29 solved GATE DA 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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Translate word problems into explicit relationships before substituting numbers. Verbal questions are answered from the passage, not from outside knowledge; quantitative questions require identifying the correct base, ratio, or logical connection. These selected foundations cover reading comprehension, data interpretation, quantitative reasoning, and logical deduction. They are not a complete syllabus.
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 merely describes or attributes to someone else.
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 'exacerbate' increases it. Two grammatically valid options can differ in meaning; choose the one consistent with the sentence's overall direction.
Check yourself: Does the completed sentence make a coherent, non-contradictory claim?
Read axis labels, units, and the reference period 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. Verify that the total of parts equals the stated whole.
Check yourself: Is your denominator the correct reference value for the percentage?
Translate the word problem into an equation before solving. 'A is 25% more than B' means A = 1.25B, not B = 1.25A. For ratio problems, confirm the parts add to the stated total. For weighted averages, multiply each value by its weight and divide by the sum of weights.
Check yourself: Have you written the algebraic 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 your proposed conclusion fails?
Original teaching example · not a PYQ
Original mini-example: three stores report monthly sales. Store A: January 120, February 150. Store B: January 200, February 220. Store C: January 160, February 208. Which store had the highest percentage increase from January to February?
Store C, with a 30% increase from January to February.
Separate original check: in a group of 50 people, 35 speak English and 30 speak Hindi. If everyone speaks at least one of the two languages, how many speak both?
15 people speak both languages.
By inclusion-exclusion: |E ∩ H| = |E| + |H| − |E ∪ H| = 35 + 30 − 50 = 15. The union equals 50 because everyone speaks at least one language.
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 29 recent questions from the released archive, newest first. For older questions and complete papers, browse all GATE DA papers. Questions can carry more than one subject tag; counts are not marks weightage.
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