GATE CSE Syllabus 2026 for Computer Science and IT Branch

Candidates planning to appear for the GATE 2026 exam must go through the complete GATE CSE Syllabus and exam pattern. Understanding both will help them identify which subjects need to be prioritized during preparation. The syllabus covers topics from General Aptitude and Computer Science Engineering subjects. Knowing the syllabus, candidates plan their last-minute preparation better, which boosts their exam preparation. To understand the exam pattern, syllabus, and topic-wise weightage clearly, we have explained the complete CSE syllabus in the article below.

GATE CSE Syllabus and Exam Pattern 2026 

GATE 2026 Exam is held once a year and every time lakhs of Engineering candidates rush to appear for the test to grab admissions to a Master's degree in the top colleges/universities. As the number of applicants increases every year, the competition to crack the exam gets tougher. The first and foremost step to achieve your goal is to be familiar with the complete GATE Exam Syllabus 2026 for the chosen subject that is to be covered in the GATE 2026 Exam. The GATE exam for 30 subjects will be held on 7th, 8th, 14th, and 15th February 2026. Among these, Computer Science (CSE) is one of the most popular subjects, chosen by the highest number of students. 

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GATE CSE Exam Pattern 2026

This year, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) is going to conduct the GATE 2026 Exam for Engineering students. Have a look at the pattern that will be followed for the GATE CSE Exam from the table below-

Marks Distribution in all papers

• General Aptitude: 15 marks
• Engineering Mathematics: 13 marks
• Subject-Specific Questions: 72 marks
• Total: 100 marks

For some papers (like AR, CY, DA, EY, GG, MA, PH, ST, XH, XL):

• Subject: 85 marks
• General Aptitude: 15 marks

Negative Marking

• MCQs (1 mark): ⅓ mark deducted for wrong answers
• MCQs (2 marks): ⅔ mark deducted for wrong answers
• No negative marking for MSQ and NAT

Section-wise Breakdown for CSE

GATE CSE Syllabus for Computer Science & IT

The GATE CSE Syllabus has been distributed in 10 sections namely Engineering Mathematics, Digital Logic, Computer Organization and Architecture, Programming and Data Structures, Algorithms, Theory of Computations, Compiler Design, Operating System, Databases and Computer System. All sections have been discussed in detail for the topics to be covered for the GATE 2026 Exam in the below section.

Section 1: Engineering Mathematics Syllabus

Section 2: Digital Logic

1. Boolean algebra
2. Combinational and sequential circuits
3. Minimization
4. Number representations and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating-point)

Section 3: Computer Organization and Architecture

1. Machine instructions and addressing modes
2. ALU, data-path and control unit
3. Instruction pipelining, pipeline hazards
4. Memory hierarchy: cache, main memory and secondary storage; I/O interface (interrupt and DMA mode)

Section 4: Programming and Data Structures

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

Section 5: Algorithms

1. Searching, sorting, hashing
2. Asymptotic worst-case time and space complexity
3. Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide-and-conquer
4. Graph traversals, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths

Section 6: Theory of Computation

1. Regular expressions and finite automata
2. Context-free grammars and push-down automata
3. Regular and contex-free languages, pumping lemma
4. Turing machines and undecidability

Section 7: Compiler Design

1. Lexical analysis, parsing, syntax-directed translation
2. Runtime environments
3. Intermediate code generation
4. Local optimisation, Data flow analyses: constant propagation, liveness analysis, common subexpression elimination

Section 8: Operating System

1. System calls, processes, threads, inter-process communication, concurrency and synchronization.
2. Deadlock
3. CPU and I/O scheduling
4. Memory management and virtual memory
5. File systems

Section 9: Databases

1. ER-model
2. Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL
3. Integrity constraints, normal forms
4. File organization, indexing (e.g., B and B+ trees)
5. Transactions and concurrency control

Section 10: Computer Networks

1. Concept of layering: OSI and TCP/IP Protocol Stacks
2. Basics of the packet, circuit and virtual circuit switching
3. Datalink layer: framing, error detection, Medium Access Control, Ethernet bridging
4. Routing protocols: shortest path, flooding, distance vector and link-state routing
5. Fragmentation and IP addressing, IPv4, CIDR notation, Basics of IP support protocols (ARP, DHCP, ICMP), Network Address Translation (NAT)
6. Transport layer: flow control and congestion control, UDP, TCP, sockets
7. Application layer protocols: DNS, SMTP, HTTP, FTP, Email

GATE CSE Syllabus PDF

The candidates preparing for GATE Exam choosing the Computer Science subject should download the detailed syllabus PDF from the link below and start their preparation beforehand. 

Click to Download GATE CSE Syllabus PDF

GATE CSE Section-wise Weightage

The expected section-wise weightage of marks allotted to GATE CSE Syllabus has been tabulated below for helping your strategise your preparations- 

Click for GATE Syllabus 2026 for other subjects