GATE CS Previous Year Papers With Answer Keys: Official Links

The same links as a table, for readers on a simplified view:

GATE CS has been held in two sessions every year from 2024 to 2026, because too many candidates sit it for one session. In 2026 both sessions were on Sunday 8 February (CS-1 in the forenoon, CS-2 in the afternoon); in 2025 both were on Saturday 1 February. The 2024 keys name the sessions only as Session 5 and Session 6, and we do not hold an official file that gives their date.

Each candidate writes one set. Because the sets differ, raw marks are normalised before scores are calculated: the brochure maps each session's marks using that session's top-0.1% average and its mean plus one standard deviation. The GATE 2027 brochure says only that some papers may be held in more than one session and does not yet name them; CS is likely to be one again, but that is not yet stated, and the CS paper date for 2027 has not been published. The exam days are 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21 February 2027.

Question types in the subject part (questions 11 to 65), counted from the official keys. The last two columns are marks, out of 85.

Two sets of the same year can feel like different exams. 2026 CS-1 had 24 MSQs and only 18 MCQs; 2026 CS-2, written the same afternoon, had 11 MSQs and 25 MCQs. If you practise only one set of a year, practise the other as a separate mock rather than assuming you have seen that year.

Section marks are our classification of each question into the official syllabus sections; the full method and the 24 borderline items are in the weightage guide.

The 2027 Computer Networks syllabus is shorter than the 2026 one. Reading the six sets against it, these questions rest mainly on topics the 2027 syllabus no longer lists. They are still useful for understanding, but a mock score that includes them slightly overstates the paper you will face.

Disk questions are a grey area. Three questions in the six sets were disk geometry or disk transfer-time calculations (2024 CS-1 Q54, 2024 CS-2 Q53, 2026 CS-1 Q59). "Secondary storage" is no longer named in the 2027 Computer Organization section, while Operating System still lists file systems and I/O scheduling. We would not call these removed; we would call them no longer named in COA, and keep practising them.

The calculator applies the official negative-marking rule to a four-option MCQ. The same arithmetic in words: a blind guess on a four-option MCQ has an expected value of exactly zero; ruling out one option makes the guess worth attempting on average; MSQ and NAT answers can never cost marks.

Scoring a mock with the official key gives you raw marks. To see what those marks would have been worth as a GATE score and rank, use the calculator in the score guide; it uses the official formula and each year's official parameters. Remember that a two-set year is normalised, so a raw mark in one set is only an approximation of the score.