60 solved GATE CS questions on General Aptitude, drawn from 3 exam years and grouped by year. Every question shows the official answer and a step-by-step solution.
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Separate what is stated from what is inferred. Verbal reasoning depends on the passage's own claims; quantitative reasoning depends on a stated relationship. These selected foundations connect reading comprehension, data interpretation, and basic arithmetic reasoning. They are not a substitute for broader practice.
Our study notes and original examples support the PYQs below; they are not official exam questions or a replacement for the current syllabus.
Answer from the passage, not from outside knowledge. A stated claim is explicit; an inference must follow from stated information without additional assumptions. Distinguish the author's position from a position the author describes.
Check yourself: Does the passage actually say this, or are you importing an assumption?
Eliminate options that contradict the sentence's logic. A word's connotation matters: 'mitigate' reduces severity while 'aggravate' increases it. Two grammatically valid options can differ in meaning; choose the one consistent with the sentence's direction.
Check yourself: Does the completed sentence make a coherent, non-contradictory claim?
Read axis labels, units, and the base year before computing. A percentage increase uses the earlier value as the denominator. A bar chart's visual height is proportional to its value only when the axis starts at zero; a truncated axis exaggerates differences.
Check yourself: Is your denominator the correct reference value?
Translate the word problem into a relationship before solving. 'A is 20% more than B' means A = 1.2B, not B = 1.2A. For ratio problems, ensure the parts sum to the stated total. For averages, the total equals the average times the count.
Check yourself: Have you written the relationship before substituting numbers?
In syllogisms, a valid conclusion follows from the premises alone. 'All A are B' and 'All B are C' yields 'All A are C', but 'Some A are B' and 'Some B are C' does not yield 'Some A are C'. Use Venn diagrams or formal rules rather than intuition about what 'sounds right'.
Check yourself: Can you draw a diagram where the premises hold but the conclusion fails?
Original teaching example · not a PYQ
Original mini-example: in a group of 80 students, 60% study subject X and 45% study subject Y. If every student studies at least one of the two, how many study both?
4 students study both subjects.
A company's revenue was 500 units in Year 1 and 600 units in Year 2. What is the percentage increase from Year 1 to Year 2?
20%.
The increase is 100 units. The base is Year 1's value: 100/500 = 0.20, or 20%. Using 600 as the denominator would incorrectly yield approximately 16.7%.
Supplemental reading, not an official GATE reading list or an endorsement of these notes.
The conducting institute's syllabus document defines what General Aptitude covers. Check the latest year's brochure for any scope changes.
This page shows 60 recent questions from the released archive, newest first. For older questions and complete papers, browse all GATE CS papers. Questions can carry more than one subject tag; counts are not marks weightage.
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