GATE CS syllabus

Negative marking in GATE applies to one question type only. A wrong MCQ costs a third of its value, so 1/3 on a one mark question and 2/3 on a two mark question. Multiple Select questions and Numerical Answer Type questions carry no penalty at all. Leaving an MSQ or a NAT blank is simply marks given away, and a great many candidates do it because they are guarding against a penalty that does not exist there.

The second thing to know is that the GATE 2027 syllabus has been revised, the first revision in five years. In the current CS document the Computer Networks section does not list UDP, ARP, DHCP, ICMP, SMTP or FTP, and does not name the OSI or TCP/IP stacks. Anyone revising networks from older material is spending time on topics the current syllabus does not mention.

The ten official sections are below, with the General Aptitude paper that sits alongside them. Browse the available GATE CS practice papers.

Syllabus by section

GATE publishes marks at three levels only: General Aptitude 15, Engineering Mathematics 13 and the rest of the subject 72. It publishes no weighting for the nine technical areas within that 72.

GATE CS at a glance

Exam pattern

Paper CS, one three hour sitting

Three question types are used. MCQ has one correct response among four. MSQ has two or more correct responses among five or more options. NAT requires a number typed in rather than an option chosen.

MSQ carries no partial marking either, so a partially correct selection scores zero rather than a fraction. The absence of a penalty makes an attempt free, and the absence of partial credit makes a half guess worthless.

GATE does not publish the paper wide split between one mark and two mark questions. It publishes that split for General Aptitude alone, at five and five.

How the pattern has changed

The pattern itself has held. Sixty five questions, 100 marks, three hours, the same three question types and the same marking rules across recent cycles. The changes have been to the papers offered and to the syllabus content.

• Data Science and Artificial Intelligence was introduced as a separate paper, and two paper combinations were introduced with it

• GATE 2026 added Energy Science as a sectional paper inside Engineering Sciences

• GATE 2027 adds Robotics and Automation as a full paper, converts Textile Engineering and Fibre Science into a sectional paper, and revises the syllabi across test papers for the first time in five years

• The CS two paper combination list for GATE 2027 allows pairing with DA, EC, GE, MA, ME, PH, RA and ST

The CS section structure survived the revision intact. The same ten sections appear in the same order, and the revision shows up inside them rather than in the list.

How the GATE score is calculated

Raw marks are converted to a GATE score on a formula with two fixed anchors. The qualifying mark for the general category is set at the mean plus one standard deviation, bounded to between 25 and 40, and that mark maps to a score of 350. The mean of the top one tenth of one per cent of candidates, or the top ten candidates if that is larger, maps to a score of 900.

Where a paper runs across more than one session, marks are normalised before the score is calculated, so that candidates are not penalised for sitting a harder session.

The score card is valid for three years from the announcement of results, and only candidates at or above their category qualifying mark receive one.

What the GATE CS score is used for

• Admission to master’s and direct doctoral programmes at institutions supported by the Ministry of Education, where GATE performance generally carries at least 70 per cent of the admission weight at centrally funded institutes

• Financial assistance during postgraduate study

• Recruitment by public sector undertakings, including IOCL, NTPC, ONGC, POWERGRID, BHEL, HAL, NPCIL, SAIL and others

• Direct recruitment to Group A posts in the central government

• Entry to the Indian Air Force Ground Duty (Technical) branch, where a GATE score in Computer Science and Information Technology qualifies for the Aeronautical Engineer (Electronics) role and the AFCAT written exam is waived

Qualifying does not by itself guarantee admission, a scholarship or a job.

Engineering Mathematics

• Discrete Mathematics: propositional and first order logic, sets, relations, functions, partial orders and lattices, monoids, groups, graph connectivity, matching and colouring, counting, recurrence relations and generating functions

• Linear Algebra: matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, LU decomposition

• Calculus: limits, continuity and differentiability, maxima and minima, mean value theorem, integration

• Probability and Statistics: random variables, uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson and binomial distributions, mean, median, mode and standard deviation, conditional probability and Bayes theorem

Thirteen of the 100 marks are reserved for this section, which is more than most individual technical sections are likely to carry. The full Engineering Mathematics breakdown covers all four areas.

The nine technical sections

Digital Logic

• Boolean algebra and minimisation, by algebraic technique, Karnaugh map and tabular method

• Design of combinational and sequential circuits

• Number representation and arithmetic, fixed and floating point

Computer Organization and Architecture

• Instruction set and addressing modes

• Design of the arithmetic and logic unit

• Design of the control unit, hardwired and microprogrammed

• Memory interfacing and hierarchy: performance and cache memory mapping

• Input and output interface, by interrupt and by DMA

• Instruction pipelining and pipeline hazards

Programming and Data Structures

• Programming in C, with recursion

• Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search trees, binary heaps and graphs

The syllabus names C and no other language. Candidates who prepare in C++, Java or Python are preparing in a language the paper does not ask about.

