GATE Syllabus for Computer Science & Information Technology

- CS

ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS
Mathematical Logic: Propositional Logic; First Order Logic.

Probability: Conditional Probability; Mean, Median, Mode and Standard Deviation; Random
Variables; Distributions; uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson, Binomial.

Set Theory & Algebra: Sets; Relations; Functions; Groups; Partial Orders; Lattice; Boolean
Algebra.

Combinatorics: Permutations; Combinations; Counting; Summation; generating functions;

recurrence relations; asymptotics.

Graph Theory: Connectivity; spanning trees; Cut vertices & edges; covering; matching;
independent sets; Colouring; Planarity; Isomorphism.

Linear Algebra: Algebra of matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, Eigen values and
Eigen vectors.

Numerical Methods: LU decomposition for systems of linear equations; numerical solutions of

non-linear algebraic equations by Secant, Bisection and Newton-Raphson Methods; Numerical
integration by trapezoidal and Simpson's rules.

Calculus: Limit, Continuity & differentiability, Mean value Theorems, Theorems of integral calculus,
evaluation of definite & improper integrals, Partial derivatives, Totalderivatives, maxima & minima.

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COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Digital Logic: Logic functions, Minimization, Design and synthesis of combinational and
sequential circuits; Number representation and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).

Computer Organization and Architecture: Machine instructions and addressing modes, ALU and
data-path, CPU control design, Memory interface, I/O interface (Interrupt and DMA mode),
Instruction pipelining, Cache and main memory, Secondary storage.

Programming and Data Structures: Programming in C;Functions, Recursion, Parameter passing,

Scope, Binding; Abstract data types, Arrays, Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists, Trees, Binary search
trees, Binary heaps.

Algorithms: Analysis, Asymptotic notation, Notions of space and time complexity, Worst and
average case analysis; Design: Greedy approach, Dynamic programming, Divide-and-conquer; Tree
and graph traversals, Connected components, Spanning trees, Shortest paths; Hashing, Sorting,
Searching. Asymptotic analysis (best, worst, average cases) of time and space, upper and lower
bounds, Basic concepts of complexity classes - P, NP, NP-hard, NP-complete.

Theory of Computation: Regular languages and finite automata, Context free languages and
Push-down automata, Recursively enumerable sets and Turing machines, Undecidability.
Compiler Design: Lexical analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environments,
Intermediate and target code generation, Basics of code optimization.

Operating System: Processes, Threads, Inter-process communication, Concurrency,

Synchronization, Deadlock, CPU scheduling, Memory management and virtual memory, File
systems, I/O systems, Protection and security.

Databases: ER-model, Relational model (relational algebra, tuple calculus), Database design
(integrity constraints, normal forms), Query languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files,
indexing, B and B+ trees), Transactions and concurrency control.

Information Systems and Software Engineering: information gathering, requirement and

feasibility analysis, data flow diagrams, process specifications, input/output design, process life
cycle, planning and managing the project, design, coding, testing, implementation, maintenance.

Computer Networks: ISO/OSI stack, LAN technologies (Ethernet, Token ring), Flow and error
control techniques, Routing algorithms, Congestion control, TCP/UDP and sockets, IP(v4),
Application layer protocols (icmp, dns, smtp, pop, ftp, http); Basic concepts of hubs, switches,
gateways, and routers. Network security - basic concepts of public key and private key
cryptography, digital signature, firewalls.

Web technologies: HTML, XML, basic concepts of client-server computing.

Computer Science Engineering Sample
Papers
1 The order of an internal node in a B+ tree index is the maximum number of children it can have.
Suppose that a child pointer takes 6 bytes, the search field value takes 14 bytes, and the block size
is 512 bytes. What is the order of the internal node?
A) 24
B) 25
C) 26
D) 27
Answer : (C)
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2 The Boolean function x, y, + xy + x, y
A) x, + y,
B) x + y
C) x + y,
D) x, + y
Answer : (D)

3 In an MxN matrix such that all non-zero entries are covered in a rows and b columns. Then the
maximum number of non-zero entries, such that no two are on the same row or column, is
A) £ a + b
B) £ max {a, b}
C) £ min {M-a, N-b}
D) £ min {a, b}
Answer : (A)

