GATE 2025: These are the most-opted subjects in the last 5 years

GATE 2025: The computer science and information technology (CS) paper has remained one of the most-registered subjects in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in the last five years. Mechanical engineering and civil engineering are also on the list of the most-opted subjects.

While the registration for the GATE held for admission to master’s and doctoral programmes and recruitment by some public sector undertakings is underway, here are the top three subjects where students have been registering the most. 

In 2024, as many as 1,52,652 students applied to appear for the Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) paper — the highest in all subjects. The maximum mark obtained in CS was 90 last year and the lowest was -13.33. The maximum score obtained was 1000 and the lowest was -96. Of the 1,52,652 students registering in CS, as many as 1,23,967 appeared and only 21,949 could qualify.

Top 3 subjects in GATE 2024

Subjects No of students registered No of students appeared No of students qualified
Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) 1,52,652 1,23,967 21,949
Civil Engineering (CE) 1,08,136 85,869 16,604
Mechanical Engineering (ME) 83,114 65,546 11,922

According to GATE 2023 data, the most number of registered students were seen in Civil Engineering. As many as 1,05,064 students registered for it. Of them 83,187 appeared and and as many as 1,57,85 made to the qualified list. 

Top 3 subjects in GATE 2023

Subjects No of students registering No of students appearing No of students qualifying
Civil Engineering (CE) 1,05,064 83,187 1,57,85
Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) 99,555 75,679 14,797
Mechanical Engineering (ME) 82,233 63,489 11,401

In 2022 as well, the CE paper garnered the most number of students registering for it. Of the 1,36,285 students registering for the subject, as many as 1,00,043 appeared and 17,776 qualified. 

Subjects No of students registering No of students appearing No of students qualifying
Civil Engineering (CE) 1,36,285 1,00,043 17,776
Mechanical Engineering (ME) 1,26,979 89,567 15,282
Computer Science and Information Technology (CS) 1,15,458 77,257 12,727

In 2021, as many as 1,20,594 students appeared in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) paper followed by 1,15,270 students in Civil Engineering (CE) and 1,01,922 in Computer Science and Information Technology (CS). Of them, 17.38 per cent of the total students qualified in ME, 17.45 per cent in CE and 17.73 per cent of the total students qualified in CS.

In 2020, out of the total 8,58,890 registered candidates in 25 papers, 6,85,088 candidates (79.76%) appeared in the examination and around 18.8% candidates qualified. The qualifying marks for the geophysics paper was the highest across all categories – 51.9 out of 100 for the General (EWS) category students, 46.7 for OBC (NCL) and 34.6 for the SC, ST and PwD students.

GATE is held by seven IITs – IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee and IISc Bengaluru for admission to master’s and doctoral programmes and recruitment by some public sector undertakings. This year, IIT Roorkee is the organising institute.

GATE 2025 will be conducted for 30 test papers. A candidate is allowed to appear either in one or up to two test papers. The test papers will be in English. Each GATE 2025 paper is for a total of 100 marks. While general aptitude (GA) is common for all papers (15 marks), the rest of the paper covers the respective test paper syllabus (85 marks). The test paper subjects include aerospace engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics, statistics, humanities and social sciences, life sciences and petroleum engineering.

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