Purpose: The study examines a mediated, moderated process of students' intellectual engagement from optimism, academic self-efficacy and academic burnout. Design/methodology/approach: Five hundred and twenty-seven participants who completed a self-reported questionnaire were selected using a convenient sampling technique. PLSc was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: Results showed that optimism positively affects students' intellectual engagement and academic self-efficacy. Additionally, academic self-efficacy correlates positively with students' intellectual engagement and further mediates the relationship between optimism and intellectual engagement. Finally, the moderation effect of academic burnout was positive and non-significant. Originality/value: This paper is among the first to have tested a model including optimism, academic self-efficacy, intellectual engagement and academic burnout in a university setup from a developing country perspective.