Hyderabad-based Infosys has temporarily suspended recruitment assessments for more than 20,000 job applicants after detecting widespread cheating and impersonation during its hiring process, marking a significant disruption in one of India’s largest tech graduate recruitment drives.
The deferral applies to candidates applying for Specialist Programmer and Digital Specialist Engineer trainee roles, two key entry-level technical positions that typically attract large volumes of fresh graduates. The company has informed affected candidates that revised test dates will be communicated once a new assessment plan with enhanced verification controls is finalized.
Infosys has not disclosed specific details about the scale or nature of the malpractice detected, but the decision follows a pattern of impersonation incidents that have plagued the company’s recruitment pipeline in recent years. In a notable case last year, a Telangana-based software engineer named Rapa Sai Prashanth was terminated just 15 days into his Infosys job after it emerged that a friend had impersonated him during a virtual interview. The company pursued legal action under the Information Technology Act and sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita covering cheating and impersonation.
Despite the disruption, Infosys maintains that its overall recruitment commitment remains unchanged. Chief Financial Officer Jayesh Sanghrajka confirmed in April that the company plans to hire at least 20,000 fresh graduates in FY27, matching the intake achieved in FY26. “Last year, we had announced 20,000 for FY 2026, and we have hired more than 20,000 freshers from the market. This year also, we are expecting at least 20,000 freshers to be hired,” Sanghrajka said after announcing fourth-quarter results.
The hiring pause adds to a turbulent stretch for Infosys’s talent pipeline. Earlier in 2025, the company faced backlash after terminating more than 800 trainees at its Mysuru campus who failed internal assessments, prompting a complaint from the IT workers’ union NITES and an investigation directive from the Union Labour Ministry. Shares in Infosys slipped on Monday following the announcement of the hiring test suspension.
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