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India
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GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)
How can I clear Gate cse exam, how to
study, what to stdy, and from where to
study and how much to stdy?
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Chinmay Anaokar, An [Counter Strike] freak n Addict
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How to go for GATE.
1: First of all check your GATE syllabus and make a rough idea about the course and how
much time it takes to cover all these things first time. See although there are many subjects
but you have done with all of them in your engineering
2: Practice more questions, reading theory again and again will not help you.
3: Don't leave any topic thinking that it is not important because if question comes from that
topic and if you don't know anything you are not able to solve very simple questions.
4:Don't read only those subjects which you find interesting,you need to work hard in all
areas
5: If you like learning from videos try NP TEL,Courser a etc. They all are good and teaches

2. you in a different way.
6: Always start preparation by collecting books and other material which you need.Don't run
for collecting everything.
List of Books & Important Topics
Programming , Data Structures and Algorithms
This is the most important subject according to GATE point of you. Approximately 25%
Questions in Gate come from above topics and all are related with each other.
Problems on Stack, Queue, Link List.Properties of Heap,deletion and insertion of items in
the heap.
Tree problems like no of leaf nodes, non leaf nodes, total nodes, height of the tree, no of
full nodes, mirror image, etc. AVL tree and balancing them on insertion and Deletion. Binary
tree, Binary Search Tree, Inorder, Preorder, Post order traversal. Spanning Trees, Minimum
Spanning Tree problems.
Finding Complexity : Very Important Topic.You need to practice more and with every
problem you solved.
Searching and Sorting Problems. Difference between Different Techniques and how to
apply them on different real life problems.
Questions on approach of dynamic programming, Divide and Conquer, Greedy and
Brute Force. Practice basic problems like quick sort, merge sort, knapsack problem, matrix
chain multiplication, Job sequencing, Compressing Mechanism. It will help you to solve
other tricky problems,Basic Theory of P-NP class
Books and Study Material :
1: Programming With C by Byron Gottfried ( Schaum's Series ) : Best book for C language.
2: Data Structures by Seymour Lipschutz ( Schaum's Series ) : Very Good book for
beginners. Does not contains large number of questions but still very good for
understanding the concept. It covers all the basics of data structures.
Introduction to Algorithm by Cormen : Contains all the topics with deep theory. each chapter
contains tricky problems and helps in solving gate problems.
3: Data Structure and algorithms made easy by Narasimha Karumanchi : Very Impressive
book. This book is specially designed for gate. It also helps you in interview. It contains
problems, there solution and equivalent C program with complexity. So you can practice this
subject completely from this book.
4: NP TEL Videos Data Structures And Algorithms : very good videos. Teaches us how to
solve tricky problems and there complexity.
NP TEL Videos C Programming
NP TEL Videos Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Operating Systems

3. Important Points :
Scheduling : Numerical Questions have more chances. Practice more in finding turn
around time and waiting time of different scheduling policies.
Deadlock : Bankers Algorithm, Given Sequence is safe or not. Chances of common data or
linked questions.
Synchronization : High Probability Of Questions in exam. Practice some question related
to semaphores and classical problems of synchronization (this will help you to solve other
questions)
Memory Management : Questions generally comes from page table size, number of
pages, logical address, physical address, page size, inverted page table, virtual memory,
TLB etc.
Books and study material :
1: Operating system concepts by Abraham Silberschatz and Peter Galvin
2 :Operating System (Pearson Publication ) by Harvey M. Deitel , Paul J. Dietel and David
R. Choffnes :
3: Pdf available on NP TEL :Operating System Video Lectures available on NP TEL : High
Performance Computing
Theory Of Computation
Important Points :
Finite Automata: covers approximately 50% questions from TOC. So give it more time
then others. Do questions related to finding minimum number of states, NFA to DFA
conversion, Closure Properties of finite automata, Finding Regular Expressions,mealy
moore machine etc.
Context free grammar: practice more on simplification of CFG, push down automata,
closure properties etc, problems on finding category of any language or grammar.Concepts
related to expressive power of different languages.
Basic problems related to NP-Completeness. Properties of Recursive and Recursive
Enumerable Languages.
Turing Machine making and expressive power of different type of Turing machine.
Books and Study Material :
1:Introduction to Automata theory. Languages and Computation by Ullman
2:Introduction to Formal Languages, Automata theory and Computation by Kamala
Krithivasan and Rama R : Written by IIT madras authors. Contains some gate problems and
solutions.
3:Introduction to Languages and theory of computation by John C Martin : This book
contains lot of problems. Try to solve them with your group. Not preferable for theory.
4:NP TEL IIT madras lecture Theory of Automata, Formal Languages and Computation :
NP TEL IIT Kanpur lecture Theory of Computation

