IndiGo Pilot Interview Prep: Cadet Selection, Interview, Sim (2026 Guide)

LAST UPDATED: 14 OCTOBER 2026

IndiGo has two kinds of door, and two kinds of selection. Its Cadet Pilot Programme takes candidates from zero hours through a partner academy (its careers page names six) to a DGCA CPL and an A320 type rating, and the academies publish the selection: aptitude, English and personality tests, then a group discussion and a personal interview conducted by IndiGo, each stage eliminatory, with at most two attempts at each stage by IndiGo’s own rule. For pilots who already hold a licence, IndiGo lists criteria by fleet and rank but publishes no full set of selection stages; preparation guides describe psychometric and technical tests, an interview, a simulator assessment and a medical. This guide sets out both, and how to prepare for each step.

Note on the age limit: IndiGo’s How to become a Pilot page gives the cadet programme an age range of 18 to 32 and asks for 10+2 with physics and mathematics, but its partner academies publish limits of their own, some wider: Skyborne’s is 18 to 40 on the first day of selection. Check the academy you apply through before you rule yourself in or out.

At the last check, on 14 October 2026, IndiGo’s Flight Operations careers page listed cadet, type-rated, non-type-rated and expatriate pilot tracks, and its partner academies’ IndiGo programme pages were live; Skyborne reported a new IndiGo cadet class starting training in February 2026. We read these pages in search results rather than on the portal itself, and found no dated 2026 vacancy notice on IndiGo’s page. Check the airline pilot jobs board for the current position.

About IndiGo

IndiGo’s fleet, as listed when we last read it on 21 September 2026, is built on the A320neo and A321neo, with the A321XLR, ATR 72-600 turboprops, leased 787-9s and A350s on order. Its bases include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, among others. Most of the fleet is the A320 family, so the A320 is where an IndiGo candidate’s technical preparation starts; IndiGo publishes its criteria by fleet, Airbus and ATR, so know which fleet a vacancy is for.

IndiGo names six partner academies for its cadet programme on its careers page: Skyborne Airline Academy, Flight Training Adelaide, Insight Aviation, Chimes Aviation Academy, Garuda Aviation and Marigold. You apply to the programme through one of them, and the academy runs the first stage of the selection. The academies set their own fees, course lengths and some eligibility details, so read the one you choose closely; we give no fee here because each academy publishes its own.

Which door fits you

Three points decide most applications. The A320 endorsement: IndiGo’s criteria for line-released First Officers, as we read them in search results, ask for a DGCA CPL “with A320 endorsement”, while its Junior First Officer round of September 2024 took CPL holders without one, and its non-type-rated Senior First Officer posting asked for an ATPL and 1,500 h instead; so ask IndiGo, before you pay for a type rating, which applies to the vacancy you want. Line release: the experienced First Officer figure counts hours flown after line release on the A320 family, not total time, so count your logbook that way. The Indian licence: every route ends in a DGCA licence, and the cadet programme is for Indian citizens and Overseas Citizens of India.

IndiGo’s postings also ask for a DGCA Class 1 medical, a current COP/RTR and FRTO, a passport and, in several of them, English at ICAO Level 4 at least. For cadets, Skyborne asks for at least a DGCA Class 2 to attend its first stage, so start the medical early.

What sets IndiGo apart for a pilot

• The airline’s own panel in the cadet selection. The partner academy runs the tests; IndiGo conducts the group discussion and the personal interview.
• Two attempts per stage. IndiGo allows at most two attempts at each stage of the cadet selection, and each stage decides whether you reach the next.
• Six academies, six sets of terms. The selection stages rhyme, but fees, ages and course lengths are each academy’s own.
• An A320 airline with turboprops. Most seats are on the A320 family, and the ATR 72-600 fleet has criteria of its own.
• Hours counted after line release. The experienced First Officer figure is time after line release, not total time.
• An Indian licence. Every route ends in a DGCA licence.

The selection stages

The cadet selection

Skyborne, one of IndiGo’s six partner academies, publishes its IndiGo selection in three stages, all eliminatory, and IndiGo’s own page adds that each stage allows at most two attempts. Other academies describe the same three steps with different names and venues, so check the academy you apply through. The second column is preparation advice, not a description of the format.

Two things follow from the order. The tests come before you meet anyone from IndiGo, so they decide who reaches the airline’s panel. And with two attempts at each stage, a first attempt taken unprepared costs half your chances there, so sit it when you are ready, not as a trial run.

