Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering(GATE)

About the exam

About GATE

A GATE 2027 score will stay valid for three years from the day results are announced, and over those three years the same score can be put to postgraduate admission, fellowship applications and public sector recruitment. IIT Madras organises the 2027 cycle, and its application portal is open, with regular registration scheduled to close on 27 September 2026. The official documents disagree on a few points, including the fee for a second paper in the late-fee window and the number of exam cities a candidate may list.

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is conducted jointly by IISc and the IITs on behalf of the National Coordination Board, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, and IIT Madras is the organising institute for GATE 2027 (GATE 2027 website, IIT Madras). The previous cycle, GATE 2026, was organised by IIT Guwahati (GATE 2026 website, IIT Guwahati). The brochure explains the arrangement: exam cities are split into eight zones, each run by a coordinating institute's GATE office, and one coordinating institute is designated the organising institute, responsible for the end-to-end process (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

A qualifying score is used for admission, with possible financial assistance, to master's and direct doctoral programmes in engineering, technology and architecture, and to doctoral programmes in relevant branches including science and humanities, at institutions supported by the Ministry of Education and other government agencies (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The same document says some colleges use the score for postgraduate admission without the ministry's scholarship, that several public sector undertakings use it for recruitment, and that qualifying is not a promise of a seat, a scholarship or a job.

The History of GATE file on the organiser's Downloads page is the original GATE 1983 brochure. Written before that first sitting, it announced that the test would be conducted for the first time on Saturday, 26 February 1983, following the recommendations of the Nayudamma Review Committee on Postgraduate Engineering Education, to select candidates for postgraduate engineering courses at the five IITs, at Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras, and at IISc Bangalore (History of GATE, GATE 1983 brochure).

At a glance

GATE highlights

Calendar

Important dates

The newest entry on the GATE 2027 notifications page, dated 2 September 2026, reads "Application Portal is LIVE now." That opening date is itself a revision: a notification dated 13 August 2026 rescheduled registration to 27 August 2026 (GATE 2027 notifications page), and the Important Dates page now shows both 14 August and 27 August struck through, with 2 September 2026 as the opening date (GATE 2027 Important Dates page). Both closing dates moved with it: the same page strikes out 21 September for regular registration and 30 September for the late-fee period.

The organiser marks every one of these dates as liable to change. The brochure, in the copy stamped "Revised version, Date: 10th September 2026", prints the same struck-through registration dates, says the paper-by-paper schedule will be notified later on the website, and splits all six exam days into a forenoon sitting (9:30 AM to 12:30 PM) and an afternoon sitting (2:30 PM to 5:30 PM) (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The eligibility table on the GATE 2027 Eligibility Criteria page gives each programme type its own starting point; beyond the bachelor's degrees that follow the third-year rule, it lists these:

• Medical and allied degrees (M.B.B.S., B.D.S., B.V.Sc., B.S.M.S., B.A.M.S., B.U.M.S., B.H.M.S., B.N.Y.S.): currently in the 5th, 6th, 7th or a higher semester, or completed.
• Pharm.D. after 10+2, a six-year programme including a year of internship or residency: currently in the 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th year, or completed.
• Master's degrees in arts, science, mathematics, statistics or computer applications (M.Sc., M.A., MCA or equivalent): currently in the 1st year or higher, or completed.
• Post-B.Sc. integrated M.E. or M.Tech. (a four-year programme): currently in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year, or completed.
• Integrated M.E., M.Tech. or M.Pharm., or a dual degree, after a diploma or 10+2 (a five-year programme): currently in the 3rd, 4th or 5th year, or completed.
• B.Sc. in agriculture, horticulture or forestry (a four-year programme): currently in the 3rd or 4th year, or completed.
• Professional society examinations equivalent to B.E., B.Tech. or B.Arch., such as AMIE: Section A or its equivalent completed.

The same page adds conditions that sit outside the table. A candidate studying for, or holding, a degree from outside India must be in the 3rd or a higher year of, or have completed, a bachelor's degree of at least three years' duration (GATE 2027 Eligibility Criteria page). A candidate pursuing or holding a degree higher than those in the table is eligible. A professional society certificate counts only where MoE, AICTE, UGC or UPSC has approved that examination as equivalent to B.E., B.Tech., B.Arch. or B.Planning, and enrolments with bodies holding permanent recognition up to 31 May 2013 stand recognised (GATE 2027 Eligibility Criteria page).