4. NP TEL web resources Theory of Automata and Formal Languages
Compiler Design
Important Points :
Parsing : Finding first and follow, LL(1)-LR(1)-SLR,LALR,CLR.
Precedence and Associativity of operators.
Finding value from expression tree.
Ambiguous grammar.
Books and Study Material :
1:Principles of Compiler Design by Aho Ullman
2:Lecture slides from Standford : Compiler
3: Courser a course for compilers : Compiler
NP TEL Video Lecture Compiler Design
NP TEL web resources Compiler Design
Database Management System
Important Points :
1: Normalization: This is very easy once you understand and can solve questions quickly.
Questions are like Finding normal form ( comes 70% times in gate paper ), finding
candidate keys, decomposition of relation, loss less join and dependency preservation have
more probability to come.
2: SQL Queries also asked in the paper. Practice select clause properly with properties of
having,group by, any ,all, exits. Question may come with relational algebra in common data
section.Practice joins because there is more probability of tricky questions from them.
Books and Study Material :
1:Database system concepts by Silberschatz , Korth , Sudarshan :(solutions available on
net)
2: Database Management systems by Raghu RamaKrishnan :
3: Fundamentals Of Database system by Elmasri Navathe
4: NP TEL lectures Database Design
5: Courser a Lectures :Databases
Digital Logic
Important Points :

5. K-Map,Multiplexer, De-multiplexer, Encoder, Decoder questions,concept of flip flop.
Practice questions related to Floating Point representation, integer representation,range
and precision.
Books and Study Material :
1:Digital Fundamentals by Thomas L. Floyd : Best book for Digital Logic. Its a complete
package for gate. Contains very good level of theory and lots of multiple choice questions
for practice.
2: Digital Circuit and Design by Salivahanan and Arivazhagan : Good for start. Language is
very easy.
3: NP TEL Lectures from IIT Madras.:Digital Circuits and Systems : Very interesting course.
Teacher is too good. Recommended by me.
Computer Organization and Architecture
1:Addressing Modes : Theory and questions
2: Numerical related to program counter after some instruction, no of one address-two
address instructions, Values after shift and rotate instructions, horizontal and vertical
programming related questions.
3: Numerical Problems on Speed up of pipeline, time taken to complete instruction in
pipeline and non-pipeline architectures, Hazards in pipeline, hazards removal, branch
penalty etc.
4: Numerical Problems on cache memory organization, mapping technique, multilevel
caches, write through and write back technique
Books and Study Material :
1: Computer System Architecture by M. Morris Mano : (very good book for theory. Solutions
available on net so you can practice all questions easily.)
2: Structured Computer Organization by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
3: Computer Organization and architecture by William Stallings
4: NP TEL Web Resources pdf Computer Organization
NP TEL Web Resources Computer Organization
Computer Networks
Important Points :
1: Addressing related questions :Subnet address, supernet address, brodcast address,
range of network, no of host, classless addressing, non continuous addresses, first host and
last host finding etc.

