GATE CS Syllabus 2027 Subject-wise

The GATE CS syllabus has a General Aptitude section and ten technical sections. This page lists every section with its topics, and links each one to the free lessons on this site.

General Aptitude (15 marks)

Verbal, quantitative, analytical and spatial aptitude. Study it in the General Aptitude track.

Section 1: Engineering Mathematics

• Discrete Mathematics: propositional and first-order logic; sets, relations, functions, partial orders and lattices; monoids and groups; graphs: connectivity, matching, colouring; combinatorics: counting, recurrence relations, generating functions. See Discrete Mathematics.
• Linear Algebra: matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, LU decomposition. See Matrices, Linear equations and Eigenvalues.
• Calculus: limits, continuity and differentiability, maxima and minima, mean value theorem, integration. See Calculus and Integration.
• Probability and Statistics: random variables; uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson and binomial distributions; mean, median, mode and standard deviation; conditional probability and Bayes' theorem. See Probability, Random variables and Statistics.

Section 2: Digital Logic

Boolean algebra; combinational and sequential circuits; minimization; number representations and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point). See Digital Logic.

Section 3: Computer Organization and Architecture

Machine instructions and addressing modes; ALU, data path and control unit; instruction pipelining and pipeline hazards; memory hierarchy: cache, main memory and secondary storage; I/O interface (interrupt and DMA mode). See Computer Organization.

Section 4: Programming and Data Structures

Programming in C; recursion; arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search trees, binary heaps, graphs. See C Programming and Data Structures & Algorithms.

Section 5: Algorithms

Searching, sorting, hashing; asymptotic worst-case time and space complexity; algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide-and-conquer; graph traversals, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths. See Complexity, Sorting, Greedy and Dynamic programming.

Section 6: 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. See Theory of Computation.

Section 7: Compiler Design

Lexical analysis, parsing, syntax-directed translation; runtime environments; intermediate code generation; local optimisation; data flow analyses: constant propagation, liveness analysis, common subexpression elimination. See Compiler Design.

Section 8: Operating System

System calls, processes, threads, inter-process communication, concurrency and synchronization; deadlock; CPU and I/O scheduling; memory management and virtual memory; file systems. See Operating Systems.

Section 9: Databases

ER model; relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL; integrity constraints, normal forms; file organization, indexing (for example B and B+ trees); transactions and concurrency control. See Databases.

Section 10: Computer Networks

Concept of layering: OSI and TCP/IP protocol stacks; basics of packet, circuit and virtual circuit switching; data link layer: framing, error detection, medium access control, Ethernet bridging; routing protocols: shortest path, flooding, distance vector and link state routing; fragmentation and IP addressing, IPv4, CIDR notation; basics of IP support protocols (ARP, DHCP, ICMP), network address translation (NAT); transport layer: flow control and congestion control, UDP, TCP, sockets; application layer protocols: DNS, SMTP, HTTP, FTP, email. See Computer Networks.

How to use the syllabus

• Print this list and tick each topic as you finish its lesson and its practice questions.
• Topics that cut across subjects (recursion, recurrences, counting, probability) pay off several times: learn them early.
• After the syllabus, follow a 6-month study plan or a 3-month study plan, and revise with the formula sheet.

Practice