GATE CSE 2026 Set 1 Question Paper with Solutions & Answer Key

General Aptitude and Engineering Mathematics together made up 28 of 100 marks, down 2 from GATE CSE 2025 Set 1. 13 of 65 questions were NAT, the most since 2025. Quantitative Aptitude was the heaviest single topic with 6 marks across 4 questions. Engineering Mathematics moved the most against GATE CSE 2025 Set 1: down 2 marks.

1. Q1 · MCQ · 1 mark · Verbal AptitudeThe antonym of the word protagonist is …
2. Q2 · MCQ · 1 mark · Spatial AptitudeThe figure shows two 4-tile patterns. Either one or both of the patterns can be used any number of times and in any orientation to construct a new pattern. Which one of…
3. Q3 · MCQ · 1 mark · Quantitative AptitudeConsider a knock-out women’s badminton singles tournament where there are no ties. The loser in each game is eliminated from the tournament. Every player plays until she…
4. Q4 · MCQ · 1 mark · Quantitative AptitudeA student needs to enroll for a minimum of 60 credits. A student cannot enroll for more than 70 credits. The credits are divided amongst project and three distinct sets…
5. Q5 · MCQ · 1 mark · Verbal Aptitude‘When the teacher is in the room, all students stand silently.’ If the above statement is true, which one of the following statements is not necessarily true?
6. Q6 · MCQ · 2 marks · Reading ComprehensionCombinatorics deals with problems involving counting. For example, “How many distinct arrangements of N distinct objects in M spaces on a circle are possible?” is a typi…
7. Q7 · MCQ · 2 marks · Spatial AptitudeIn Panel I of the figure below, the front view and top view of a structure are shown. Which one of the 3D structures shown in Panel II possesses the views shown in Panel…
8. Q8 · MCQ · 2 marks · Quantitative AptitudeFor positive real numbers S and K, the function HK(S) is defined as: HK(S) = max(S - K, 0). The max function is defined as: max(a, b) = a, & when a > b b, & when a ≤ b T…
9. Q9 · MCQ · 2 marks · Analytical AptitudeIn the 2020 summer Olympics' Javelin throw finals, Neeraj Chopra exhibited a spectacular performance to win the gold medal. The silver medal was won by Jakub Vadlejch an…
10. Q10 · MCQ · 2 marks · Quantitative AptitudeAn unbiased six-faced dice whose faces are marked with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 is rolled twice in succession and the number on the top face is recorded each time. T…
11. Q11 · MCQ · 1 mark · Probability and StatisticsAn urn contains one red ball and one blue ball. At each step, a ball is picked uniformly at random from the urn, and this ball together with another ball of the same col…
12. Q12 · MCQ · 1 mark · Discrete MathematicsConsider 4 × 4 matrices with their elements from {0, 1}. The number of such matrices with even number of 1s in every row and every column is
13. Q13 · MCQ · 1 mark · Linear AlgebraFor n > 1, the maximum multiplicity of any eigenvalue of an n × n matrix with elements from R is
14. Q14 · MCQ · 1 mark · Instruction Set and Addressing ModesMatch each addressing mode in List I with a data element or an element of a data structure (in a high-level language) in List II:
15. Q15 · MCQ · 1 mark · Instruction Set and Addressing ModesConsider a processor P whose instruction set architecture is the load-store architecture. The instruction format is such that the first operand of any instruction is the…
16. Q16 · MCQ · 1 mark · Instruction PipeliningWhich one of the following dependencies among the register operands of different instructions can cause a data hazard in a pipelined processor?
17. Q17 · MCQ · 1 mark · Asymptotic AnalysisConsider the following recurrence relations: For all n > 1, T1(n) = 4T1 ((n)/(2) ) + T2(n) T2(n) = 5T2 ((n)/(4) ) + (log2 n) Assume that for all n ≤ 1, T1(n) = 1 and T2(…
18. Q18 · MCQ · 1 mark · TCP Flow and Congestion ControlWith respect to a TCP connection between a client and a server, which one of the following statements is true?
19. Q19 · MSQ · 1 mark · DNS and HTTPWhich of the following statements is/are true with respect to the interaction of a web browser with a web server using HTTP 1.1?
20. Q20 · MSQ · 1 mark · Linear AlgebraLet n > 1. Consider an n × n matrix M with its elements from R. Let the vector (0, 1, 0, 0, , 0) ∈ Rn be in the null space of M. Which of the following options is/are al…
21. Q21 · MSQ · 1 mark · Boolean Algebra and MinimizationConsider the following Boolean expression of a function F : F(P, Q) = ( P + Q) ⊕ ( PQ) Which of the following expressions is/are equivalent to F ?
22. Q22 · MSQ · 1 mark · Number Representation and ArithmeticConsider the 8-bit signed integers X, Y and Z represented using the sign-magnitude form. The binary representations of X and Y are as follows: X: 10110100 Y: 01001100 Wh…
23. Q23 · MSQ · 1 mark · Binary HeapsLet n be an odd number greater than 100. Consider a binary minheap with n elements stored in an array P whose index starts from 1. Which of the following indices of P do…