6. 2: Properties Of Circuit Switching and packet switching, Routing Protocols and Numerical
Problems on them.Flow Control and Error Control Policies,Numerical Problems on Window
Size, No Of Sequence bits, frame size, bandwidth, round trip time, utilization, Hamming
Distance, CRC. Congestion Control policies like slow start, congestion avoidence and
Congestion Detection. IP Header,TCP and UDP header format, theory related to Ethernet
and token ring.
3: Basics Of Different Type of protocols like : FTP, HTTP, DHCP, ARP, RARP, SMTP,
ICMP,POP
4:Basic Concepts of Cryptography and firewalls.
Books and Study Material :
1: Computer Network by Andrew S. Tanenbaum : Best book. Very good for theory.
Language is easy and solutions available on net.
2: Introduction to Data Communication and Networking by Forouzan
3: Data and Computer Communication by William Stallings
4:NP TEL notes Computer Networks IITM
NP TEL notes Computer Networks IIT KGP
NP TEL Lectures Computer Networks Video Series
Information System and Software Engineering
1: Numerical Problem may come from COCOMO model, cyclomatic complexity etc.
2: Study Different Models and there properties along with difference between them. Data
flow Diagrams are also important.
Books and Study Material :
1: Software Engineering by Pressman
2: Software Engineering by Sommerville.
3 :NP TEL Videos Software Engineering also good.
Web Technologies
Practice HTML and XML on computer. Understand Basics.
Books and Study Material :
HTML Complete Reference Sources Available on W3Schools Online Web Tutorials
Engineering Mathematics

7. Engineering Mathematics is very important in GATE.
Important Points
1: Bayes theorem, Normal and poisson distribution, mean and variance of different
distributions.
2: Different types of graph and there properties, graph coloring, isomorphism between
graphs, Planner Graphs, Euler and Hamiltonian Graphs and some tricky problems which
need practice to solve them
3: Eigen values and eigen vectors question. Simple questions related to matrix.
Finding Values of variable with some properties of linear equations like infinite no of
solutions or unique solution.
4:Newton Rapson Method and its application. Numerical Integration by different methods.
5:Finding Maxima and Minima. Properties of limit, Continuity and differentiability. Finding
values by Mean Value Theorem. Integration.
6:Properties of relation, function. Partial and Total Ordering. Haze Diagrams, Group Theory.
Sets Related Questions.
7:Tricky Problems on Permutations and Combinations. Pigeonhole principle.Simple
problems on logic.
Books and Study Material :
1: Discrete Mathematics by K Rosen :
2: Probability by T.Veerarajan : good book. Contains large no of questions in probability
3:Introduction to Graph Theory By N Deo
4:Higher Engineering Mathematics by B S Grewal : For Linear Algebra
5:Numerical Methods by S.S. Sastry
6:Discrete Mathematics by Tremblay and Manohar
7:Discrete Maths : NP TEL lectures
8:Probability : Good Videos from IIT KGP
General Aptitude
Important Points :
1: Problems on Antonym, Synonym, Summary from paragraph, same or different pairs,
Ordering of words, sentences etc.

8. 2: Problems on time and work, distance, data interpretation number system, percentages,
clocks, coding and decoding, Venn Diagram, cubes, blood relation, Directions, Number odd
man out, Boats and pipes etc.
Books and Study Material :
1: Quantitative and verbal reasoning –By R.S. Agarwal
2: Quantitative Aptitude Test : By T. S. Jain-Upkar publication
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Related Questions


Is solving question papers from 1997 to the latest one sufficient to crack the GATE exam?

How much study one has to do to get 680 in gate in cse?

How can I clear Gate mech exam, how to study, what to study, and from where to study and
how much to study?
Arvind Devaraj, IISc , Gate Rank 7
7 upvotes by
Ayush Pratap Singh,
Pulkit Aneja,
Rupjit Chakraborty, (more)
I secured AIR-7. The best way is to start solving exercises at the end of chapter. I watched
video lectures for 1-2 hours, read for 2 hours and solved for 2-3 hours
Log In | Facebook is a community for GATE preparation and many GATE toppers share
their experiences. Here is a sample post on Preparation
Page on Kippt has the resources
1>>Good technical knowledge
2>>Good understanding of Basic Concepts
3>>Ability to apply the knowledge and concepts on variety of problems
To Develop 1 and 2 you will need to read and understand reference
books, to develop 3 you will need to solve the problems. Now question is from where to get

