GATE Aptitude Syllabus 2026: The General Aptitude section is a common and very crucial for GATE Exam as it covers a weightage of 15 marks and plays a vital role in deciding the performance of candidates. This section is asked in all the GATE Papers to test the language skills and logical ability of the candidates.
Candidates who are aiming to perform well in the GATE 2026 examination must understand the GATE Aptitude Syllabus and focus on covering it. Reviewing the in-depth syllabus is essential for aspirants to prepare effectively. We have outlined the comprehensive GATE Syllabus for the Aptitude section here.
The GATE Aptitude Syllabus evaluates candidates' proficiency in English language comprehension, basic numerical skills, and logical reasoning. This subject is common to all the disciplines. The GATE 2026 will be conducted by IIT Guwahati, and it is the responsible authority for releasing the Aptitude syllabus. The authorities will announce the detailed syllabus at gate.iitg.ac.in.
To prepare effectively for the upcoming GATE 2026 exam, candidates can access the comprehensive syllabus outlined below with important topics. It's worth noting that the General Aptitude (GA) section of the GATE syllabus is identical across all papers in the GATE 2026 exam. Familiarizing yourself with the GATE General Aptitude syllabus for 2026 is highly beneficial for all aspiring candidates.
The GATE GA Syllabus consists of four primary sections: Verbal Aptitude, Quantitative Aptitude, Analytical Aptitude, and Spatial Aptitude. Each section focuses on different aspects of aptitude evaluation. To gain insights into the topics covered in each section and to familiarize yourself with the exam pattern, candidates must understand the detailed syllabus:
IIT Guwahati will publish the GATE Aptitude Syllabus 2026 PDF on the official website, gate.iitg.ac.in. The syllabus PDF will contain the topic-wise coverage of the detailed syllabus from which the questions will arise. Candidates must click on the direct link here to download the GATE Aptitude Syllabus PDF from last year as the syllabus remains similar.
GATE General Aptitude Syllabus PDF
The GATE Verbal Ability Syllabus evaluates the candidate's proficiency in verbal and grammatical knowledge. This section includes questions in formats such as Spotting Error, Sentence Completion, Reading Comprehension, and Spotting Error. To provide a clear overview, the major topics covered in the verbal aptitude section are listed in the table below for easy reference.
GATE Verbal Ability Syllabus 2026 |
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Tenses | Adjectives |
Articles | Words and Phrases |
Vocabulary | Parts of speech |
Idioms | Prepositions |
Conjunctions | Verb-noun agreement |
Comprehension & reading | Narrative sequencing |
Sentence completion | Verbal analogies |
Critical reasoning | Word groups |
The Analytical Aptitude section in the GATE General Aptitude syllabus focuses on assessing candidates' analytical and comprehensive knowledge. This section comprises three chapters that specifically target logical reasoning, analogical reasoning, and reasoning ability. To provide clarity, the chapters covered under the Analytical Aptitude section are listed below for easy reference.
GATE Analytical Aptitude Syllabus 2026 |
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Logic: deduction and induction | Analogy |
Number relations & reasoning | Coding-Decoding |
Decision Making | Direction Sense |
Blood Relation | Data Sufficiency |
The spatial aptitude section in the GATE General Aptitude syllabus assesses candidates' abilities in visualization and pattern recognition. This section focuses on the topic of shape transformation. It evaluates how well candidates can visualize and understand the transformation of shapes.
GATE Spatial Aptitude Syllabus 2026 |
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Mirroring | Assembling |
Rotation | Scaling |
Translation | Paper folding & 2-D and 3-D patterns |
Grouping | Papercutting |
The Numerical Aptitude section is the final section in the GATE Aptitude syllabus and holds significant importance in the exam. This section covers seven major topics and is known for its lengthiness.
To prepare effectively for this section, candidates are advised to practice with previous year's question papers and utilize online mock tests. The topics covered in the Numerical Aptitude section are listed below for reference.
GATE Numerical Aptitude Syllabus 2026 |
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Elementary Statistics & probability | Geometry |
Data interpretation | Data- Graphs (bar graph, histogram, pie chart, and other data graphs), 2- and 3- dimensional plots, Maps, and Tables |
Mensuration | Numerical computation & estimation- Powers, Series, Exponents, Percentages, Permutations, Combinations, Ratios, and Logarithms |
Numerical reasoning |
The GATE Aptitude syllabus remains largely unchanged compared to the previous year. The weightage assigned to the General Aptitude section is the same as before. In the GATE 2026 exam, the primary focus is on evaluating candidates' understanding of core subjects, which accounts for 85% of the total weightage and consists of 55 questions.
The remaining ten questions are dedicated to General Aptitude (GA) topics, contributing to 15% of the weightage. This aspect of the GATE examination is applicable to all disciplines and can often make a difference between success and failure for candidates.
Subject-wise weightage for paper codes- AE, AG, BM, BT, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, ES, IN, ME, MN, MT, PE, PI, TF, and XE–
Subject | Marks | Number of Questions |
General Aptitude | 15 | 10 |
Engineering Mathematics | 13 | 55 |
Core Subject | 72 | |
Total Marks | 100 | 65 |
Subject-wise weightage for paper codes- AR, CY, EY, GG, MA, PH, ST, XH, and XL
Subject | Marks | Number of Questions |
General Aptitude | 15 | 10 |
Core Subject | 85 | 55 |
Total Marks | 100 | 65 |
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