24. Q24 · MSQ · 1 mark · Searching, Sorting and HashingConsider a hash table P[0, 1, , 10] that is initially empty. The hash table is maintained using open addressing with linear probing. The hash function used is h(x) = (x…
25. Q25 · MSQ · 1 mark · Context-Free Grammars and PDAsConsider the following grammar where S is the start symbol, and a and b are terminal symbols. S → aSbS bS Which of the following statements is/are true?
26. Q26 · MSQ · 1 mark · Regular Expressions and Finite AutomataLet M be a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) with 6 states over a finite alphabet. Which of the following options CANNOT be the number of states in the minimal det…
27. Q27 · MSQ · 1 mark · Lexical AnalysisConsider the following C statements: char *str1 = "Hello; /* Statement S1 */ char *str2 = "Hello;"; /* Statement S2 */ int *str3 = "Hello"; /* Statement S3 */ Which of t…
28. Q28 · MSQ · 1 mark · ParsingWhich of the following statements is/are true?
29. Q29 · MSQ · 1 mark · DeadlockWith respect to deadlocks in an operating system, which of the following statements is/are FALSE?
30. Q30 · MSQ · 1 mark · Integrity Constraints and Normal FormsLet P, Q, R and S be the attributes of a relation in a relational schema. Let X → Y indicate functional dependency in the context of a relational database, where X, Y ⊆…
31. Q31 · MSQ · 1 mark · Integrity Constraints and Normal FormsIn the context of relational database normalization, which of the following statements is/are true?
32. Q32 · NAT · 1 mark · CalculusConsider the function f R → R defined as follows: f(x) = c1 ex - c2 loge ((1)/(x) ), & if x > 0 3 & otherwise where c1, c2 ∈ R. If f is continuous at x = 0, then c1 + c2…
33. Q33 · NAT · 1 mark · Programming and Data StructuresThe height of a binary tree is the number of edges in the longest path from the root to a leaf in the tree. The maximum possible height of a full binary tree with 23 nod…
34. Q34 · NAT · 1 mark · Programming in CConsider the following program in C: #include void func(int i, int j) { if(i The output of the program is … (answer in integer) Note: Assume that the program compiles an…
35. Q35 · NAT · 1 mark · DeadlockConsider a system consisting of k instances of a resource R, being shared by 5 processes. Assume that each process requires a maximum of two instances of resource R and…
36. Q36 · MCQ · 2 marks · Number Representation and ArithmeticConsider the real valued variables X, Y and Z represented using the IEEE 754 single-precision floating-point format. The binary representations of X and Y in hexadecimal…
37. Q37 · MCQ · 2 marks · Combinational and Sequential CircuitsConsider a 2-bit saturating up/down counter that performs the saturating up count when the input P is 0, and the saturating down count when P is 1. The Next State table…
38. Q38 · MCQ · 2 marks · Cache Memory and HierarchyThe size of the physical address space of a processor is 232 bytes. The capacity of a cache memory unit is 223 bytes. The cache block size is 128 bytes. The cache memory…
39. Q39 · MCQ · 2 marks · Programming in CConsider the following code snippet in C language that computes the number of nodes in a non-empty singly linked list pointed to by the pointer variable head . struct no…
40. Q40 · MCQ · 2 marks · Binary Search TreesLet P be the set of all integers from 1 to 15. Consider any order of insertion of the elements of P into a binary search tree that creates a complete binary tree. Which…
41. Q41 · MCQ · 2 marks · AlgorithmsLet G(V, E) be an undirected, edge-weighted graph with integer weights. The weight of a path is the sum of the weights of the edges in that path. The length of a path is…
42. Q42 · MCQ · 2 marks · Data Flow AnalysesConsider the control flow graph shown in the figure. Which one of the following options correctly lists the set of redundant expressions (common subexpressions) in the b…
43. Q43 · MCQ · 2 marks · Relational Model and SQLConsider a relational database schema with two relations R(P, Q) and S(X, Y). Let E = { u ∃ v ∃ w u, v ∈ R ∧ v, w ∈ S} be a tuple relational calculus expression. Which o…
44. Q44 · MCQ · 2 marks · TCP Flow and Congestion ControlA TCP sender successfully establishes a connection with a TCP receiver and starts the transmission of segments. The TCP congestion control mechanism’s slow-start thresho…
45. Q45 · MCQ · 2 marks · Data Link LayerConsider the implementation of sliding window protocol over a lossless link, with a window size of W frames, where each frame is of size 1000 bits (including header). Th…
46. Q46 · MSQ · 2 marks · CalculusLet f: R → R be defined as follows: f(x) = ((|x|)/(2) - x ) (x - (|x|)/(2) ) Which of the following statements is/are true?
47. Q47 · MSQ · 2 marks · Discrete MathematicsLet G(V,E) be a simple, undirected graph. A vertex cover of G is a subset V' ⊆ V such that for every (u,v) ∈ E, u ∈ V' or v ∈ V'. Let the size of the smallest vertex cov…
