The best time to start preparing for gate is now!!
It is not like that i will start from monday or from 1st of the next month. If you want to achieve success there is no shortcut. So better start from now. But before starting preparation you must know about how to prepare and what is your strategy for the GATE exam.
In this post i am discussing Computer Science Books and other material which was useful for me at the time of my preparation.
First of all check your GATE syllabus and make a rough idea about the course and how much time it takes to cover all these things first time. See although there are many subjects but you have done with all of them in your engineering. So don't panic after checking syllabus. But also don't take it lightly. Because you need to prepare well. What you have studied in your Engineering and GATE both may be same but question pattern is slightly different.
Some General instructions for all
- Practice more questions. Reading theory again and again will not help you. generally students read theory multiple times during gate preparation and do not practice any question. This will pay you in the exams.
- Don't leave any topic thinking that it is not important. Because if question comes from that topic and if you don't know anything you are not able to solve very simple questions. So keep in mind that you have to cover all. So you can at least understand the questions.
- Don't read only those subjects which you find interesting. Because you are not making gate paper. IIT is doing this for you. After clearing gate in M.Tech you are free to do research in your interest but till then you have to reach at that place. So you need to work hard in all areas.
- If you like learning from videos try NPTEL, Coursera, Udacity etc. They all are good and teaches in a different way.
- Always start preparation by collecting books and other material which you need. Because you can't fight in a battle without any weapons. Collect them and start.
- Don't run for collecting everything. Generally students collect books and material of different institutes and do not study them single time. They Don't know how to use them. So its better that before the battle we know how to use your best weapons to win the fight.
Now i am giving names of some books which is good for concepts and have good number of question so that you can prepare well. These books and material i have used during my preparation.
Programming , Data Structures and Algorithms
Syllabus :
Programming in C; Functions, Recursion, Parameter passing, Scope, Binding; Abstract data types, Arrays, Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists, Trees, Binary search trees, Binary heaps.
Analysis, Asymptotic notation, Notions of space and time complexity, Worst and average case analysis; Design: Greedy approach, Dynamic programming, Divide-and-conquer; Tree and graph traversals, Connected components, Spanning trees, Shortest paths; Hashing, Sorting, Searching. Asymptotic analysis (best, worst, average cases) of time and space, upper and lower bounds, Basic concepts of complexity classes – P, NP, NP-hard, NP-complete.
Important Points :
- This is the most important subject according to GATE point of you. Approximately 25% Questions in Gate come from above topics and all are related with each other. If you are good in this subject this will not only help you in GATE but also after it in so many written exams and interviews of Different IITs and IIITs.
- C programming Questions are mostly based on finding outputs which contain some pointers, static variables, arrays, strings, functions etc. So the best way to practice C programming question is take questions from different books, try to solve them and try to do programming on Compiler. It will increase your skills and accuracy. Very high chances of common data questions. So if you are not good at programming start practice from now.
- Understand Different Problems on Stack, Queue, Link List. Generally they come in a C program, But you can solve them only if you know the logic. Properties of Heap. Deletion and insertion of items in the heap.
- Practice Tree problems like no of leaf nodes, non leaf nodes, total nodes, height of the tree, no of full nodes, mirror image, etc. AVL tree and balancing them on insertion and Deletion. Binary tree, Binary Search Tree, Inorder, Preorder, Postorder traversal. Spanning Trees, Minimum Spanning Tree problems.
- Finding Complexity : Very Important Topic. You need to practice more and with every problem you solved. Sometimes direct question comes related to complexity like give complexity of Heap sort. But mostly you are given a code or question. You need to find best average case complexity of that problem. So try to find complexity of every algorithm or program which you practice. Also understand properties of complexity. Sometimes relation between them is asked.
- Searching and Sorting Problems. Difference between Different Techniques and how to apply them on different real life problems.
- Questions on approach of dynamic programming, Divide and Conquer, Greedy and Brute Force. Practice basic problems like quick sort, merge sort, knapsack problem, matrix chain multiplication, LCS, Job sequencing, Compressing Mechanism. It will help you to solve other tricky problems.
