GATE EC General Aptitude Previous Year Questions

60 solved GATE EC questions on General Aptitude, drawn from 6 exam years and grouped by year. Every question shows the official answer and a step-by-step solution.

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General Aptitude: read the claim, then test it

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.

Before you start

  • Fractions, percentages, ratios, and basic arithmetic with signed numbers.
  • Ability to read a short English passage and identify its main claim.

Concepts to revise before solving

Reading comprehension and inference

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?

Sentence completion and vocabulary

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?

Data interpretation

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?

Quantitative reasoning

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?

Logical reasoning

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?

Mistakes to avoid

Answering a comprehension question using general knowledge instead of the passage.
Restrict your answer to claims the passage makes or directly supports.
Computing percentage change with the wrong base.
Percentage increase from old to new uses old as denominator; percentage of a total uses the total.
Treating 'some' as 'all' in a syllogism.
'Some A are B' permits A members that are not B; do not strengthen the premise.

Original teaching example · not a PYQ

Work through the reasoning

Original mini-example: a factory produces 200 items per day. On Monday 5% were defective; on Tuesday 8% of 250 items were defective. Find the combined defect rate over both days.

  1. Monday defects: 0.05 × 200 = 10. Tuesday defects: 0.08 × 250 = 20.
  2. Total defects: 10 + 20 = 30. Total items: 200 + 250 = 450.
  3. Combined rate: 30/450 = 1/15 ≈ 6.67%. This is not the average of 5% and 8% because the two days have different totals.

Combined defect rate = 30/450 ≈ 6.67%.

Try it before reading the answer

A train travels 120 km at 60 km/h and then 180 km at 90 km/h. What is its average speed for the whole journey?

Show answer and reasoning

75 km/h.

Time for the first part: 120/60 = 2 hours. Time for the second part: 180/90 = 2 hours. Total distance: 300 km in 4 hours. Average speed = 300/4 = 75 km/h. Do not average the two speeds arithmetically.

Go deeper with free learning resources

Supplemental reading, not an official GATE reading list or an endorsement of these notes.

Apply this to the previous-year questions

Previous-year questions by year

This page shows 60 recent questions from the released archive, newest first. For older questions and complete papers, browse all GATE EC papers. Questions can carry more than one subject tag; counts are not marks weightage.

GATE EC 202610 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1Among the following options, the antonym of the word ‘nocturnal’ is _________.MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  2. Set 1 Q2The statements (S1), (S2), and (S3) pertain to the scores obtained by students in an exam. The maximum possible marks in the exam is 150. (S1) The highest…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  3. Set 1 Q3The figure below has exactly three intersecting line segments with a rectangular portion WXYZWXYZ missing. Which one of the following options P, Q, R, and S is…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  4. Set 1 Q4Real numbers yy, pp, and nn (all greater than 1) satisfy (logp1/ny)(logy1/np)=16(\log_{p^{1/n}} y) (\log_{y^{1/n}} p) = 16, where the logarithms are taken to the bases p1/np^{1/n}MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  5. Set 1 Q5The following observation is made about the scores obtained by 100 students in an exam: 'For each student, there exists another student in the class such that…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  6. Set 1 Q6Each one of the following clues contains a keyword that is partially filled. Clue 1: Synonym of recognize (8 letters): _D_NT_FY\text{\_D\_NT\_FY} Clue 2: A story…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  7. Set 1 Q7Three children P, Q, R and two grown-ups X, Y play a badminton doubles tournament. X and Y are parents to two of the children playing. The child of X is not…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  8. Set 1 Q8Let PkP_k represent the perimeter of a square with sides of length kk. The value of the expression P1+P2+P3++P10P_1 + P_2 + P_3 + \dots + P_{10} is __________MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  9. Set 1 Q9The city of Atlantis was crafted by the God of the seas, Poseidon. It was made of alternating concentric circular rings of land (shaded) and water (not shaded)…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  10. Set 1 Q10If [figure] Then [figure] ?MCQ · +2 marks · Medium