The aptitude tests (ADAPT)

Skyborne describes its first stage as a variety of aptitude tests, an English language test and a personality questionnaire on the Symbiotics platform, and in June 2024 it announced that it would use Symbiotics’ online ADAPT aptitude suite to pre-screen IndiGo applicants (afm.aero, 27 June 2024). Preparation guides call the first stage ADAPT, after that suite, but not every academy has used it: Flight Training Adelaide’s IndiGo FAQ of October 2022 described an online, webcam-proctored first stage of written tests in English, physics and mathematics, followed by a computerised pilot aptitude test (cut-e). The academies do not publish the individual tasks. Practise the skills rather than one product: mental arithmetic without a calculator, 10+2 physics and mathematics, spatial and reasoning tasks against the clock, in short sessions over a few weeks (the Library covers pilot aptitude tests). A personality questionnaire has no right answers to learn, so answer it quickly and honestly.

The selection for licensed pilots

IndiGo publishes no full set of stages for Junior First Officers, First Officers or Captains; its Junior First Officer round of September 2024, run with CAE, opened with a written test on 22 September (afm.aero, 3 September 2024). Preparation guides in 2026 describe an online application, psychometric and technical tests, an interview, a simulator assessment and a medical and background checks; one preparation site places the aptitude tests and the simulator on an assessment day in Delhi or Mumbai, before a panel interview, and a 2026 preparation course for the Junior First Officer selection covers an ADAPT psychometric assessment, a group discussion and a personal interview (afm.aero, 15 March 2026). Treat that as the usual shape, not IndiGo’s word, and prepare for each part below.

The simulator assessment

The simulator assessment appears in the guides’ description of the selection for licensed pilots, not in the three cadet stages Skyborne publishes: a cadet’s simulator comes in training. IndiGo publishes no profile, device or crewing. A 2026 preparation site describes it as testing hand-flying, instrument skills and multi-crew coordination. Prepare for the shape most airline simulator assessments share: a briefing on the numbers to fly, then upper air work, a hold, an ILS to minimums with a missed approach and sometimes an engine failure, flown as one of a two-pilot crew (the Library’s guide to the airline simulator assessment walks through each part).

What to practise

• The briefing. The pitch attitudes and thrust settings given there are the numbers to fly, so write them down, and ask about anything unclear before you start.
• Raw data. Practise level-offs, steep turns and hand-flown ILS approaches without the flight director, with the scan centred on the attitude indicator (see instrument scan technique).
• A sidestick. In normal law the A320 trims itself, and in turns up to 33° of bank it needs no pitch correction once the turn is established. If you have flown only light aircraft with a control column, make small inputs and fly the numbers.
• Both roles. Where the assessment is flown as a crew, the pilot monitoring is assessed too: standard callouts, checklists and calling deviations (see crew coordination, briefings and callouts).
• The engine failure after V1. Directional control with rudder, rotation at VR and not before, positive climb and gear up, then identification and confirmation with the other pilot before anything is shut down (see engine failure and engine fire).

For a fresh CPL holder, the session is largely a test of trainability: how quickly an unfamiliar aircraft’s numbers are applied. Errors are expected; what counts is whether they are noticed, said aloud and corrected.

The group discussion and the interview

The group discussion

A group discussion puts several candidates around a topic or a problem against the clock, while assessors watch how each one contributes, listens and helps the group reach a conclusion, not who is loudest. Dominating the discussion and staying silent both leave them without evidence. Make sure everyone understands the task, make your point once with a reason, build on other people’s ideas, bring a quieter member in, keep an eye on the time, and support the conclusion once it is reached.

The personal interview

IndiGo publishes nothing on the interview’s format. Expect questions about you and your motivation, and, for licensed pilots, competency questions that ask for a real past event: a mistake you made, a disagreement, a time you saw something unsafe, a decision on incomplete information. Answer with the STAR structure (situation, task, action, result), keep each story short and true, and show ownership rather than blame. A cadet with no flying yet can draw on school, sport, work or a team project; what matters is that the story is real and that you can say what you learned. The Library sets out the method in competency-based pilot interviews.

Questions particular to IndiGo

• Why IndiGo, and why now? Three specific reasons that are true for both sides. Not led by pay.
• Why this academy? For cadets: what you know of its course, where it trains and how long it takes, and your plan for the cost and for the time away.
• Duty and fatigue. India’s revised flight duty time limitations took full effect in November 2025, and IndiGo cancelled large numbers of flights the next month; the DGCA said on 11 February 2026 that the temporary exemptions it had granted IndiGo had ended (All India Radio News). Know the basics of fatigue and duty limits, and talk about them as a crew member, not a commentator (the Library covers fatigue).
• Which fleet? The A320 family and the ATR 72 are different aircraft with different flying. Know which one your vacancy is for, and why it suits you.
• Your English. ICAO Level 4 is the minimum on your licence, but every answer shows how well you communicate.

