The GATE Data Science & AI master guide.
Every topic in the official DA syllabus, taught from first principles: definitions, intuition, formulas, derivations, worked examples, the traps GATE likes to set, and GATE-style MCQ, MSQ and NAT questions with full solutions at the end of every page. Finish with the question bank and timed mock tests that use the real marking scheme.
The paper at a glance
Full exam guide →| Part | Questions | Marks | Question types |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Aptitude | 10 (5 × 1 mark, 5 × 2 marks) | 15 | MCQ (negative marking: −⅓ for 1-mark, −⅔ for 2-mark), MSQ and NAT (no negative marking, no partial credit) |
| Data Science & AI (Sections 1–7) | 55 (25 × 1 mark, 30 × 2 marks) | 85 | |
| Total | 65 in 3 hours | 100 | Computer-based test with an on-screen virtual calculator |
Syllabus sections
64 topic pages · 628 questions (214 MCQ, 70 MSQ, 344 NAT)Probability and Statistics
Counting, axioms of probability, conditional probability and Bayes' theorem, descriptive statistics, random variables and their distributions, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals and hypothesis tests (z, t, chi-squared).
Linear Algebra
Vector spaces and subspaces, linear independence, bases and dimension, special matrices (projection, orthogonal, idempotent, partitioned), systems of linear equations and Gaussian elimination, rank and nullity, determinants, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, projections and quadratic forms, and the LU and singular value decompositions.
Calculus and Optimization
Functions of a single variable, limits and continuity, differentiability and the mean value theorems, Taylor series, maxima and minima, single-variable optimisation (including gradient descent and Newton's method), and the integration you need for probability.
Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms
Programming in Python, asymptotic analysis, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, heaps, hash tables, linear and binary search, selection, bubble and insertion sort, merge sort and quicksort, graph theory basics, and graph traversals and shortest paths.
Database Management and Warehousing
The ER model, the relational model with relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, SQL, integrity constraints, functional dependencies and normal forms, file organisation and indexing (B+ trees and hashing), data types and data transformation (normalisation, discretisation, sampling, compression), and data warehouse modelling — star and snowflake schemas, data cubes, concept hierarchies, OLAP operations and measures.
Machine Learning
Supervised learning — regression and classification, simple and multiple linear regression, ridge regression, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbours, naive Bayes, linear discriminant analysis, support vector machines, decision trees, the bias–variance trade-off, cross-validation (leave-one-out and k-fold), multi-layer perceptrons and feed-forward neural networks; unsupervised learning — k-means and k-medoids, hierarchical clustering (single, complete and average linkage) and principal component analysis.
Artificial Intelligence
Search — uninformed (BFS, DFS, uniform-cost, iterative deepening), informed (greedy best-first, A*, heuristics) and adversarial (minimax, alpha–beta); logic — propositional and predicate (first-order) logic, inference and resolution; and reasoning under uncertainty — conditional independence and Bayesian networks, exact inference by variable elimination, and approximate inference by sampling.
General Aptitude
The common General Aptitude paper every GATE candidate takes — verbal aptitude (grammar, vocabulary, reading, sequencing), quantitative aptitude (arithmetic, percentages, ratios, data interpretation, mensuration) and analytical and spatial aptitude (logical reasoning, puzzles, transformations of shapes, paper folding).
Finish line
The final question & answer sectionQuestion bank
All 628 questions from every topic in one place. Filter by section, question type, marks and whether you have solved it; every question has a worked solution.
Mock tests
A full 65-question, 3-hour paper in the GATE pattern, or shorter section-wise tests. Negative marking, a question palette, mark-for-review, and a scored review at the end.
Formula sheet
Every formula you need on exam day, section by section, for the last week of revision.