48. Q48 · MSQ · 2 marks · Boolean Algebra and MinimizationConsider a Boolean function F with the following minterm expression: F(P, Q, R, S) = Σ m (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14) Which of the following options is/are the min…
49. Q49 · MSQ · 2 marks · Minimum Spanning TreesLet G(V, E) be a simple, undirected, edge-weighted graph with unique edge weights. Which of the following statements about the minimum spanning trees (MST) of G is/are t…
50. Q50 · MSQ · 2 marks · Graph TraversalsConsider the following pseudocode for depth-first search (DFS) algorithm which takes a directed graph G(V, E) as input, where d[v] and f[v] are the discovery time and fi…
51. Q51 · MSQ · 2 marks · Regular and Context-Free LanguagesLet L1 and L2 be two languages over a finite alphabet, such that L1 ∩ L2 and L2 are regular languages. Which of the following statements is/are always true?
52. Q52 · MSQ · 2 marks · Context-Free Grammars and PDAsConsider the following context-free grammar G. S → abaABAbba A → aaBBAb bBabaa B → aBb ab In the above grammar, S is the start symbol, a and b are terminal symbols, and…
53. Q53 · MSQ · 2 marks · Syntax-Directed TranslationConsider the following two syntax-directed definitions SDD1 and SDD2 for type declarations. D is the start symbol, and int, float and id are the three terminals. The non…
54. Q54 · MSQ · 2 marks · Memory Management and Virtual MemoryConsider a system that has a cache memory unit and a memory management unit (MMU). The address input to the cache memory is a physical address. The MMU has a translation…
55. Q55 · MSQ · 2 marks · Graph TraversalsAn undirected, unweighted, simple graph G(V, E) is said to be 2-colorable if there exists a function c: V → {0, 1} such that for every (u, v) ∈ E, c(u) ≠ c(v). Which of…
56. Q56 · MSQ · 2 marks · CIDR NotationAn ISP having an address block 202.16.0.0/15 assigns a block of 6000 IP addresses to a client, using the classless internet domain routing (CIDR) super-netting approach.…
57. Q57 · NAT · 2 marks · Discrete MathematicsLet G be an undirected graph, which is a path on 8 vertices. The number of matchings in G is … (answer in integer)
58. Q58 · NAT · 2 marks · Probability and StatisticsLet X be a random variable which takes values in the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}. Further, (X = 1) = (X = 2) = (X = 5) = (X = 7) = (1)/(6) and (X = 3) = (X = 4) = (X =…
59. Q59 · NAT · 2 marks · File SystemsConsider a hard disk with a rotational speed of 15000 rpm. The time to move the read/write head from a track to its adjacent track is 1 millisecond. Initially, the head…
60. Q60 · NAT · 2 marks · Instruction PipeliningThe EX stage of a pipelined processor performs the memory read operations for LOAD instructions, and the operations for the arithmetic and logic instructions. Let tEX de…
61. Q61 · NAT · 2 marks · RecursionConsider the recursive functions represented by the following code segment: int bar(int n) { if (n == 1) return 0; else return 1 + bar(n/2); } int foo(int n) { if (n ==…
62. Q62 · NAT · 2 marks · Binary Search TreesThe following sequence corresponds to the preorder traversal of a binary search tree T: 50, 25, 13, 40, 30, 47, 75, 60, 70, 80, 77 The position of the element 60 in the…
63. Q63 · NAT · 2 marks · Processes, Threads and IPCConsider the following program snippet. Assume that the program compiles and runs successfully. Further, assume that the fork() system call is always successful in creat…
64. Q64 · NAT · 2 marks · CPU and I/O SchedulingConsider a CPU that has to execute two types of processes. The first type, Actuators (A), requires a CPU burst of 6 seconds. The second type, Controllers (C), requires a…
65. Q65 · NAT · 2 marks · Integrity Constraints and Normal FormsConsider a relational database schema with a relation R(A, B, C, D). If {A, B} and {A, C} are the only two candidate keys of the relation R, then the number of superkeys…

How many questions were in GATE CSE 2026 Set 1?

GATE CSE 2026 Set 1 had 65 questions for 100 marks: 28 MCQ, 24 MSQ and 13 NAT.

Which subject carried the most marks in GATE CSE 2026 Set 1?

General Aptitude carried the most marks (15 of 100). The top three were General Aptitude (15), Engineering Mathematics (13), Programming and Data Structures (11).

Where can I find the GATE CSE 2026 Set 1 answer key?

The answer key table on this page lists the answer to every question of GATE CSE 2026 Set 1. Open any question for its full verified solution.

Is the GATE CSE 2026 Set 1 paper useful for GATE 2027 preparation?

Yes. Solving past GATE CSE papers shows how marks are spread across subjects and which topics repeat. Compare it with other GATE CSE question papers and the topic-wise GATE CSE PYQs.

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