GATE CS Syllabus and Marks Distribution

There is no optional subject block in this paper. The syllabus defines what can be tested; it does not offer a choice to replace one subject with another. Leaving a question unanswered earns zero, but it does not reduce the set of topics that may appear.

Computer Science and Information Technology Unit-wise Syllabus

Engineering Mathematics

• Discrete Mathematics: Propositional and first order logic. Sets, relations, functions, partial orders and lattices. Monoids, Groups. Graphs: connectivity, matching, colouring. 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 and Statistics: Random variables, Uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson and binomial distributions. Mean, median, mode and standard deviation. Conditional probability and Bayes theorem.

Digital Logic

• Boolean algebra and minimization – algebraic technique, Karnaugh map, 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 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.

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 traversals, 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. Local optimisation, Data flow analyses: constant propagation, liveness analysis, common sub expression elimination.

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.

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

• Principles of Layering; Basics of switching (circuit, packet and 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 and congestion control, socket API; DNS and HTTP.

General Aptitude Syllabus

General Aptitude contributes 15 marks within the 100-mark paper. It is not an additional paper that can be left out when choosing the technical sections.

Chapter-wise Weightage and Important Topics

The marks split above is fixed at section level. IIT Madras has not assigned a guaranteed number of marks to each chapter of Computer Science and Information Technology. A topic may appear in one year and receive fewer questions in another; a past-paper count is not an official 2027 weightage.

For a chapter-weightage comparison, record the year, paper code, session, question number and marks of each matching question. Keep a combined question under one main topic or label the overlap explicitly; counting it twice inflates the total. GATE previous-year question papers can be used for this topic-by-topic practice.

Question Types and Negative Marking

The paper uses one-mark and two-mark questions. The number of MCQ, MSQ and NAT questions is not a fixed chapter-wise quota. In an MSQ, selecting one correct option is not enough when the correct answer contains two options.

Using the 2027 Syllabus for Preparation

Use data structures before algorithm analysis, and finite automata before compiler parsing. For scheduling or cache questions, write the state after each event; skipping intermediate states often hides the actual mistake.

Match each exercise to the current unit list. A previous-year paper may use an older scope or section code. When a current topic has no matching older question, practise that concept separately rather than deleting it from the plan. The GATE preparation plan covers full-paper practice and revision alongside topic study.

Paper Detailssections and marks Preparetopics and practice

1. Unit and Topic Reference
2. Sections and Marks

1. Mathematics and General Aptitude
2. Practice and Marking Reference