For GATE 2026 IIT, Guwahati has Released New Syllabus on its official Website at gate2026.iitg.ac.in. Those attending GATE 2026 can check this Article for the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Syllabus and Detailed Topics.
GATE 2026 Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Marking Scheme
GATE 2026 Exam will be conducted for 180 Minutes.
For 1 Mark Wrong Answer, Deduction of 1/3 Marks Applicable For 2 Marks Wrong Answer, Deduction of 2/3 Marks Applicable
| Sections | Total Questions | Total Marks |
|---|---|---|
| General Aptitude | 10 | 5 question x 1 marks +1 marks(correct) -1/3 for incorrect answer 5 question x 2 marks +2 mark (Correct) -2/3 (incorrect) Total marks=15 |
| Core Discipline | 55 | 25 question x 1 marks +1 marks(Correct) -1/3 (incorrect) 30 question x 2 marks +1 mark(Correct) -1/3 mark(Incorrect) Total Marks= 85 |
| Total | 65 | 100 |
GATE DA Exam Pattern 2026
| Exam Duration | 3 hour |
| Mode of Examination | Online Computer Based Test(CBT) |
| Total Marks | 100 |
| Total Questions | 65 Questions Split in: General Aptitude-10 questions Artificial Intelligence and Data Science(DA)-55 questions |
| Types of Question | MCQs(Multiple Choice Questions) MSQs(Multiple Select Questions) NAT(Numerical Answer Type Questions) |
| Marks Distribution | General Aptitude= 15 questions worth 25 marks Core Subject= 50 Questions worth 75 marks |
| Negative Marking | *Applicable only to wrongly answered MCQ -1/3 for 1 mark MCQ -2/3 for 2 mark MCQ |
GATE 2026 Data Science and AI Syllabus (General Aptitude)
| Chapters | Topics |
| GATE GA syllabus for Verbal Aptitude | Basic English grammar: tenses, articles, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, verb-noun agreement, and other parts of speech, Basic vocabulary: words, idioms, and phrases in context, reading and comprehension, Narrative sequencing. |
| GATE GA syllabus for Quantitative Aptitude | Data interpretation: data graphs (bar graphs, pie charts, and other graphs representing data), 2- and 3-dimensional plots, maps, and tables Numerical computation and estimation: ratios, percentages, powers, exponents and logarithms, permutations and combinations, and series Mensuration and geometry Elementary statistics and probability |
| GATE GA syllabus for Analytical Aptitude | Logic: deduction and induction, Analogy, Numerical relations and reasoning |
| GATE GA syllabus for Spatial Aptitude | Transformation of shapes: translation, rotation, scaling, mirroring, assembling, and grouping paper folding, cutting, and patterns in 2 and 3 dimensions. |
GATE 2026 Data Science and AI Syllabus (Core Discipline)
| Chapters | Topics |
| Probability and Statistics | Counting (permutation and combinations), probability axioms, Sample space, events, independent events, mutually exclusive events, marginal, conditional and joint probability, Bayes Theorem, conditional expectation and variance, mean, median, mode and standard deviation, correlation, and covariance, random variables, discrete random variables and probability mass functions, uniform, Bernoulli, binomial distribution, Continuous random variables and probability distribution function, uniform, exponential, Poisson, normal, standard normal, t-distribution, chi-squared distributions, cumulative distribution function, Conditional PDF, Central limit theorem, confidence interval, z-test, t-test, chi-squared test. |
| Linear Algebra | Vector space, subspaces, linear dependence and independence of vectors, matrices, projection matrix, orthogonal matrix, idempotent matrix, partition matrix and their properties, quadratic forms, systems of linear equations and solutions; Gaussian elimination, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, determinant, rank, nullity, projections, LU decomposition, singular value decomposition. |
| Calculus and Optimization | Functions of a single variable, limit, continuity and differentiability, Taylor series, maxima and minima, optimization involving a single variable. |
| Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms | Programming in Python, basic data structures: stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, hash tables; Search algorithms: linear search and binary search, basic sorting algorithms: selection sort, bubble sort and insertion sort; divide and conquer: mergesort, quicksort; introduction to graph theory; basic graph algorithms: traversals and shortest path. |
| Database Management and Warehousing | ER-model, relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL, integrity constraints, normal form, file organization, indexing, data types, data transformation such as normalization, discretization, sampling, compression; data warehouse modelling: schema for multidimensional data models, concept hierarchies, measures: categorization and computations. |
| Machine Learning | (i) Supervised Learning: regression and classification problems, simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, ridge regression, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbour, naive Bayes classifier, linear discriminant analysis, support vector machine, decision trees, bias- variance trade-off, cross-validation methods such as leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation, k-folds cross-validation, multi-layer perceptron, feed-forward neural network; (ii) Unsupervised Learning: clustering algorithms, k-means/k-medoid, hierarchical clustering, top-down, bottom-up: single- linkage, multiple-linkage, dimensionality reduction, principal component analysis. |
| AI | Search: informed, uninformed, adversarial; logic, propositional, predicate; reasoning under uncertainty topics — conditional independence representation, exact inference through variable elimination, and approximate inference through sampling. |
