GATE

Run by

IISc Bengaluru and the IITs, one of them organising each year by rotation (IIT Guwahati for 2026), on behalf of the National Coordination Board, Ministry of Education

Admits you to

M.Tech/M.E. and direct Ph.D. admission at IITs, NITs, IISc and other institutes (with MHRD/AICTE scholarships for GATE-qualified students); some M.Sc and master's programmes in science; and recruitment by public-sector undertakings such as NTPC, GAIL, NPCIL, EIL and NIC, which shortlist on GATE scores.

Who can sit

Students in the third or higher year of any undergraduate degree, or graduates in engineering, technology, architecture, science, commerce, arts or humanities. There is no age limit.

Pattern

Computer-based test, 3 hours, 100 marks, in English, in one of 30 subject papers (you may take up to two from allowed combinations). Every paper has General Aptitude (15 marks); most engineering papers add Engineering Mathematics (13 marks) and 72 marks of subject questions. Questions are MCQ, multiple-select (MSQ) and numerical-answer (NAT).

When

Registration from about late August to October; the exam over two weekends in early-to-mid February; results in March.

Limits

No age or attempt limit. The score is valid for three years from the result, though PSUs usually want the current year's score.

Courses it leads to

• M.Tech / M.E.A two-year master's in one branch of engineering, taken after a B.Tech/B.E.2 years
• M.ScA master's in one science subject — physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, biotechnology, microbiology, zoology, botany, environmental science…2 years
• PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)A PhD is a research degree: you spend several years answering one original question under a supervisor, and write it up as a thesis that outside…3–6 years