4 The relation scheme Student Performance (name, courseNo, rollNo, grade) has the following
functional dependencies:
A) name, courseNo -> grade
B) rollNo, courseNo -> grade
C) name -> rollNo
D) rollNo -> name
The highest normal form of this relation scheme is
Answer : (A)
5 The minimum number of page frames that must be allocated to a running process in a virtual
memory environment is determined by
A) the instruction set architecture
B) page size
C) physical memory size
D) number of processes in memory
Answer : (D)

6 Let G be a simple graph with 20 vertices and 100 edges. The size of the minimum vertex cover of G
is 8. Then, the size of the maximum independent set of G is
A) 12
B) 8
C) Less than 8
D) More than 12
Answer : (A)

7 What does the following algorithm approximate?

approximate? (Assume m > 1, Î > 0).
x = m;
y-i;
while (x - y > Î)
{ x = (x + y) / 2 ;
y = m/x ;
}
print (x) ;
A) log m
B) m2
C) m1/2
D) m1/3
Answer : (C)

8 Consider the following C program

main ()
{ int x, y, m, n ;
scanf ("%d %d", &x, &y);
/ * Assume x > 0 and y > 0 * /
m = x; n = y ;
while ( m ! = n)
{ if (m > n)
m = m — n;
else
n=n-m;}
printf("%d",n); }
The program computes
A) x + y, using repeated subtraction
B) x mod y using repeated subtraction
C) the greatest common divisor of x and y
D) the least common multiple of x and y
Answer : (C)

9 The best data structure to check whether an arithmetic expression has balanced parentheses is a
A) queue
B) stack
C) tree
D) list
Answer : (B)

10 A Priority-Queue is implemented as a Max-Heap. Initially, it has 5 elements. The level-order

traversal of the heap is given below: 10, 8,5,3,2 Two new elements 1 and 7 are inserted in the heap
in that order. The level-order traversal of the heap after the insertion of the elements is
A) 10,8,7,5,3,2,1
B) 10,8,7,2,3,1,5
C) 10,8,7,1,2,3,5
D) 10,8,7,3,2,1,5
Answer : (D)

11 An organization has a class B network and wishes to form subnets for 64 departments. The subnet
mask would be
A) 255.255.0.0
B) 255.255.64.0
C) 255.255.128.0
D) 255.255.252.0
Answer : (D)

12 Suppose the round trip propagation delay for a 10 Mbps Ethernet having 48-bit jamming signal is
46.4 ms. The minimum frame size is:
A) 94
B) 416
C) 464
D) 512
Answer : (C)
13 The following numbers are inserted into an empty binary search tree in the given order: 10, 1, 3,
5, 15, 12, 16. What is the height of the binary search tree (the height is the maximum distance of
a leaf node from the root)?
A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 6
Answer : (B)

14 Consider the following C function:

int f (int n)
{ static int i = 1;
if (n >= 5) return n;
n = n + i;
i ++;
return f (n);
}
The value returned by f(1) is

A) 5
B) 6
C) 7
D) 8
Answer : (C)

15 The minimum number of page frames that must be allocated to a running process in a virtual
memory environment is determined by
A) the instruction set architecture
B) page size
C) physical memory size
D) number of processes in memory
Answer : (D)
Computer Science Engineering Sample
Papers
1 The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used for
A) Finding the IP address from the DNS
B) Finding the IP address of the default gateway
C) Finding the IP address that corresponds to a MAC address
D) Finding the MAC address that corresponds to an IP address
Answer : (D)
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2 Consider the following relation schema pertaining to a students database:
Student (rollno
(rollno,, name, address)
Enroll (rollno
(rollno,, courseno,
courseno, coursename)
where the primary keys are shown underlined. The number of tuples in the Student and Enroll tables
are 120 and 8 respectively. What are the maximum and minimum number of tuples that can be
present in (Student * Enroll), where ‘*’denotes natural join?
A) 8, 8
B) 120, 8
C) 960, 8
D) 960, 120
Answer : (C)

3 Consider a direct mapped cache of size 32 KB with block size 32 bytes. The CPU generates 32 bit
addresses. The number of bits needed for cache indexing and the number of tag bits are respectively
A) 10, 17
B) 10, 22
C) 15, 17
D) 5, 17
Answer : (A)