GATE EC 20259 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1Here are two analogous groups, Group-I and Group-II, that list words in their decreasing order of intensity. Identify the missing word in Group-II. Group-I:…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  2. Set 1 Q2Had I learnt acting as a child, I ______ a famous film star. Select the most appropriate option to complete the above sentence.MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  3. Set 1 Q3The 12 musical notes are given as C,C#,D,D#,E,F,F#,G,G#, A, A#, and B. Frequency of each note is 212\sqrt[12]{2} times the frequency of the previous note. If…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  4. Set 1 Q4The following figures show three curves generated using an iterative algorithm. The total length of the curve generated after ‘Iteration nn' is: Note: The…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  5. Set 1 Q6Identify the option that has the most appropriate sequence such that a coherent paragraph is formed: P. Over time, such adaptations lead to significant…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  6. Set 1 Q7A stick of length one meter is broken at two locations at distances of b1b_1 and b2b_2 from the origin (0), as shown in the figure. Note that…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  7. Set 1 Q8Eight students (P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W) are playing musical chairs. The figure indicates their order of position at the start of the game. They play the…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  8. Set 1 Q9The table lists the top 5 nations according to the number of gold medals won in a tournament; also included are the number of silver and the bronze medals won…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  9. Set 1 Q10An organization allows its employees to work independently on consultancy projects but charges an overhead on the consulting fee. The overhead is 20% of the…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium

GATE EC 202411 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1If ‘\rightarrow’ denotes increasing order of intensity, then the meaning of the words [charm \rightarrow enamor \rightarrow bewitch] is analogous to…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  2. Set 1 Q2P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S, and TT have launched a new startup. Two of them are siblings. The office of the startup has just three rooms. All of them agree that the…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  3. Set 1 Q3Five years ago, the ratio of Aman’s age to his father’s age was 1:41:4, and five years from now, the ratio will be 2:52:5. What was his father’s age when Aman…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  4. Set 1 Q4For a real number x>1x > 1, 1log2x+1log3x+1log4x=1\frac{1}{\log_2 x} + \frac{1}{\log_3 x} + \frac{1}{\log_4 x} = 1 The value of xx isMCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  5. Set 1 Q5The greatest prime factor of (31993196)(3^{199} - 3^{196}) isMCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  6. Set 1 Q6Sequence the following sentences (P, Q, R, S) in a coherent passage: P: Shifu’s student exclaimed, “Why do you run since the bull is an illusion?” Q: Shifu…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  7. Set 1 Q7Four identical cylindrical chalk-sticks, each of radius r=0.5r = 0.5 cm and length l=10l = 10 cm, are bound tightly together using a duct tape as shown in the…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  8. Set 1 Q8The bar chart shows the data for the percentage of population falling into different categories based on Body Mass Index (BMI) in 2003 and 2023. [figure] Based…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  9. Set 1 Q9Examples of mirror and water reflections are shown in the figures below: [figure] An object appears as the following image after first reflecting in a mirror…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  10. Set 1 Q10Two identical sheets A and B, of dimensions 24 cm ×\times 16 cm, can be folded into half using two distinct operations, FO1 or FO2. In FO1, the axis of…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  11. Set 1 Q36Consider the Earth to be a perfect sphere of radius RR. Then the surface area of the region, enclosed by the 60°N latitude circle, that contains the north…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium

GATE EC 20239 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1“I cannot support this proposal. My ________ will not permit it.”MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  2. Set 1 Q2Courts : _______ : : Parliament : Legislature (By word meaning)MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  3. Set 1 Q3What is the smallest number with distinct digits whose digits add up to 45?MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  4. Set 1 Q4In a class of 100 students, (i) there are 30 students who neither like romantic movies nor comedy movies, (ii) the number of students who like romantic movies…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  5. Set 1 Q5How many rectangles are present in the given figure? [figure]MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  6. Set 1 Q6Forestland is a planet inhabited by different kinds of creatures. Among other creatures, it is populated by animals all of whom are ferocious. There are also…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  7. Set 1 Q8Which one of the following options can be inferred from the given passage alone? When I was a kid, I was partial to stories about other worlds and…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  8. Set 1 Q9Out of 1000 individuals in a town, 100 unidentified individuals are covid positive. Due to lack of adequate covid-testing kits, the health authorities of the…MCQ · +2 marks · Hard
  9. Set 1 Q10A 100 cm×32 cm100 \text{ cm} \times 32 \text{ cm} rectangular sheet is folded 5 times. Each time the sheet is folded, the long edge aligns with its opposite side.…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium

