IndiGo is India's largest airline, and its Cadet Pilot Programme with CAE — a partnership running since 2011 — is one of the highest-volume ab-initio routes in the world: by December 2023 around 941 cadets had been inducted as IndiGo Junior First Officers. The programme runs in two phases over roughly 18 months: Phase 1 is ab-initio flight training to a Commercial Pilot Licence (about 16 months) at NFTI/CAE Gondia in Maharashtra, and Phase 2 is the Airbus A320 type rating (about 2 months) at CAE centres in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. The total cost is in the region of INR 97 lakh, carried by the cadet.
The three selection stages
Stage 1 — the ADAPT test: a computer-based assessment by Symbiotics (CAE's IndiGo pages call it CASS/ADAPT) covering psychomotor skills, cognitive ability, problem-solving and decision-making.
Stage 2 — group activity: a group exercise observed by an IndiGo panel.
Stage 3 — personal interview: a face-to-face interview with IndiGo, leading to a Letter of Intent for successful candidates.
Interviews take place in Gurugram, and each stage is eliminatory — the ADAPT test in particular filters the largest share of applicants, so that is where structured preparation pays off most. The lessons in this course take the stages in order: what is assessed, why, and which practice games on this platform map to each one. Selection procedures evolve, so always verify the current process on IndiGo's and CAE's own careers pages before you apply.