For B.Sc., B.A. and B.Com. graduates who want a master's seat at IISc, the IITs, NITs or other CFTIs, the brochure refers them to JAM 2027, organised by IIT Kharagpur (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Step by step

Application process and fee

Applications go only through the GATE Online Application Processing System (GOAPS), and no printed form or document is sent to IIT Madras or any zonal office (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The portal captures the applicant's live photo during registration, so the brochure asks for a computer with a webcam or a phone with a 5 MP camera (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

The two official sources word the DigiLocker step differently. A notification dated 1 August 2026 says GATE 2027 registration through DigiLocker "is mandatory for all Indian nationals" (GATE 2027 notifications page). The brochure says "It is recommended to register in DigiLocker (verified)" and that Indian nationals "may need to register through DigiLocker" (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

SC and ST candidates upload a category certificate to claim the fee concession, OBC-NCL and EWS candidates upload no category certificate, and the PwD concession applies only to a benchmark disability of 40% or more (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). EWS candidates pay the general fee, while their qualifying mark is 90% of the general category's, according to the GATE 2027 FAQs.

The fee is charged per paper, and the late-fee period costs more.

The brochure's rule for a second paper does not match that table's extended-period column. The fees page charges Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,500 for two papers in the extended period (GATE 2027 Application Fees page). The brochure states: "For two papers, the fee payable will be twice that of a single paper." (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The brochure also says the payment gateway shows the fee amount and bank charges before the candidate confirms and pays, and that bank charges are not part of the fee.

The fee is not transferable and is refunded only when a two-paper combination is removed (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). A candidate who paid for one paper can add a second from the permitted combinations to the same enrolment ID, and should not create a new one (GATE 2027 FAQs). The brochure sets 21 October 2026 as the last date to change category, paper or exam city, add a test paper or change personal details, and says an additional fee may apply per change (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

The GATE 2027 Important Dates page lists the exam city notification for 4 January 2027 and gives the admit card date only as TBA (GATE 2027 Important Dates page). Admit cards come only through GOAPS and are not sent by post or email (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). In the previous cycle the release moved: IIT Guwahati's notice of 1 January 2026 postponed the GATE 2026 admit card, and its notice of 13 January 2026 announced the release (GATE 2026 notifications page).

The brochure asks for a printed admit card, preferably in colour on A4 paper, together with the original photo ID given in the application (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The FAQ page adds that a soft copy on a phone, tablet or laptop does not get a candidate in (GATE 2027 FAQs).

Candidates may take their seats 40 minutes before the start, log in to read instructions 20 minutes before, and cannot log in later than 15 minutes after the scheduled start; nobody may leave the hall before the scheduled end (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). A candidate admitted late within that window gets no extra time (GATE 2027 FAQs). Where a paper runs in more than one session, each candidate sits only the session whose date and time the admit card names (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Mobile phones even when switched off, watches of any kind, calculators, wallets and pen or pencil pouches are barred from the hall; the only calculator is a virtual scientific one on screen, and rough work goes on one scribble pad at a time, returned before a second is issued (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The brochure also reserves the right to bar a candidate found in malpractice from GATE for the next 3 years (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

PwD candidates eligible for compensatory time get 20 minutes for every hour, and GATE arranges scribes itself, allowing a candidate's own scribe only when it cannot arrange one (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Structure

Exam pattern

Every GATE 2027 paper opens with the same General Aptitude section of 10 questions for 15 marks, 5 carrying 1 mark and 5 carrying 2 marks, and the other 55 questions carry the 85 subject marks (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). How those subject marks divide depends on the paper, and in some papers the candidate chooses a section, either in the exam hall or, for GG and XH, on the application form, where the choice cannot be changed later.

An MCQ has four options with one correct answer; an MSQ has four options with one or more correct, and earns marks only when the exact correct combination is chosen; a NAT answer is a signed real number entered on a virtual keypad, with the computer's keyboard disabled (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). Separate scores and ranks are given for the Geology and Geophysics parts of GG and for the XH sections, but not for the two parts of AR, RA or GE.

A candidate sitting two papers picks a primary paper and a secondary paper from a fixed list: CS can be paired with DA, EC, GE, MA, ME, PH, RA or ST, for example, while MN has no permitted second paper (GATE 2027 Two-Paper Combinations page). Combinations outside the list are not allowed in the regular and extended registration windows, though the page says more may be opened later, subject to infrastructure and scheduling.

What to study

Syllabus

GATE 2026 also had 30 test papers (GATE 2026 website, IIT Guwahati), so the 2027 change is to the list rather than the count. Robotics and Automation (RA) is a new paper, Textile Engineering and Fibre Science is no longer a separate paper but section XE9 of Engineering Sciences, and the XE, XH and XL section codes were renumbered, so Fluid Mechanics moves from XE-B to XE1 and Economics from XH-C1 to XH1 (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The brochure notes that the syllabi for most test papers have been revised for GATE 2027, and each paper's syllabus is a separate download on the GATE 2027 Test Papers and Syllabus page.