Algorithms

• Searching, sorting and hashing

• Asymptotic worst case time and space complexity

• Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide and conquer

• Graph traversals, minimum spanning trees and shortest paths

Theory of Computation

• Regular expressions and finite automata

• Context free grammars and push down automata

• Regular and context free languages

• Pumping lemma

• Turing machines and undecidability

Compiler Design

• Lexical analysis, parsing and syntax directed translation

• Runtime environments

• Intermediate code generation

• Local optimisation

• Data flow analyses: constant propagation, liveness analysis and common sub expression elimination

Operating System

• System calls, processes, threads, inter process communication, concurrency and synchronisation

• Deadlock

• CPU and input output scheduling

• Memory management and virtual memory

• File systems

Databases

• ER model

• Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus and SQL

• Integrity constraints and normal forms

• File organisation and indexing, including B and B+ trees

• Transactions and concurrency control

Computer Networks

• Principles of layering

• Basics of switching, being circuit, packet and virtual circuit, with performance metrics

• Data link layer: error detection, medium access control and Ethernet

• Distance vector and link state routing

• IPv4: fragmentation, CIDR notation and network address translation

• TCP: flow control and congestion control

• Socket API

• DNS and HTTP

This is the area the revision touched hardest, and the one where older notes will send you wrong.

General Aptitude

• Verbal Aptitude: basic English grammar covering tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb noun agreement and other parts of speech, basic vocabulary including words, idioms and phrases in context, reading and comprehension, narrative sequencing

• Quantitative Aptitude: data interpretation from bar graphs, pie charts and other data graphs, two and three dimensional plots, maps and tables, numerical computation and estimation covering ratios, percentages, powers, exponents and logarithms, permutations and combinations and series, mensuration and geometry, elementary statistics and probability

• Analytical Aptitude: logic covering deduction and induction, analogy, numerical relations and reasoning

• Spatial Aptitude: transformation of shapes by translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling and grouping, paper folding, cutting and patterns in two and three dimensions

Fifteen marks for ten questions makes this the best marks per minute in the paper. The full General Aptitude breakdown covers all four areas.

What is not in the syllabus

• No published weighting for any individual technical section. GATE publishes only the 15, 13 and 72 split

• No negative marking on MSQ or NAT questions

• No partial marking anywhere

• No programming language other than C named in Programming and Data Structures

• No age limit and no cap on attempts

• No paper in any language other than English

How to spend the time

Attempt every MSQ and every NAT. There is no penalty on either, so a blank is strictly worse than a guess, and this single habit is worth several marks across a paper.

Be selective on two mark MCQs. A wrong one costs two thirds of a mark, so the break even point sits at roughly one correct answer for every three wrong. Narrowing four options to two makes the attempt worth taking and a blind guess does not.

General Aptitude pays 15 marks for ten questions and sits at a level well below the technical sections. Candidates who leave it until the last twenty minutes are rationing their cheapest marks.

Because no section weighting is published, the honest way to decide where your hours go is to count the distribution yourself across official past papers and treat the result as observed rather than official. Browse the available GATE CS practice papers.

Common mistakes

• Leaving MSQ and NAT questions blank out of a fear of negative marking that does not apply to them

• Expecting partial credit on an MSQ, where a partially correct selection scores zero

• Revising Computer Networks from older material that covers topics the current syllabus does not name

• Treating a coaching weightage table as official, when GATE publishes none below the 15, 13 and 72 split

• Leaving General Aptitude to the end of the three hours

• Guessing blind on two mark MCQs at two thirds of a mark each

• Preparing a language other than C for Programming and Data Structures

GATE CS against GATE DA

Data Science and Artificial Intelligence is the paper most often weighed against CS, and the two are a permitted combination for candidates who want to sit both.

Six of the ten CS sections have no counterpart in DA at all. The overlap sits in probability and statistics, linear algebra, calculus, data structures and algorithms, plus databases, and even there the languages and the depth differ.

Frequently asked questions

Is there negative marking in GATE CS?

On MCQ questions only. A wrong one mark MCQ costs one third of a mark and a wrong two mark MCQ costs two thirds. MSQ and NAT questions carry no penalty.

Is there partial marking on MSQ questions?

No. A partially correct selection scores zero.

How many questions are in the GATE CS paper?

Sixty five, carrying 100 marks, in three hours. Ten of those are General Aptitude.

How many marks does General Aptitude carry?

Fifteen, from five one mark questions and five two mark questions.

Is Engineering Mathematics still part of GATE CS?

Yes, at 13 marks, carved out separately from the remaining 72 subject marks.

Does GATE publish section wise weightage?

No. It publishes General Aptitude at 15, Engineering Mathematics at 13 and the rest of the subject at 72, and nothing below that. Weightage tables found elsewhere are estimates from past papers.

Has the GATE CS syllabus changed?

The GATE 2027 syllabi were revised, the first revision in five years. The ten CS sections and their order are unchanged, and the revision shows up in the topics listed inside them.

How long is a GATE score valid?

Three years from the announcement of results.

Is there an age limit for GATE?

No. There is no age limit and no limit on the number of attempts.

Can I sit two GATE papers?

Yes, from the official combination list, selected on a single application form and at twice the single paper fee. For GATE 2027, CS may be paired with DA, EC, GE, MA, ME, PH, RA or ST.

Which programming language does GATE CS test?

C. The syllabus names no other language.

Can a GATE CS score be used outside postgraduate admission?

Yes. It is used for recruitment by public sector undertakings, for direct Group A central government posts and for the Indian Air Force Ground Duty (Technical) entry, where it waives the AFCAT written exam.