Free GATE DA mock
One GATE DA paper in the real exam format: 65 questions across one timed section, 3 hr on a server-controlled clock.
About the real exam India's fastest-growing GATE paper — your gateway to AI/ML research at IISc, the IITs, and the IIITs.
Free, reversible until you begin · one attempt per account · no retake, no card.
The GATE DA in four panels
The exam
GATE DA (Data Science and Artificial Intelligence) is the newest paper in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering — introduced in 2024 by IISc Bangalore, then IIT Roorkee (2025), IIT Guwahati (2026), and IIT Madras (2027). It was created to fill a real gap: India's premier M.Tech programmes in AI, machine learning, and data science had no dedicated GATE paper, forcing aspirants to enter via CS, EE, or Mathematics. The single 3-hour CBT covers 65 questions across 7 core sections plus General Aptitude, totalling 100 marks. Scores stay valid for three years and are accepted at IISc DSAI, IIT Madras' Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI, IIT Bombay's C-MInDS, IIT Hyderabad's AI department, IIT Delhi's Yardi School of AI, and all IIT M.Tech AI/DS programmes — plus MS and PhD admissions at IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Delhi, and IIIT Bangalore. It is also an emerging qualifying gate for AI Researcher and Scientist-grade positions at BARC, ISRO, DRDO, and the National Quantum Mission labs.
The candidates
- Final-year B.Tech / B.E. / MCA students from CS, IT, Mathematics, Statistics, EE, or allied branches targeting an M.Tech in AI/DS at IISc or an IIT.
- B.Sc. / M.Sc. graduates in Mathematics, Statistics, or Computer Science wanting to pivot into AI/ML research via a CFTI M.Tech.
- Working professionals (1–5 years in software, data engineering, or analytics) preparing to switch into applied ML or AI research.
- Job-seekers targeting AI Researcher / Data Scientist roles at BARC, ISRO, DRDO, NTRO, and the emerging AI-focused central labs that now use GATE DA as their first-round filter.
- GATE CS aspirants picking up DA as a paired second paper — Programming + Math + Algorithms overlap is high, competition is roughly half of CS.
How people prepare for it
- Probability and Statistics is the single biggest scoring section (~17 marks) AND the most tractable — start here. Solve at least 50 problems each on Bayes theorem, expectation/variance, and the named distributions (binomial, Poisson, normal) before moving on.
- Machine Learning (~16 marks) rewards conceptual depth + computation practice. Bishop's PRML and Hastie/Tibshirani/Friedman's ESL are the canonical references. Don't skip the math behind ridge regression, SVM dual formulation, and PCA — GATE consistently tests derivations, not just terminology.
- Programming (~17 marks) is Python-only. Practise 30+ problems each on basic DS (stacks, queues, trees, hash tables), and at least 15 each on the two divide-and-conquer sorts (mergesort, quicksort) including correctness proofs and recurrence solving.
- Linear Algebra and Calculus/Optimization together are ~20 marks and overlap heavily with ML — every gradient-descent question, every eigendecomposition, every Lagrangian touches both. Treat them as one combined effort.
- Practise mixed +1/+2 marking with proportional negatives on weekly full-length mocks. Strategy under negative marking is its own skill, separate from subject mastery — most GATE DA candidates lose 8–12 marks per paper to bad guessing alone.
- Solve all GATE DA 2024 and 2025 PYQs end-to-end — these are the only two papers in existence at the start of GATE 2027 prep. Each section yields 8–15 PYQ items; exhaust them, then move to GATE CS Math sections + GATE Mathematics paper for additional rigor on shared topics.
Figures about the real exam, as recorded in the Myndaq course. They describe the real sitting, not this free mock paper - check current details with the exam body before you book.
What it opens up
- Master Probability, Linear Algebra, and Calculus to the depth modern ML demands — the same mathematical foundation top AI labs assume.
- Build first-principles understanding of regression, classification, clustering, and dimensionality reduction — not just sklearn API knowledge.
- Develop fluent Python data-manipulation and algorithm-implementation skills (basic DS, search, sort, graph traversals).
- Practise relational thinking with SQL, ER modelling, normalization, and the warehousing concepts that underlie production data systems.
- Reason about AI search, logic, and Bayesian inference — the classical AI foundation modern systems still build on.
- Strategise under negative marking — pick attempt sets, manage time across 65 mixed-difficulty items, and avoid the 10-mark guess-tax that sinks most DA candidates.
Course context for the real GATE DA.
What you get back
You get your raw marks and per-section scores. No scaled score, band, rank or percentile is estimated for this paper.
- Scored out of 100 raw marks, with per-section totals.
- Wrong answers can cost marks where the paper defines it - the per-section marks in the paper map are the marks the scorer applies.
How the real GATE DA is scored
GATE scores are reported as both raw marks (out of 100) and a normalised GATE score (out of 1000) — IISc / IIT cutoffs are quoted in the 1000-scale, PSU cutoffs in the 100-scale. The General-category qualifying mark for DA in 2025 was 26.2 / 100, dropping to 23.5 for OBC-NCL / EWS and 17.4 for SC / ST / PwD. The qualifying mark is only the floor; competitive M.Tech in AI/DS programmes and PSU AI Researcher roles require considerably higher.
Context only - this free mock returns: You get your raw marks and per-section scores. No scaled score, band, rank or percentile is estimated for this paper.
The paper, start to finish
One cell per question, grouped by section.
Navigation: move freely between questions within a section.
What differs or is limited
- This free mock follows the same paper shape, timing, marking scheme and navigation as our paid GATE DA 2027 mock series. It is scored automatically. It does not include tutor explanations, analysis dashboards or practice content.
- Includes the virtual calculator and free navigation, as in the real exam.
How this mirrors the real format
- The paper structure is the real format: a single timed section, 65 questions in total.
- Timing is server-controlled for the full 3 hr -- closing the tab does not pause the clock, exactly like our paid mock series.
- Marking follows the published paper: the per-section marks shown in the paper map are the marks the scorer applies.
- Navigation is free within a section: you can review and change answers before you submit.
- An on-screen calculator is provided in the sections where the exam allows one.
"Real format" means the paper shape, timing, marking and navigation above - not the official exam software, its visual identity, or any affiliation with the exam body.
Device and setup checklist
- A stable internet connection for the full duration.
- An on-screen calculator is provided where the exam allows one.
- A laptop or desktop is recommended for the closest exam experience.
One attempt, explicitly
Adding this mock to your account is free and reversible - you can change the exam any time before you begin. Only the confirmed Begin action uses your one attempt. No retake, no reset, no card.