RA's common Part A covers engineering mathematics, basics of mechatronics (including programming in Python and data structures) and principles of robotics and automation, and its electrical option covers analog circuits and embedded systems, signals and systems, and control systems (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

The General Aptitude syllabus in the brochure runs from Section 1, Verbal Aptitude, through Quantitative Aptitude and Analytical Aptitude to Section 4, Spatial Aptitude, which covers transforming shapes, paper folding, cutting and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). In AE, AG, BM, BT, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, ES, IN, ME, MN, MT, NM, PE and PI, 13 of the 85 subject marks are paper-specific Engineering Mathematics questions, while XE has a common Engineering Mathematics section, XE0, worth 15 marks (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

How to prepare

Preparation and books

The organising institute supplies official material and no preparation advice: its FAQ page says GATE does not provide preparation guidance or coaching, and points aspirants to previous years' question papers and the official syllabus (GATE 2027 FAQs). The GATE 2027 Downloads page offers a bulk download of question papers from 2007 to 2026, and year-wise papers with answer keys from 2021 to 2026. Neither the GATE 2027 brochure nor its FAQ page recommends a book.

The brochure says mock examination links, with the virtual scientific calculator, will be accessible through the GATE 2027 website (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). For GATE 2026, the mock test links went live on 12 November 2025 (GATE 2026 notifications page). IIT Guwahati's mock page cautioned that features of the actual exam, and its relative number of MCQ, MSQ and NAT questions, could differ from the mock, and that mock answers are not evaluated (GATE 2026 Mock Test Links page).

Where it is held

Exam centres

GATE 2027 is held only in India. The GATE 2027 Exam Cities page withdraws international centres, and says foreign nationals and Indian citizens living abroad may appear by paying the full fee of Rs 2,000 per paper, choosing a city in India and making their own travel and stay arrangements. The brochure puts the exam at centres across 300+ cities in India (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Cities are grouped by zone under IISc Bengaluru and the IITs at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee, and a candidate's zone, which also decides the office handling their queries, follows from the first-choice city (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

The number of city choices is stated two ways. The Exam Cities page says "A candidate can opt for SIX cities from the list given above" and requires all of them to come from one zone (GATE 2027 Exam Cities page). Section 6.3 of the brochure says a candidate can choose three cities, with all three from the same zone (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). On one point the two texts say the same thing: the organisers may add or remove a city and allot one the candidate never listed, so a long or short list of choices is still no promise of a centre. A two-paper candidate may sit the secondary paper at a different centre, but in the same city (GATE 2027 Two-Paper Combinations page).

After the exam

Answer key

No date for the GATE 2027 key has been set. Section 8 of the brochure only puts the steps in order, and says their dates will be announced on the website after the exam: responses appear in each candidate's GOAPS account, answer keys go up on the website, contests against the keys are accepted during specified dates on payment of a fee, and results follow (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The brochure does not print the contest fee.

The last cycle shows the sequence with dates. IIT Guwahati uploaded candidate responses, master question papers and answer keys on 22 February 2026, took challenges from 25 February to 28 February 2026, and did not allow provisional candidates to contest (GATE 2026 notifications page). A notice dated 18 March 2026 released the master question papers and their answer keys, and results went live on 19 March 2026 (GATE 2026 notifications page).

A candidate checking a key has to work from the master question paper, because the order of questions and options on their own screen may differ; a NAT response scores only if it falls within the range given in the key, and a question marked MTA, "Marks To All", gives its marks to every candidate who appeared for the paper (GATE 2026 Master Question Papers and Answer Keys page).

Scores

Result and scorecard

GATE 2027 results are scheduled for 19 March 2027 in GOAPS (GATE 2027 Important Dates page). What a counselling portal or recruiter works from is the GATE score rather than the raw mark, and the brochure builds that score in two steps. For a paper held in more than one session, raw marks are first normalised, on the assumption that ability is distributed the same way across sessions, by comparing each session's top 0.1% average and its mean plus standard deviation with the same figures for all sessions together (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). GATE 2026's CS and CE papers, for instance, were each set as a forenoon and an afternoon paper, CS-1 and CS-2, CE-1 and CE-2 (GATE 2026 Master Question Papers and Answer Keys page).

The GATE score then assigns 350 to the general-category qualifying mark and 900 to the mean mark of the top 0.1% of candidates, or the top 10 if that is larger, and places every other mark on the straight line through those two points (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The FAQ page notes that this equation can give a negative GATE score even when a candidate's marks are positive (GATE 2027 FAQs).

A scorecard goes only to candidates at or above the SC/ST/PwD qualifying mark for their paper; others can download a performance report at a later date (GATE 2027 FAQs). Qualified candidates download the scorecard free during a period still marked TBA, then for Rs 500 per paper until 31 December 2027, and from 1 January 2028 no GATE 2027 scorecard is issued; there is no hard copy at any stage (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). For GATE 2026, the scorecard release was announced on 27 March 2026 (GATE 2026 notifications page).

