Syllabus for GATE Computer Science and Information Technology Exam

Overview

GATE or Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is a post-graduate entrance exam conducted for engineering graduate students at an All-India level. Students who are willing to pursue their higher studies in established institutions and who are planning to get placed in core sectors usually take up this exam.

Conducted once every year, GATE exam tests the understanding and comprehension skills of the students. Every year, the GATE exam takes place in the month of February and is conducted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore along with 7 other Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) that are placed across India.

This time, the GATE exam will be conducted by IIT Delhi and is about to take place in the month of February and there is a new addition to the exam list - Biomedical Engineering.

Now that IIT Delhi has announced the exam dates and released the syllabus for GATE Computer Science and Information Technology and if you are a GATE candidate, check for the updated GATE CS Exam syllabus before you start your preparation.

Here is the detailed list of topics and sub-topics for each subject that are included in GATE Computer Science and Information Technology Discipline. Ensure that the candidates get to know the following sections present in CS paper:

• General Aptitude
• Engineering Mathematics
• Digital Logic
• Computer Organization and Architecture
• Programming and Data Structures
• Algorithms
• Theory of Computation
• Compiler Design
• Operating System
• Databases
• Computer Networks

Candidates who’re preparing for GATE Computer Science and Information Technology exam can check for the latest updates during their preparation process.

GENERAL APTITUDE (Mandatory)

Verbal Ability: English Grammar, Sentence Completion, Verbal Analogies, World Groups Instructions, Critical Reasoning, and Verbal Deduction, etc.

Numerical Ability: Numerical Computation, Numerical Estimation, Numerical Reasoning and Data Interpretation, etc.

ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS (Mandatory)

Discrete Mathematics: Propositional and first-order logic. Sets, relations, functions, partial orders and lattices. Groups. Graphs: connectivity, matching, coloring. Combinatorics: counting, recurrence relations, generating functions.

Linear Algebra: Matrices, determinants, system of linear equations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, LU decomposition.

Calculus: Limits, continuity, and differentiability. Maxima and minima. Mean value theorem. Integration.

Probability: Random variables. Uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson and Binomial distributions. Mean, median, mode and standard deviation. Conditional probability and Bayes theorem.

DIGITAL LOGIC

Boolean algebra, Combinational and sequential circuits. Minimization. Number representations and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).

COMPUTER ORGANIZATION AND ARCHITECTURE

Machine instructions and addressing modes. ALU, data‐path and control unit. Instruction pipelining. Memory hierarchy: cache, main memory, and secondary storage; I/O interface (interrupt and DMA mode).

PROGRAMMING AND DATA STRUCTURES

Programming in C, Recursion. Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search trees, binary heaps, graphs.

ALGORITHMS

Searching, sorting, hashing. Asymptotic worst-case time and space complexity. Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide‐and‐conquer Graph search, minimum spanning trees, 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, syntax-directed translation. Runtime environments. Intermediate code generation.

OPERATING SYSTEM

Processes, threads, inter‐process communication, concurrency, and synchronization. Deadlock. CPU scheduling. Memory management and virtual memory. File systems.

DATABASES

ER‐model. Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL. Integrity constraints, normal forms. File organization, indexing (e.g., B and B+ trees). Transactions and concurrency control.

COMPUTER NETWORKS

Concept of layering. LAN technologies (Ethernet). Flow and error control techniques, switching. IPv4/IPv6, routers and routing algorithms (distance vector, link state). TCP/UDP and sockets, congestion control. Application layer protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP). Basics of Wi-Fi. Network security: authentication, basics of public key and private key cryptography, digital signatures and certificates, firewalls.

Covering the entire syllabus might drain off your energy. However, GATE Digest guides you through your preparation period in the smartest way possible. Register with us to help you prepare for the upcoming GATE Exam.