GATE 2021 Syllabus Including Changes

GATE 2021 syllabus is changed after 5 years. Like in 2016 there are more removals than additions. More importantly there are better clarifications regarding topics this time — some topics implicitly present have been added explicitly. This can also mean that it is very highly unlikely that non mentioned topics — dynamic pipelining for example — be asked in GATE.

You can see the old GATE syllabus (2016-2020) here

Official GATE Syllabus Links

Computer Science

General Aptitude

Discrete Mathematics

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

Monoids is an addition but it was already implied in Groups.

Linear Algebra

• Matrices, determinants
• System of linear equations
• Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
• LU decomposition

No changes since 2016

Calculus

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

No changes since 2016

Probability

• Random variables.
• Uniform, normal, exponential, poisson and binomial distributions.
• Mean, median, mode and standard deviation.
• Conditional probability and Bayes theorem.

No changes since 2016

Digital Logic

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

No change since 2016

Computer Organization and Architecture

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

Pipeline hazards newly added — but it was already there implied by pipelining.

Programming and Data Structures

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

No change since 2016

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.

.Just a rename of Graph Traversals to Graph Search

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.

No changes

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.

The optimization part is newly added. But these were already included before GATE 2016 in the form of “Basics of Code Optimization”

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. Disks is also under this

System Calls is newly added. CPU scheduling renamed to CPU and I/O scheduling

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.

No change

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.

1. Removed Topics : IPv6, Basics of Wi-Fi. Network security: authentication, basics of public key and private key cryptography, digital signatures and certificates, firewalls.
2. Renaming of POP to Email
3. Explicit mentioning of ARP, DHCP, ICMP though questions from these used to be asked before too.
4. Some renaming of other topics

General Aptitude

General Aptitude Syllabus is a lot changed. But technically not many additions are there- just explicit mentioning of topics which were earlier present in a much generalized form like “Numerical Computation”. Analytical Aptitude is newly added though questions from this topic always used to be there. Spacial Aptitude is a new addition. Overall more oriented towards GRE syllabus.

Verbal Aptitude

• Basic English grammar: tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb-noun agreement, and other parts of speech
• Basic vocabulary: words, idioms, and phrases in context
• Reading and comprehension
• Narrative sequencing

Quantitative Aptitude

• Data interpretation: data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, and other graphs representing data), 2- and 3-dimensional plots, maps, and tables
• Numerical computation and estimation: ratios, percentages, powers, exponents and logarithms, permutations and combinations, and series
• Mensuration and geometry
• Elementary statistics and probability

Analytical Aptitude

• Logic: deduction and induction
• Analogy
• Numerical relations and reasoning

Spatial Aptitude

• Transformation of shapes: translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling, and grouping
• Paper folding, cutting, and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions