STUDY MATERIAL · GATE CS · DA
GATE Data Structures and Algorithms previous year questions and notes
Every Data Structures and Algorithms question from 13 GATE papers (2018–2026), solved step by step and checked against the organising institute’s official answer key — with notes for each topic, a formula sheet and practice questions.
- previous-year questions
- 117previous-year questions
- worked solutions, checked against the key
- 114worked solutions, checked against the key
- GATE papers, 2018–2026
- 13GATE papers, 2018–2026
- topics with notes
- 7topics with notes
TOPICS
Seven topics, in the order they are taught
Cut from the official GATE 2027 syllabus. Each topic has notes, the formulas you need, every previous-year question on it with a checked solution, and practice questions.
- TOPIC 01
Arrays, stacks, queues and linked lists
GATE CS/IT notes on arrays, stacks, queues and linked lists.
13 previous-year questions · 20 marks · 6 practice
- TOPIC 02
Trees, binary search trees and binary heaps
Trees, binary search trees and binary heaps: how hierarchical data is structured, searched and prioritised.
26 previous-year questions · 38 marks · 7 practice
- TOPIC 03CS SYLLABUS ONLY
Asymptotic complexity and recurrences
Asymptotic complexity describes how an algorithm's time and space grow with input size $n$, independent of any machine.
14 previous-year questions · 19 marks · 6 practice
- TOPIC 04
Searching, sorting and hashing
Searching, sorting and hashing cover how to find, order and index data.
18 previous-year questions · 23 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 05
Greedy, dynamic programming and divide-and-conquer
Greedy, dynamic programming and divide-and-conquer are the three core algorithm-design paradigms for GATE CS.
8 previous-year questions · 13 marks · 6 practice
- TOPIC 06
Graphs: traversals, minimum spanning trees and shortest paths
Graph traversal (BFS, DFS with timestamps and edge classification), ordering and connectivity (topological sort, connected and strongly connected components), minimum spanning trees (Kruskal, Prim, cut and cycle properties) and shortest paths (BFS, DAG relaxation, Dijkstra, Bellman-Ford, Floyd-Warshall): the exact procedures, the conditions under which each algorithm is correct, and their time and space costs, with hand-traced worked examples and original practice problems.
28 previous-year questions · 53 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 07DA SYLLABUS ONLY
Programming in Python
Python for GATE DA is tested as exact-output tracing: you read a short program and say what it prints.
10 previous-year questions · 18 marks · 6 practice
WHERE THE QUESTIONS FALL
117 questions, by topic and year
Counts across the CS and DA papers of each year. A count of what was asked, not a forecast of what will be. The topic tags are IAE’s reading of each question, and every question links back to its paper.
| Topic | 2018 | 2020 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linear structures | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
| Trees & heaps | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 26 |
| Complexity | · | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| Sorting & hashing | · | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 18 |
| Design techniques | 2 | · | · | 1 | 3 | · | 2 | 8 |
| Graph algorithms | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 28 |
| Python | · | · | · | · | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
GATE CSE question papers with solutions: 2026 Set 1, 2026 Set 2, 2025 Set 1, 2025 Set 2, 2024 Set 1, 2024 Set 2, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018
For CS, the 2019 and 2021 papers are not included: the copies IAE hosts are image scans. GATE 2023 is read from IIT Kanpur's own copy of the paper and its answer key (via the Internet Archive), which numbers the CS questions Q.11 to Q.65. For 2024, 2025 and 2026 both sessions (CS1 and CS2) are included. For DA, all three keyed papers are included — 2024 (IISc Bengaluru), 2025 (IIT Roorkee) and 2026 (IIT Guwahati) — each read from the organising institute's own copy with its final answer key.
How we check solutions: editorial standards.
Data Structures and Algorithms formulas by topic
Preparing in Kolkata? See IAE Academy’s GATE CS coaching and GATE DA coaching.
THE OFFICIAL SYLLABUS
What each paper lists under Data Structures and Algorithms
Verbatim from the GATE 2027 syllabus PDF: the data-structure items of CS Section 4, “Programming and Data Structures”, and all of CS Section 5, “Algorithms”. Programming in C and recursion, the first two items of Section 4, are on the Programming in C page. For DA, all of Section 4, “Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms”, including Programming in Python, the topic only DA lists.
GATE CS
Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search trees, binary heaps, graphs. … Searching, sorting, hashing. Asymptotic worst case time and space complexity. Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide‐and‐conquer. Graph traversals, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths.
GATE DA
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.
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