9. the problems or the MCQs, the answer is the problems are given at the back of every
chapter in the reference books, you will need to solve those problems,may be not all of
them. Problems reveal lot of truth and clear our misconception and false convictions. And
GATE has certain property that lot of Questions in it are based on concepts that are
revealed in certain problems in reference books. So its really really important to have a
shot at the problems.
DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
I started my preparation with discrete maths, and I would recommend you also to start with
this perticular subject because this is the subject from where Computer Science spreads
out. Understanding of this subject is very important. I used following books:
1>>"Discrete maths and its applications" By Kenneth Rosen
This is an excellent book for GATE preps. Lot of problems are given at the end of every
chapter plus answers are also given to odd numbered exercises. The explaination in this
book is really very good and "easy to understand". This book is must read for GATE preps.
2>>book by Tremblay and Manohar
I recommend you to read this book after you have read Rosen’s book. The contents in this
book is hard to comprehend. You need to have your basics cleared before you attempt this
book. This book is also a "must read". I also have the lecture notes on discrete maths from
some prof at McGuire university the advanced counting and recurrence relation part is
good.
ALGORITHMS
I recommend to you to read this subject along with Discrete maths or after you have
completed discrete maths. I used only one book for this
subject and found that to be more than enough for GATE.
1>>"Introduction to Algorithms" By T.H.Cormen et al.
This is "THE" book for Algorithms. The Book is simply brilliant, it makes you understand
every details of Algorithms. So this book is a must read. Although I did not read the entire
thing. Here is the list of chapters that I had read. If you are interested of course you can
read the entire book.
Chapter 1,2,3,4[excluding 4.4],6,7[excluding 7.3],8,10,11[excluding 11.5],12[excluding
12.4],18,22,23,24[excluding 24.4 and 24.5] for NP-Completeness you can read 34 also. In
addition to this book I strongly recommend you to see the video lectures from MIT. The
lectures are given by
Lieserson[who BTW is also one of the authors of CLRS] and Erik demaine. The
lectures are absolutely brilliant. You may download them from Free Online Course Materials
DATASTRUCTURES
I did not read this subject exclusively. I mostly participated in discussions in Algorithms and
datastructures communities on orkut . That is i think more than enough.
• THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE
I initially tried to decipher Ullman’s book but I found the content too much for my brain to
comprehend. So I switched to "Introduction toComputer Theory" By Daniel Cohen. The
contents in this book are lucid. Also solving or atleast attempting the problems in

10. the exercises is a must. But its really great if you could read Ullman.
• DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
I used Korth and Navathe for this. Initially I read korth because it is lucid and then only for
normalization i read Navathe. The database design part in korth is difficult so read this part
with utmost concentration and you may require several readings before you begin to
understand things.
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Read this from following books:
1>>Operating System Concepts By Galvin et al.
2>>Stallings
Attempt problems in Stallings they are very important especially problems on memory
management and virtual memory. In Galvin the theory on memory management is
excellent.
• Digital Design
Read "Digital Design" By morris mano [period].•
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
Read this from following books
1>>"Computer Architecture" By Morris mano
2>>"Computer Organization" By Zacky,hamacher
3>>"Computer Organization Hardware/Software Interface" By
Hennessey and Patterson
Read book 1 almost completely then read memory system from book 2 then
you can read
book 3, I had read only the performance measurement chapter from book
3 as it is not given in any other book and also solve numericals fromexercises they are
very very important. I recommend you to read this
subject after "Digital Design".
• COMPUTER NETWORKS
I had read this subject only from forouzan and had read some chapters from Comer’s book.
Attempt the exercises from forouzan they are
important.
• C programming
You read this from "the C programming language" by kernighan and Ritchie that is more
than enough plus spend some time in actually
programming in C that is the best way you can learn C.
• C++
I dont know C++ much and I did not read anything for C++. Dont be spoiled, you can read
C++ complete reference if
you wish to.
Compiler Design
"People" say Ullman’s book is excellent so you can read it from Ullman if you believe

11. "People". In the final phase of your preps "try" to solve GATE papers. The answers for the
GATE papers are not present anywhere but still you should attempt them anyway. This will
give youconfidence that you can actually solve GATE. You can read all the subjects given
here you can skip one or two if you dont have much time But more important thing is to
"MASTER"atleast 2 or 3 subjects. Also actively participate in discussions at GATE CS or
GATE CS/IT 2009 and Algorithms and Datastructures community in orkut - that helps alot
in patching few loopholes in our concepts
and enhancing your problem solving skills. Thats it guys,this much is I think enough to crack
GATE. You can ofcourse
Device your own methodsand set of books. Just be confident you can do it! These are few
URLs
Which I think "might" be helpful
1>>Opencourseware at MIT>>>>OCW