Technical questions

What a technical question asks depends on the door. A cadet’s tests, as the academies describe them, are aptitude, English and personality, and Flight Training Adelaide’s FAQ of October 2022 added written tests in physics and mathematics; nobody expects aircraft systems. A Junior First Officer with a fresh CPL should make DGCA CPL theory, asked as open questions, the core of the preparation, with the A320 if the vacancy asks for the rating. An experienced First Officer should expect the type in depth. If you do not know an answer, say so, then explain what you do know and where you would find the rest: panels generally score honesty first, then reasoning, then raw knowledge.

A320 family questions to practise

1. Normal, alternate and direct law: what takes you from one to the next, and which protections do you lose? (see A320 flight control laws and protections)
2. The green, blue and yellow hydraulic systems: what powers each, and what does the power transfer unit do? (see the A320 hydraulic system)
3. How does ECAM present a failure, and in what order do you deal with it? (see the A320 ECAM and warning system)
4. The A320neo, the A321neo and the A321XLR share one type rating with the ceo: what changes for the crew? (see the A320ceo to neo course and its module on the A321neo and XLR)

Weather and operations in India

1. Monsoon thunderstorms: how far do you stay from a cell, and what does the weather radar not show you? (see thunderstorms)
2. Windshear and microbursts: the signs, and the escape manoeuvre (see windshear and microbursts)
3. Winter fog in northern India: how radiation fog forms, and what low-visibility operations ask of the crew (see fog and low visibility operations)

Theory worth refreshing

1. V1, VR and V2, and what V1 commits you to (see takeoff speeds)
2. The go-around: thrust, attitude, flap and gear, and who may call it (see go-around and missed approach)
3. Decode a METAR and TAF (drill it with our ATPL meteorology questions)
4. The principles of flight behind lift, drag and the stall (drill them with our ATPL principles of flight questions)

What v1prep has for IndiGo’s fleet

Where IndiGo candidates go wrong

1. Spending an attempt on a trial run. Each cadet stage allows at most two attempts; arrive prepared the first time.
2. Checking the wrong age limit. IndiGo’s page and the academies give different limits; read the one that applies to you.
3. Paying for a type rating on a guess. Ask IndiGo whether the vacancy needs the A320 rating before you buy one.
4. Counting total hours where line-release hours are asked. The experienced First Officer figure is time after line release.
5. Dominating, or disappearing, in the group discussion. Assessors watch how you contribute, listen and help the group conclude; both extremes fail that test.
6. Memorised answers. A panel follows up, and a rehearsed story that is not your own does not survive it.
7. Paperwork left late. The medical, your RTR(A) and FRTOL, your passport and your logbook; documents that do not match what you declared can end an application at the last stage.

From application to a course date

IndiGo publishes no timings for its selection. What is known:

Plan for a range, not a date. The waiting period before a second attempt at a cadet stage is given differently by different sources, so ask the academy, and keep your medical valid and your theory sharp while you wait.

IndiGo pilot selection: common questions

The hours, licence, medical and nationality rules are on our IndiGo pilot requirements page; the questions below are about the selection itself.

What is the IndiGo cadet pilot selection process?

Three eliminatory stages, as IndiGo’s partner academy Skyborne publishes them: aptitude, English and personality tests on the Symbiotics platform; a group discussion conducted by IndiGo; and a personal interview conducted by IndiGo. Candidates who clear all three receive a Letter of Intent from IndiGo. Other partner academies describe the same steps with different names and venues.

How many attempts do I get at each stage?

Two at most. IndiGo’s own page says a candidate can have a maximum of two attempts per stage, because eligibility for the next stage depends on the previous one. The waiting period before a second attempt is given differently by different sources, so ask your academy.

What is the IndiGo ADAPT test?

The name preparation guides give the first stage of the cadet selection, after Symbiotics’ ADAPT online test suite, which Skyborne said in June 2024 it would use to pre-screen IndiGo cadet applicants: psychometric and aptitude tests with a personality questionnaire. The academies do not publish the individual tasks, so practise mental arithmetic, 10+2 physics and mathematics, and spatial and reasoning tasks against the clock, and answer the questionnaire quickly and honestly.

Is there a simulator assessment at IndiGo?

Not in the three cadet stages Skyborne publishes: a cadet’s simulator comes in training. For licensed pilots, IndiGo publishes no full set of stages, but preparation guides in 2026 list a simulator assessment alongside the tests and the interview. Prepare raw-data flying, briefings and callouts in both roles, and the engine failure after V1.

How do I prepare for the IndiGo group discussion and interview?

In the group discussion, assessors watch how you contribute, listen and help the group reach a conclusion against the clock, so make your point once with a reason, build on others and bring a quieter member in. For the interview, prepare your reasons for flying and for IndiGo, your plan for the training, and short, true stories in the STAR structure.