GATE CS: most asked topics and weightage

Most asked topics in official papers

1. 1.Discrete Mathematics56 questions · 85 marks
2. 2.Quantitative Aptitude48 questions · 73 marks
3. 3.Analytical Aptitude29 questions · 45 marks
4. 4.Programming in C28 questions · 42 marks
5. 5.Graph traversals, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths27 questions · 49 marks
6. 6.Probability and Statistics25 questions · 41 marks
7. 7.Verbal Aptitude25 questions · 34 marks
8. 8.Memory interfacing and hierarchy: performance, cache memory mapping23 questions · 39 marks
9. 9.Linear Algebra23 questions · 34 marks
10. 10.Trees, binary search trees, binary heaps23 questions · 33 marks
11. 11.IPv4: fragmentation, CIDR notation, network address translation21 questions · 33 marks
12. 12.Number representation and arithmetic (fixed and floating point)21 questions · 28 marks
13. 13.Parsing20 questions · 30 marks
14. 14.Regular expressions and finite automata20 questions · 32 marks
15. 15.Memory management and virtual memory19 questions · 34 marks

Subjects ranked by share of marks

Share of the exam's marks that the pattern gives to each subject, and the topics it covers in the official syllabus.

1. 1.General Aptitude

   15% of marks

   Verbal Aptitude · Quantitative Aptitude · Analytical Aptitude · Spatial Aptitude

2. 2.Engineering Mathematics

   15% of marks

   Discrete Mathematics · Linear Algebra · Calculus · Probability and Statistics

3. 3.Programming and Data Structures

   47/5% of marks

   Programming in C · Recursion · Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists · Trees, binary search trees, binary heaps · Graphs

4. 4.Operating System

   8.70% of marks

   System calls, processes, threads, inter-process communication · Concurrency and synchronization · Deadlock · CPU and I/O scheduling · Memory management and virtual memory · File systems

5. 5.Algorithms

   8.30% of marks

   Searching, sorting, hashing · Asymptotic worst case time and space complexity · Design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer · Graph traversals, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths

6. 6.Computer Networks

   39/5% of marks

   Principles of layering · Switching (circuit, packet, virtual circuit) and performance metrics · Data link layer: error detection, medium access control, Ethernet · Distance vector and link state routing · IPv4: fragmentation, CIDR notation, network address translation · TCP: flow control, congestion control; socket API · DNS and HTTP

7. 7.Computer Organization and Architecture

   38/5% of marks

   Instruction set and addressing modes · Design of arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) · Design of control unit: hardwired and microprogrammed · Memory interfacing and hierarchy: performance, cache memory mapping · I/O interface (interrupt and DMA) · Instruction pipelining, pipeline hazards

8. 8.Theory of Computation

   38/5% of marks

   Regular expressions and finite automata · Context-free grammars and push-down automata · Regular and context-free languages, pumping lemma · Turing machines and undecidability

9. 9.Databases

   37/5% of marks

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

10. 10.Digital Logic

    7% of marks

    Boolean algebra and minimization (algebraic, Karnaugh map, tabular method) · Design of combinational circuits · Design of sequential circuits · Number representation and arithmetic (fixed and floating point)

11. 11.Compiler Design

    26/4% of marks

    Lexical analysis · Parsing · Syntax-directed translation · Runtime environments · Intermediate code generation · Local optimisation; data flow analyses: constant propagation, liveness analysis, common subexpression elimination

Section-wise questions and marks