Bhagat graduated with a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1995. He stayed in IIT Delhi’s Kumaon Hostel in Room No NB 24, which is now considered lucky by hostellers as it is believed that two other published authors, besides Bhagat had stayed in the same room.

Bhagat then went on to do an MBA in Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and graduated in 1997 with an MBA degree. He was awarded as the “Best Outgoing Student” of his batch. In June 2018, IIMA awarded him the “Young Alumni Achiever’s Awards 2018” in the Art & Entertainment category.

After graduating with an MBA in 1997, Bhagat was placed through his campus at Peregrine Investments Holdings in Hong Kong. However, Bhagat lost this job within six months as the company closed its operations in 1998. His next banking job was as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs at their Hong Kong office. Despite being unhappy with his boss at the bank, he stayed on due to a lack of options. Bhagat kept this boss in his mind when he characterised the villain in his second novel One Night @ the Call Center. Bhagat spent most of his time at the Goldman Sachs office in writing, completing and revising drafts of his first novel, Five Point Someone. He worked on 15 drafts of the manuscript. He kept contacting publishers and was rejected. After two years, Rupa Publications accepted his manuscript and offered to publish it after some feedback. After the required changes were made, the novel Five Point Someone was finally published in 2004, when it was declared to be a best-seller.

Bhagat then quit Goldman Sachs and joined Deutsche Bank. By 2006, he was vice-president, Strategic Investment Group, Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong. His second novel, One Night @ the Call Center, was published in 2005 and became a best-seller. The entire print-run of 50,000 copies of the book was sold within three days, setting a record for India’s fastest-selling book. In March 2008, Bhagat shifted back to India with his wife and three-year-old twin sons after spending more than 10 years in Hong Kong. He joined as a director in Deutsche Bank’s distressed-assets team in Kodak House, Mumbai. The same year his third novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, was published and sold five lakh copies in three months.

Bhagat continued to work as an investment banker in 2008 in Deutsche Bank, Mumbai, putting in 12 hours in the office. His day job would keep him busy analyzing the financial reports of loss-making companies and bad loan portfolios of other banks that Deutsche Bank may eventually acquire. He kept a low profile in the bank despite having three best-sellers to his credit. Neither the head of corporate communications in the bank nor the HR head was aware that Bhagat worked with them in their Mumbai office.

By August 2008, Bhagat was earning as much from his writing, as he was from his bank job. He had three successful best-seller novels and two movies based on his novels were being shot. It was in 2009 that Bhagat quit his international investment banking career to devote full-time to writing.

For the 2008 film Hello, based on his novel One Night @ the Call Center, Bhagat received two film credits — ‘Additional dialogue’ and ‘Book’.

Regarding the film 3 Idiots released in 2009 (based on his novel Five Point Someone), Bhagat alleged that the makers of the film had “played” with him and had not given him adequate credit. His name came in the end credits or rolling credits of the film. He claimed that 70% of the film was based on his book, while he had been initially informed that only 2-5% of the film followed the book’s story. Bhagat later ended the debate by claiming to have moved on.

In April 2017, the University of Delhi’s decision to include Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone as part of the English Literature syllabus was criticised. In September 2017 the University announced that they had kept this decision on hold.