STUDY MATERIAL · GATE EC · EE · IN
GATE Network Theory previous year questions and notes
Networks (Electric Circuits), also known as Network Theory. Every Networks (Electric Circuits) question from 21 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
- 123previous-year questions
- worked solutions, checked against the key
- 122worked solutions, checked against the key
- GATE papers, 2018–2026
- 21GATE 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
Circuit laws, sources, and node and mesh analysis
This topic covers what every circuit problem is built from: the V-I laws and stored energy of R, L, C and coupled inductors; ideal, practical and dependent sources; Kirchhoff's laws; series-parallel and star-delta reduction; and the two standard solution methods, nodal analysis (with supernodes) and mesh analysis (with supermeshes).
25 previous-year questions · 34 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 02
Network theorems
Network theorems let you replace all or part of a linear circuit with something simpler.
16 previous-year questions · 27 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 03
Transients in RL, RC and RLC circuits
Transient analysis finds how the voltages and currents of a circuit with inductors and capacitors move from one steady state to another after a switch operates or a source is applied.
20 previous-year questions · 33 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 04
Sinusoidal steady state, AC power and resonance
Sinusoidal steady-state analysis replaces the differential equations of an RLC circuit with complex algebra: every source and response becomes a phasor and every element an impedance, so nodal, mesh and the network theorems apply unchanged.
34 previous-year questions · 52 marks · 6 practice
- TOPIC 05EE · IN SYLLABUS ONLY
Magnetically coupled circuits
Two coils are magnetically coupled when the changing current in one induces a voltage in the other through shared flux; the mutual inductance $M$, the coupling coefficient $k$ and the dot convention fix the size and the sign of that voltage.
6 previous-year questions · 11 marks · 6 practice
- TOPIC 06
Two-port networks
A two-port network is any linear circuit reached through two pairs of terminals, described by four parameters that relate its two port voltages to its two port currents.
11 previous-year questions · 18 marks · 5 practice
- TOPIC 07EE SYLLABUS ONLY
Balanced three-phase circuits
A balanced three-phase circuit is three equal sinusoidal sources $120^\circ$ apart feeding identical impedances in every phase, so it can be solved one phase at a time: the other two phases follow by rotating the result through $\pm 120^\circ$, and the total power is three times the per-phase power.
11 previous-year questions · 19 marks · 5 practice
WHERE THE QUESTIONS FALL
123 questions, by topic and year
Counts across the EC, EE and IN 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laws & node/mesh | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
| Theorems | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 16 |
| Transients | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 20 |
| AC, power & resonance | 8 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 34 |
| Coupled circuits | · | · | · | 1 | 2 | 3 | · | 6 |
| Two-port | 2 | 1 | · | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| Three-phase (EE) | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | · | 11 |
GATE ECE question papers with solutions: 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018
GATE EE question papers with solutions: 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018
GATE IN question papers with solutions: 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018
The 2019 and 2021 papers are not yet included: the copies we host are image scans that do not carry the official key, so no solution to them could be checked.
How we check solutions: editorial standards.
Network Theory formulas by topic
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THE OFFICIAL SYLLABUS
What each paper lists under Networks (Electric Circuits)
Verbatim from the GATE 2027 syllabus PDFs. Each paper files the subject differently: EC as the circuit half of Section 2, “Networks, Signals and Systems”; EE as Section 2, “Electric circuits”; IN as the circuits part of Section 3, “Electrical Circuits and Machines”. Balanced three-phase circuits are listed only in EE’s circuits section — IN mentions three-phase AC circuits only for the measurement of power, in Section 8, Measurements — and EC’s syllabus nowhere names mutual inductance or coupled coils. That is why those two topics are not marked for every branch. IN papers have still set five three-phase questions (in 2020, 2022 and 2025), three of them on measuring power with wattmeters; they are filed under that topic.
GATE EC
Circuit Analysis: Node and mesh analysis, superposition, Thevenin's theorem, Norton’s theorem, reciprocity. Sinusoidal steady state analysis: phasors, complex power, maximum power transfer. Time and frequency domain analysis of linear circuits: RL, RC and RLC circuits, solution of network equations using Laplace transform. Linear 2-port network parameters, wye-delta transformation.
GATE EE
Network Elements: Ideal voltage and current sources, dependent sources, R, L, C, M elements; Network solution methods: KCL, KVL, Node and Mesh analysis; Network Theorems: Thevenin’s, Norton’s, Superposition and Maximum Power Transfer theorem; Transient response of DC and AC networks, sinusoidal steady-state analysis, resonance, two port networks, balanced three phase circuits, star-delta transformation, complex power and power factor in AC circuits.
GATE IN
Electrical Circuits: Independent, dependent, ideal and practical sources; V-I characteristics of practical current and voltage sources, battery, solar cell, resistor, inductor, coupled inductor, capacitor; transient analysis of RC, RL, LC, RLC circuits; power and energy consumption, power rating of components, efficiency and losses. Kirchhoff’s laws, mesh and nodal analysis, star-delta transformation, superposition, Thevenin’s, Norton’s, Miller’s, maximum power transfer and reciprocity theorems. Peak, average and rms values of AC quantities; apparent, active and reactive powers, power factor; phasor analysis, impedance and admittance; series and parallel resonance, locus diagrams, realization of basic filters with R, L, and C elements; transient analysis of RLC circuits with AC excitation. Analysis of one-port and two-port networks with controlled voltage and current sources, driving point impedance and admittance, open and short circuit parameters.
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