GATE CSE 2020 Syllabus

Official Syllabus Links

Computer Science

General Aptitude

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.

Boolean Algebra moved to Digital Logic.
Permutations; Combinations removed from Combinatorics but being basic and counting being there this does not really matter.
asymptotics removed, but basics are in asymptotic analysis part of Algorithms
spanning trees; Cut vertices & edges; covering; independent sets; Planarity; Isomorphism removed. But based on other topics this just means Planarity and isomorphism are removed (spanning trees are already in algorithms)

Linear Algebra

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

LU decomposition added here from Numerical methods which was removed as a whole otherwise.

Calculus

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

Theorems of integral calculus, evaluation of definite & improper integrals, Partial derivatives, Total derivatives removed and Integration added. So, this would mean we can expect only simple integration questions.

Probability

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

Bayes theorem newly added but it was implicitly part of conditional probability

Digital Logic

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

1. Boolean algebra added to here from set theory & algebra

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)

Memory interface part is removed. But, questions on RAM have been asked.

Programming and Data Structures

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

1. Functions, Parameter passing, Scope, Binding; Abstract data types removed. But most of these are part of runtime environments in compilers (see Draggon book Runtime Environments chapter) anyway. 
2. Graphs added here.

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.

Space and time complexity restricted to only worst case.
Connected components removed here, but they are in Graph theory anyway
Tree and graph traversals removed. But these are implied in Data Structure portion and other algorithm portions.
Basic concepts of complexity classes – P, NP, NP-hard, NP-complete removed. So, their definitions need not be studied but reduction is there in Theory of Computation anyway.

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.

pumping lemma newly added. So, questions based on pumping length or some examples can be asked.
Recursively enumerable sets removed but Turing machines are there. So, this should not really matter.

Compiler Design

• Lexical analysis, parsing, syntax-directed translation.
• Runtime environments.
• Intermediate code generation.

target code generation, Basics of code optimization removed. This is quite a good removal for students. Questions like register allocation, optimizations like code motion etc. would not be there

Operating System

• Processes, threads, inter‐process communication, concurrency and synchronization.
• Deadlock.
• CPU scheduling.
• Memory management and virtual memory.
• File systems. Disks is also under this

1. I/O systems, Protection and security removed. Rarely questions like size of graphic card required etc have been asked.

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. 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.

1. IPv6 added
2. Token Ring removed
3. Basics of Wi–Fi added
4. Basic concepts of hubs, switches, gateways, and routers removed
5. Subnetting is an important part under IP.

General Aptitude

• No change in Numerical Ability as well as Verbal Ability.