CodeSignal, 70 minutes, 4 DSA questions) → PPT → 2 technical interviews + 1 lead/HR-style round. Off-campus: apply → resume screen → coding OA → technical → managerial/HR. Timeline is often 1-3 weeks for campus; off-campus can stretch.
Short version of the prep split: Split time roughly: 50% DSA (arrays, strings, heaps, grids, DP, caches), 20% timed OA mocks (CodeSignal-style 4 problems / 70 min if that is your invite), 15% CS + projects (OOP, OS, SQL, auth), 15% payments vocabulary + behavioral. Languages: Java, Python, C++.
A four-week plan that actually gets used
Week 1 - pattern, not vibes. Oa pattern first: sit one untimed paper, then redo it under the real clock. Open the Visa previous-year sets on this site and mark which sections ate your time. Write the timing on a sticky note. That number is more useful than a 200-problem LeetCode streak you never timed.
Week 2 - the steep filter. Most Visa drives fail people on the first timed paper or OA. Do three timed sits this week. After each one, log every miss in a two-column note: topic and why (slow, wrong formula, bad edge case, panic). The next sit should only add problems from that log.
Week 3 - talk tracks. Technical interviews at Visa usually want a clean project story, one or two CS fundamentals, and (if the process has it) a behavioral or values round. Write STAR stories on paper, not in your head. Practise “Why Visa?” with one concrete product, lab, or business line - not a slogan.
Week 4 - mocks and logistics. Star stories + one project walkthrough recorded on your phone. If you still have energy, redo only the questions you failed in week 2.
Where the hours should go
| Slice | Share of weekly hours | What “done” looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Timed papers / OA | ~40% | You finish a Visa-style sit without guessing the clock |
| Coding / role technical | ~30% | You can explain a solution out loud in your chosen language |
| Fundamentals / domain | ~20% | You can teach one OS/DBMS/networks (or domain) topic to a friend |
| Stories + HR | ~10% | Two STAR stories and a specific Why-this-company answer |
If you only have 10 days, keep the same ratios and cut volume, not the timed sits.
Practice pages to open this week
- OA / assessment notes
- aptitude mock quiz
- coding question bank
- interview experiences
- HR question bank
- week-by-week guide
- previous year papers
- 2026 paper page
Use this hub for the Visa story (eligibility, rounds, salary). Use those pages for timed reps and interview notes.
Common ways students waste a month
- Collecting 12 Visa PDFs and never sitting one under a timer.
- Switching languages every weekend because a senior used a different one.
- Memorising HR answers before they can finish the OA.
- Ignoring the company-specific quirk on this page (unique round, exam name, or role band) and preparing like a generic service-company drive.
If you do one thing after reading this: schedule three timed Visa papers on three different days, then interview prep on the leftovers.
If you are starting from a service-company prep base
A TCS/Infosys aptitude deck still helps the quant/logic slice of many Visa papers, but do not assume the same cutoff culture. Read the process section on this page once, then swap in Visa-specific coding or domain drills from the nested banks. Shared prep is fine; shared assumptions about rounds are not.
10-day crash version
Days 1-3: one timed Visa paper each day plus error log. Days 4-6: only the topics you missed, plus 4-6 coding problems in one language. Days 7-8: project + STAR + Why Visa. Day 9: one more full mock. Day 10: light review and sleep. This is worse than four weeks, but it beats rereading notes the night before.
What to carry into the interview room
Know your project at the level of what broke and what you changed, not only the tech list on the resume. For Visa, interviewers often poke the same hole the OA already tested - be ready to re-solve a warm question on a shared editor or whiteboard. If you used AI to draft code while practising, you still need to type it yourself on the day.
Tracking that does not become a second job
A single note with date, paper name, score/time, and three misses is enough. If you cannot name your last three Visa mistakes, you are collecting content, not preparing.
Visa compensation & benefits
Figures are candidate-reported (as of August 2026). Level, Bengaluru vs Mumbai, and written split move the number.
| Band | Typical CTC (candidate-reported) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| NCG / fresher SWE | ₹15-28 LPA | Primary band for this hub |
| Some off-campus estimates | ~₹12-22 LPA cited | Role dependent |
| Higher NCG chatter | Toward ₹30 LPA+ in places | Offer letter wins |
Confirm base, joining bonus, and equity on the written offer.
Benefits students actually care about
- Health insurance
- Hybrid norms for Bengaluru
- Relocation support - ask
- Learning / internal mobility
- On-call expectations for payments teams
How to talk CTC in HR
Know ₹15-28 LPA, ask fixed vs variable vs stock, and clarify joining vs exams.
Recent Visa placement trends
- CodeSignal 70 min / 4 DSA is a documented 2025 campus pattern - not a guarantee for every 2026 invite.
- Resume depth (Spring, JWT, Git, SQL) can last a full hour.
- Reliability / payments vocabulary shows up more than generic “e-commerce cart” talk.
- Bengaluru hybrid SDE posts continue off-campus.
- Treat ₹15-28 LPA as a reported band, not a promise.
- Lead rounds may ask how you use AI coding tools - have an honest, non-sloppy answer.
Visa placement FAQs
Process & papers
What is the Visa placement process for freshers?
Typical NCG path: Online Assessment → 2 technical interviews → lead/HR. A 2025 Bengaluru campus select had CodeSignal (70 min, 4 DSA), then Teams interviews. Off-campus adds resume screen. Campus often 1-3 weeks end to end.