GATE EC 202211 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1Mr. X speaks _______ Japanese _______ Chinese.MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  2. Set 1 Q2A sum of money is to be distributed among P, Q, R, and S in the proportion 5:2:4:35 : 2 : 4 : 3, respectively. If R gets ₹ 1000 more than S, what is the share of Q…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  3. Set 1 Q3A trapezium has vertices marked as P, Q, R and S (in that order anticlockwise). The side PQ is parallel to side SR. Further, it is given that,…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  4. Set 1 Q4The figure shows a grid formed by a collection of unit squares. The unshaded unit square in the grid represents a hole. What is the maximum number of squares…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  5. Set 1 Q5An art gallery engages a security guard to ensure that the items displayed are protected. The diagram below represents the plan of the gallery where the…MCQ · +1 marks · Medium
  6. Set 1 Q6Mosquitoes pose a threat to human health. Controlling mosquitoes using chemicals may have undesired consequences. In Florida, authorities have used genetically…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  7. Set 1 Q7Consider the following inequalities. (i) 2x1>72x - 1 > 7 (ii) 2x9<12x - 9 < 1 Which one of the following expressions below satisfies the above two inequalities?MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  8. Set 1 Q8Four points P(0,1)P(0, 1), Q(0,3)Q(0, -3), R(2,1)R(-2, -1), and S(2,1)S(2, -1) represent the vertices of a quadrilateral. What is the area enclosed by the quadrilateral?MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  9. Set 1 Q9In a class of five students P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S and TT, only one student is known to have copied in the exam. The disciplinary committee has investigated the…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  10. Set 1 Q10Consider the following square with the four corners and the center marked as P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S and TT respectively. [figure] Let X,YX, Y and ZZ represent the…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  11. Set 1 Q31The bar graph shows the frequency of the number of wickets taken in a match by a bowler in her career. For example, in 17 of her matches, the bowler has taken…NAT · +1 marks · Medium

GATE EC 202110 questions

  1. Set 1 Q1The current population of a city is 11,02,500. If it has been increasing at the rate of 5% per annum, what was its population 2 years ago?MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  2. Set 1 Q2pp and qq are positive integers and pq+qp=3\frac{p}{q} + \frac{q}{p} = 3, then, p2q2+q2p2=\frac{p^2}{q^2} + \frac{q^2}{p^2} =MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  3. Set 1 Q3The least number of squares that must be added so that the line P-Q becomes the line of symmetry is ________ [figure]MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  4. Set 1 Q4Nostalgia is to anticipation as ____ is to ____ **Which one of the following options maintains a similar logical relation in the above…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  5. Set 1 Q5Consider the following sentences: (i) I woke up from sleep. (ii) I woked up from sleep. (iii) I was woken up from sleep. **(iv) I was wokened…MCQ · +1 marks · Easy
  6. Set 1 Q6Given below are two statements and two conclusions. Statement 1: All purple are green. Statement 2: All black are green. **Conclusion I: Some black…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  7. Set 1 Q7Computers are ubiquitous. They are used to improve efficiency in almost all fields from agriculture to space exploration. Artificial intelligence (AI) is…MCQ · +2 marks · Easy
  8. Set 1 Q8Consider a square sheet of side 1 unit. In the first step, it is cut along the main diagonal to get two triangles. In the next step, one of the cut triangles…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  9. Set 1 Q9The number of minutes spent by two students, X and Y, exercising every day in a given week are shown in the bar chart above. The number of days in the given…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium
  10. Set 1 Q10Corners are cut from an equilateral triangle to produce a regular convex hexagon as shown in the figure above. The ratio of the area of the regular convex…MCQ · +2 marks · Medium

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