4 The goal of structured programming is to

A) have well indented programs
B) be able to infer the flow of control from the compiled code
C) be able to infer the flow of control from the program text
D) avoid the use of GOTO statements
Answer : (C)
5 The tightest lower bound on the number of comparisons, in the worst ease, for comparison-based
sorting is of the order of
A) n
B) n 2
C) n log n
D) n log2 n
Answer : (B)

6 Let G be a simple graph with 20 vertices and 100 edges. The size of the minimum vertex cover of G
is 8. Then, the size of the maximum independent set of G is
A) 12
B) 8
C) Less than 8
D) More than 12
Answer : (A)
7 WA and B are the only two stations on an Ethernet. Each has a steady queue of frames to send.
Both A and B attempt to transmit a frame, collide, and A wins the first backoff race. At the end of this
successful transmission by A, both A and B attempt to transmit and collide. The probability that A wins
the second backoff race is
A) 0.5
B) 0.625
C) 0.75
D) 1.0
Answer : (A)

8 Let A be a sequence of 8 distinct integers sorted in ascending order. How many distinct pairs of
sequences, B and C are there such that (i) each is sorted in ascending order, (ii) B has 5 and C has 3
elements, and (iii) the result of merging B and C gives A?
A) 2
B) 30
C) 56
D) 256
Answer : (D)

9 In a network of LANs connected by bridges, packets are sent from one LAN to another through
intermediate bridges. Since more than one path may exist between two LANs, packets may have to be
routed through multiple bridges.
Why is the spanning tree algorithm used for bridge-routing?
A) For shortest path routing between LANs
B) For avoiding loops in the routing paths
C) For fault tolerance
D) For minimizing collisions
Answer : (B)

10 A Priority-Queue is implemented as a Max-Heap. Initially, it has 5 elements. The level-order

traversal of the heap is given below: 10, 8,5,3,2 Two new elements 1 and 7 are inserted in the heap
in that order. The level-order traversal of the heap after the insertion of the elements is
A) 10,8,7,5,3,2,1
B) 10,8,7,2,3,1,5
C) 10,8,7,1,2,3,5
D) 10,8,7,3,2,1,5
Answer : (D)

11 An organization has a class B network and wishes to form subnets for 64 departments.
The subnet mask would be
A) 255.255.0.0
B) 255.255.64.0
C) 255.255.128.0
D) 255.255.252.0
Answer : (D)

12 Suppose the round trip propagation delay for a 10 Mbps Ethernet having 48-bit jamming signal is
46.4 ms. The minimum frame size is:
A) 94
B) 416
C) 464
D) 512
Answer : (C)
Computer Science Engineering Sample
Papers
1 The problems 3-SAT and 2-SAT are
A) both in P
B) both NP-complete
C) NP-complete and in P respectively
D) undecidable and NP-complete respectively
Answer : (C)
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2 Consider the following relation schema pertaining to a students database:
Student (rollno
(rollno,, name, address)
Enroll (rollno
(rollno,, courseno,
courseno, coursename)
where the primary keys are shown underlined. Thenumber
Thenumber of tuples in the Student and Enroll tables
are 120 and 8 respectively. What are the maximum and minimum number of tuples that can be
present in (Student * Enroll), where ‘*’denotes natural join?
A) 8, 8
B) 120, 8
C) 960, 8
D) 960, 120
Answer : (C)

3 Consider a relation scheme R = (A, B, C, D, E, H) on which the following functional dependencies

hold : (A -> B, BC -> D, E -> C, D -> A). What are the candidate keys of R?
A) AE, BE
B) AE, BE, DE
C) AEH, BEH, BCH
D) AEH, BEH, DEH
Answer : (D)

4 The goal of structured programming is to

A) have well indented programs
B) be able to infer the flow of control from the compiled code
C) be able to infer the flow of control from the program text
D) avoid the use of GOTO statements
Answer : (C)
5 The tightest lower bound on the number ofcomparisons, in the worst ease, for comparison-based
sorting is of the order of
A) n
B) n 2
C) n log n
D) n log2 n
Answer : (B)

6 A circuit outputs a digit in the form of 4 bits. 0 is represented by 0000,1 by 0001,..., 9 by 1001. A
combinational circuit is to be designed which takes these 4 bits as input and outputs 1 if the digit ³ 5,
and 0 otherwise. If only AND, OR and NOT gates may be used, what is the minimum number of gates
required
A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5
Answer : (C)