Scores you need

Cutoff

The cut-off GATE itself publishes is the qualifying mark for each paper. For GATE 2027, the general-category qualifying mark is the mean plus one standard deviation of all candidates' marks in that paper, but never below 25 or above 40; OBC-NCL and EWS candidates need nine-tenths of it, and SC, ST and PwD candidates two-thirds (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). The GATE 2026 Information Brochure used the same formula and the same category ratios.

IIT Guwahati's GATE 2026 cut-off table, for selected papers:

Clearing a qualifying mark earns a scorecard; it does not decide an admission offer. The M.Tech cut-off a counselling portal or institute publishes is a separate, later figure: the CCMT portal, for example, carries its own Opening Score-Closing Score section (CCMT 2026 portal).

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

For admission itself, the brochure points candidates to the institutions: it says calls for M.Tech, PhD and other admissions are advertised separately by the institutions, and that GATE zonal offices do not take queries on admission, reservation of seats or scholarships (GATE 2027 Information Brochure). An institute may admit on GATE alone, or on GATE plus its own test, interview or academic record, and the brochure says Ministry of Education guidelines prescribe a minimum of 70% weightage to GATE performance in that mix (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

At IISc and the IITs on its 2026 list, M.Tech offers were accepted or rejected on the Common Offer Acceptance Portal, coordinated by IIT Roorkee (COAP 2026 portal, IIT Roorkee). COAP is not an application portal: candidates apply to each institute separately, register on COAP free of charge, and respond there to the offers institutes upload. COAP 2026 took Indian nationals qualified in GATE 2026, GATE 2025 or GATE 2024, and its page says the GATE organising institute of the preceding year acts as the coordinating institute each year (COAP 2026 portal, IIT Roorkee). The first line of its updates list reads "All COAP 2026 activities are over."

For NITs, IIEST Shibpur and some IIITs and CFTIs, the CCMT 2026 portal describes Centralized Counselling for M.Tech./M.Arch./M.Plan. Admissions as a common platform to apply on GATE scores of 2024, 2025 and 2026 (CCMT 2026 portal).

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The GATE 2027 opportunities page puts figures on the financial assistance: Rs 12,400 a month for M.Tech students, generally paid for 22 months, and, for direct PhD students with a valid GATE score, Rs 37,000 a month for the first two years and Rs 42,000 a month from the third to the fifth year (GATE 2027 Opportunities page). For the M.Tech figure the page refers readers to the PG Scholarship (GATE/GPAT), the name AICTE's own scheme page still carries above a list of year-wise notifications (AICTE PG Scholarship Scheme page). The newest of them, for academic year 2025-26, is narrower than that name: it asked AICTE-approved institutions to put forward first-year "students admitted in AICTE approved programs and within approved intake of M.E/M.Tech./M.Des.", and required "qualifying marks with valid GATE/CEED score card" (AICTE PG Scholarship notification for 2025-26). The brochure adds that the admitting institute manages the scholarship or assistantship and may specify how many admitted candidates receive it (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

GATE qualification is also a minimum requirement for various fellowships awarded by government organisations, and the brochure says direct recruitment to Group-A posts in the Cabinet Secretariat, such as Senior Field Officer (Tele) and Senior Research Officer (Crypto), is now conducted on GATE score (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Public sector recruiters set their own terms. NPCIL's advertisement NPCIL/HQ/HRM/ET/2025/04 announced plans to recruit engineering graduates as Executive Trainees (ET-2026), asking for a valid GATE score for 2024, 2025 or 2026 in mechanical, chemical, electrical, electronics, instrumentation or civil, and said shortlisting for interview would be based on the GATE score (NPCIL ET-2026 recruitment advertisement). The GATE 2027 brochure also states that candidates' application data and results may be shared with academic or private institutes, and with PSUs, for admission or recruitment (GATE 2027 Information Brochure).

Get help

Contact

The GATE-JAM Office at IIT Madras, Chennai 600 036, handles GATE 2027 as organising institute on 044-22578200 and helpdesk@gate.iitm.ac.in, from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM on government working days, with application-related queries taken from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM (GATE 2027 contact details). Questions about an application, exam centre, admit card or result are handled by the candidate's zonal coordinating institute in consultation with the organising institute (GATE 2027 Information Brochure), and the email addresses and phone numbers of the zonal offices are listed on the GATE 2027 contact details page.

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Organising institute, exact dates, registration windows, the test-paper list, cutoffs, answer keys and results change every cycle. Anything per-cycle here is stated for the cycle it names and is taken from the conducting body's own notification; confirm it on the official website before acting on it. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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