GATE XE Section-wise PYQ Weightage 2023–2026: Topics That Repeat

The GATE XE booklet prints every section, and you answer GA and XE0 plus at most two optional sections (XE1–XE9 from 2027). So a single “chapter-wise weightage” table for the whole paper is meaningless: a Food Technology question is worth nothing to a Fluid + Solid candidate. We took all 722 questions of the 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 papers, mapped each to its 2027 section code, and counted marks by topic within each section. Three findings stand out. Beams carry the most marks in Solid Mechanics every year. Potential flow and kinematics lead Fluid Mechanics. And Thermodynamics is the most NAT-heavy section, which means the least exposure to negative marking.

Our classification of the official XE papers and final keys.

Question numbers are fixed by section every year, which makes the old papers easy to navigate. General Aptitude is Q1–Q10, XE0 is Q11–Q21, and each optional section has its own 22-question block. Energy Science was added in 2026 at the end, so the 2026 booklet has 197 questions instead of 175.

Every XE candidate writes XE0, so this is the one table that applies to everyone. Linear algebra and single- and multi-variable calculus gave 3 marks each in 2023, 2024 and 2025, then dropped to 1 each in 2026, when numerical methods jumped to 4 marks (an LU decomposition question and an Euler’s-method question, 2 marks each). Complex variables appeared every year.

Potential flow and kinematics (stream function, vorticity, sources, sinks and doublets) is the largest block at 36 marks over four papers, with 12 in 2026 alone. Pipe and internal flow (Hagen-Poiseuille, Couette, friction factor) is second. A scale-model similarity question appeared in each of the last three papers: 2024 Q32 (a car in a wind tunnel), 2025 Q41 and 2026 Q39 (ships). Note that the 2027 syllabus removes surface tension and thin-film flow, both of which were asked in this period.

Crystallography, structure and XRD lead with 38 marks over four papers, and the electronic, magnetic, optical and thermal properties block is close behind. Processing and characterisation got 2 marks in 2023 and none since. Because the 2027 syllabus is more than twice as long by our word count (see the syllabus-changes guide), these four years under-represent what can now be asked: treat this table as a floor, not a map.

Beams are the backbone: shear force and bending moment, bending stress and deflection gave 6, 7, 7 and 8 marks, a total of 28, the steadiest large block in any XE section. Statics, stress transformation, axial loading and dynamics each come to 17–20 over four years. Vibrations reached 4 marks in 2025 and 3 in 2026, and forced vibration and damping are now named in the 2027 syllabus.

Thermodynamics spreads its marks more evenly than any other section. First law, power cycles and second law each total 25–26 over four years. 2026 moved sharply toward thermodynamic relations, mixtures and real gases (11 marks, up from 1–5) and away from properties of pure substances (0, down from 2–7). Some of the second-law row was exergy, which leaves the 2027 syllabus; by our text search, no 2023–2026 question used the words availability or exergy directly.

These three sections swing more than the engineering ones. In XE5, characterisation fell from 18 marks in 2024 to 4 in 2026 while polymer chemistry rose to 10. In XE7, physical oceanography took 21 of 35 marks in 2026, the largest one-year rise of any topic in 2026 (tied in size with the fall in XE5 characterisation from 2025 to 2026), while atmospheric dynamics fell from 17 in 2024 to 4. XE6 is steadier: food chemistry and nutrition, food engineering and food microbiology together took 23–32 marks every year.

Only MCQs carry negative marks (1/3 of a one-mark question, 2/3 of a two-mark question). MSQs and NATs do not, but an MSQ scores nothing unless you pick exactly the right set. The share of each type varies a lot by section, and that should shape how you attempt it.

Our reading. XE4 Thermodynamics is the most NAT-heavy section (16 to 23 NAT marks of 35), so a careful calculator user loses little to negative marking there. XE5 and XE6 swing in MSQ share from year to year (XE5 had 14 MSQ marks in 2023 and 2025 but 4–5 in 2024 and 2026; XE6 went from 4 to 14 between 2023 and 2024), so they reward precise factual recall. XE0 moved toward MSQs in 2026. Across sections, 8 to 20 marks of each 35 are MCQs; since a wrong MCQ costs a third of its marks, the most those could cost in negatives is about 2.7 to 6.7 marks (our arithmetic).