How many interview rounds does Visa usually have?
Most freshers report 4 stages counting OA. Some merge lead and HR. Count the mailer.
Can I download Visa placement papers PDF for free?
Yes. 2024-2026 style practice is on this site. Start with the 2026 PDF or the archive.
What does the Visa OA look like?
One 2025 NCG report: CodeSignal, 70 minutes, 4 DSA. Other drives may differ. Languages usually Java, Python, C++.
Eligibility & offer
What eligibility / CGPA do NCG drives usually expect?
Commonly 7.0+ CGPA / 70%, CS-related degree, no active backlogs. A 2025 select listed exactly that. Visa does not publish one universal cutoff.
What is Visa fresher salary in India?
Candidate-reported NCG CTC often ₹15-28 LPA (as of August 2026), mainly Bengaluru. Written offer wins.
Do I have to relocate to Bengaluru?
Usually yes for GTech-style India SWE. Mumbai also appears. Lead/HR will ask. Be honest.
Prep & Visa-specific
How should I prepare?
50% DSA, 20% OA mocks, 15% CS/resume, 15% payments + HR. Details: preparation guide.
Which programming languages are allowed?
Java, Python, C++ typically. Java/Spring is common in Bengaluru interviews. Do not switch the week of the drive.
What payments topics should I revise?
Idempotent retries, auth vs authorization, JWT, encryption vs hashing, LRU/caching, SQL aggregates. Fresher depth.
Visa vs Mastercard vs PhonePe?
Visa/Mastercard: global network reliability. PhonePe: India UPI product speed. All want DSA. Compare written offers and the team’s surface area.
Any pro tip that actually changes outcomes?
Two fully passing OA problems first. Know every resume keyword. One double-charge story in plain words. Thought process over silent perfection.
Where can I read real interview experiences?
Visa interview experience and public NCG write-ups (e.g. Sept 2025 CodeSignal campus select). Maps, not scripts.
Is Visa OA always 4 questions on CodeSignal?
No. That is one documented 2025 campus pattern. Other years or off-campus posts may use a different platform or fewer problems. Screenshot your invite and mock that shape.
Do I need to know ISO 8583 or card-scheme trivia?
Not for most NCG loops. Know reliability ideas (retries, idempotency, auth). Scheme trivia is team-specific. Do not bluff.
Visa - recent candidate experiences
On-campus ncg software engineer - Bengaluru (sept 2025, selected)
Eligibility listed: 7 CGPA, no active backlogs. Process: Online test → PPT → 2 technical + 1 lead. OA: CodeSignal, 70 min, 4 DSA (vowel substrings of length 3; peak removal sequence; grid row/col identity; DP). Tech 1 (30 min): project LLM/React, pointers, OOP, OS (deadlock, thrashing, kernel, threads). Tech 2 (70 min): Spring Boot, JWT/refresh tokens, auth vs authorization, cache policies, LRU design + complexity, Git workflow and merge conflicts, customer/order schema, REST routes, SQL sum of last-month order costs. Lead (30 min): AI coding tools, overloaded task, tough subject, encryption vs hashing. Verdict: selected. Tips they wrote: stay calm; your answers steer the next question; know the resume; keep DSA + OS + SQL warm. Interviewers cared about thought process and guided when stuck.
Other Bengaluru SDE colour
Public notes mention SQL window functions (top 3 salaries per department) and minimum window substring, plus networking/systems chat. Off-campus hybrid SDE JDs for Payment Digitization-style teams list Java, REST, TDD, Agile.
What hurt other candidates: starting the hardest OA problem first; resume keywords they could not explain; Why Visa with zero reliability sentence; no Bengaluru plan; silent debugging.
More notes: Visa interview experience.
Sample technical follow-ups you should rehearse
- Auth vs authorization in one minute with a payment-app example.
- Where do you store a JWT, and why not localStorage if XSS is in scope?
- Implement LRU:
get/putcomplexity. What if capacity is 1? - SQL: each customer and the sum of order costs in the last 30 days.
- Idempotency key on
POST /pay- what if the client retries with a new key? - Encryption vs hashing - which one for a PIN, which one for a PAN at rest (fresher depth)?
- Git: you need
maininto your feature branch - merge vs rebase in one sentence.
Answer out loud. The 2025 70-minute technical was mostly resume + these families.
Offer-stage discipline
If you clear the lead round:
- Read hybrid Bengaluru expectations and joining date vs exams
- Confirm base / bonus / equity on the written letter
- Do not resign until that letter lands
- Background verification expects consistent CGPA
Payments companies still run slow HR. Keep the thread.
One more mock template (70 minutes)
| Minute | Action |
|---|---|
| 0-4 | Read all four; order easy → hard |
| 4-22 | Q1 full AC |
| 22-40 | Q2 full AC |
| 40-58 | Q3 |
| 58-70 | Q4 attempt + harden Q1-Q2 edges |
Run this on a weekend, then implement LRU from a blank file the same evening.
Why “famous payments brand” fails
A better 40-second Why Visa: you want to work on network reliability - a charge that must not happen twice, an auth token that must expire, a cache that must not serve stale balances - and you have practised those failure modes. If you only know the logo on a card, you are not ready for Technical 2.
Similar companies
Mastercard · PayPal · Stripe · PhonePe · American Express