7 WA and B are the only two stations on an Ethernet. Each has a steady queue of frames to send.
Both A and B attempt to transmit a frame, collide, and A wins the first backoff race. At the end of this
successful transmission by A, both A and B attempt to transmit and collide. The probability that A wins
the second backoff race is
A) 0.5
B) 0.625
C) 0.75
D) 1.0
Answer : (A)

8 If 73x (in base-x number system) is equal to 54y (in base-y number system), the possible values of
x and y are
A) 8, 16
B) 10, 12
C) 9, 13
D) 8, 11
Answer : (D)

9 In a packet switching network, packets are routed from source to destination along a single path
having two intermediate nodes. If the message size is 24 bytes and each packet contains a header of
3 bytes, then the optimum packet size is
A) 4
B) 6
C) 7
D) 9
Answer : (D)

10 A Priority-Queue is implemented as a Max-Heap. Initially, it has 5 elements. The level-order

traversal of the heap is given below: 10, 8,5,3,2 Two new elements 1 and 7 are inserted in the heap
in that order. The level-order traversal of the heap after the insertion of the elements is
A) 10,8,7,5,3,2,1
B) 10,8,7,2,3,1,5
C) 10,8,7,1,2,3,5
D) 10,8,7,3,2,1,5
Answer : (D)

11 Consider an operating system capable of loading and executing a single sequential user process at
a time. The disk head scheduling algorithm used is First Come First Served (FCFS). If FCFS is replaced
by Shortest Seek Time First (SSTF), claimed by the vendor to give 50% better benchmark results,
what is the expected improvement in the I/O performance of user programs ?
A) 50%
B) 40%
C) 25%br> D) 0%
Answer : (D)

12 How many distinct binary search trees can be created out of 4 distinct keys?
A) 5
B) 14
C) 24
D) 42
Answer : (B)
Computer Science Sample Questions

Computer Science Sample Questions

Computer Science Sample Questions

Q-1 Select the one true statement. A) Every binary tree is either complete or full.
B) Every complete binary tree is also a full binary tree.
C) Every full binary tree is also a complete binary tree
D) No binary tree is both complete and full.

Q-2 Which data structure has the fastest insertion procedure? A) Binary search tree
B) Ordered array
C) Heap
D) Unordered linked list
E) Ordered linked list

Q-3 What are the complexities of the insert, remove and search methods of a binary search tree in
the worst case? A) insert is O(n), remove is O(n), search is O(n)
B) insert is O(log n), remove is O(log n), search is O(n)
C) insert is O(log n), remove is O(log n), search is O(log n)
D) insert is O(log n), remove is O(log n), search is O(1)
E) These methods can't be defined on a binary search tree

Q-4 This Ethernet frame type is characterized by its use of the code AA in the SAP fields. A) Ethernet
II
B) Ethernet RAW
C) Ethernet 802.2
D) Ethernet SNAP

Q-5 Which of the following are examples of routed protocols? (Choose all that apply) A) IP
B) IPX
C) RIP
D) OSPF
E) AppleTalk

Q-6 If switches are used to replace hubs on a network, which of the following statements is true? A)
The number of broadcast domains will decrease
B) The number of collision domains will increase
C) The number of collision domains will decrease
D) The number of broadcast domains will be zero
Q-7 Full duplex Ethernet communication is only possible when:

A. Systems are connected to same LAN segments

B. Systems are connected to a bridged ports
C. Systems are connected to their own switch port
D. Systems are running over a fiber optic connection

Q-8 SQL is the combination of

A ) DDL and DQL

B ) DDL , DML and DQL
C ) DDL,DML,DQL and DCL
D ) None of these

Q-9 Which of the following applications may use a stack?

A) A parentheses balancing program.

B) Keeping track of local variables at run time.
C) Syntax analyzer for a compiler.
D) All of the above

Q -10 Consider the implementation of the Stack using a partially-filled array. What goes
wrong if we try to store the top of the Stack at location [0] and the bottom of the Stack at
the last used position of the array?

A) Both peek and pop would require linear time.

B) Both push and pop would require linear time.
C) The Stack could not be used to check balanced parentheses.
D) The Stack could not be used to evaluate postfix expressions.