- Basic Theory of P-NP class
Books and Study Material :
- Programming With C by Byron Gottfried ( Schaum's Series ) : Best book for C language. Contains a lot of problems and solutions. pointers are given in very good way and covers everything in C.
- Data Structures by Seymour Lipschutz ( Schaum's Series ) : Very Good book for beginners. Does not contains large number of questions but still very good for understanding the concept. It covers all the basics of data structures.
- Introduction to Algorithm by Cormen : Contains all the topics with deep theory. each chapter contains tricky problems and helps in solving gate problems.
- Data Structure and algorithms made easy by Narasimha Karumanchi : Very Impressive book. This book is specially designed for gate. It also helps you in interview. It contains problems, there solution and equivalent C program with complexity. So you can practice this subject completely from this book.
- NPTEL Videos Data Structures And Algorithms : very good videos. Teaches us how to solve tricky problems and there complexity.
- NPTEL Videos C Programming
- NPTEL Videos Design and Analysis of Algorithms
- MIT Learning Videos Introduction To Algorithms : very good, based on cormen
- Algorithm Lectures Skiena's Algorithms Lectures
- Introduction To Algorithms
Operating System
Syllabus : Processes, Threads, Inter-process communication, Concurrency, Synchronization, Deadlock, CPU scheduling, Memory management and virtual memory, File systems, I/O systems, Protection and security.
Important Points :
- Scheduling : Numerical Questions have more chances. Practice more in finding turn around time and waiting time of different scheduling policies.
- Deadlock : Bankers Algo, Given Sequence is safe or not. Chances of common data or linked questions.
- Synchronization : High Probability Of Questions in exam. Practice some question related to semaphores and classical problems of synchronization (this will help you to solve other questions)
- Memory Management : Questions generally comes from page table size, number of pages, logical address, physical address, page size, inverted page table, virtual memory, TLB etc.
Books and study material :
- Operating system concepts by Abraham Silberschatz and Peter Galvin : Use this book to understand Concepts of Operating System. Solve Problems. Solution available on net.
- Operating System (Pearson Publication ) by Harvey M. Deitel , Paul J. Dietel and David R. Choffnes : Best book to practice questions and understanding deeply the concepts of operating system. If you love Operating System and want to say this in interview you should read this book.
- You can use pdfs available on NPTEL : Operating System
- Video Lectures available on NPTEL : High Performance Computing ( All lectures are not useful. Watch only which contains syllabus.)
Theory Of Computation :
Syllabus : Regular languages and finite automata, Context free languages and Push-down automata, Recursively enumerable sets and Turing machines, Undecidability.
Important Points :
- Finite Automata covers approximately 50% questions from TOC. So give it more time then others. Do questions realted to finding minimum number of states, NFA to DFA conversion, Closure Properties of finite automata, Finding Regular Expressions,mealy moore machine etc.
- In Context free grammer practice more on simplification of CFG, pushdown automata, closure properties etc.
- Do problems on finding category of any language or grammar.
- Concepts related to expressive power of different languages.
- Basic problems related to NP-Completeness. Properties of Recursive and Recursive Enumerable Languages.
- Turing Machine making and expressive power of different type of turing machine. ( also useful for interview )
Books and Study Material :
- Introduction to Automata theory. Languages and Computation by Ullman : Best book for TOC but it is difficult to understand initially. It covers all the topics related to syllabus.
- Introduction to Formal Languages, Automata theory and Computation by Kamala Krithivasan and Rama R : Written by IIT madras authors. Contains some gate problems and solutions.
- Introduction to Languages and theory of computation by John C Martin : This book contains lot of problems. Try to solve them with your group. Not preferable for theory.
- NPTEL IIT madras lecture Theory of Automata, Formal Languages and Computation : Best lecture. Complete the series and you don't need any other book for concepts.
- NPTEL IIT kanpur lecture Theory of Computation
- NPTEL web resources Theory of Automata and Formal Languages
Compiler Design
Syllabus : Lexical analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environments, Intermediate and target code generation, Basics of code optimization.
Important Points :
- Parsing : there is always a question related to parsing. You need to practice all parsing technique because there is also chances for linked questions. finding first and follow, LL(1)-LR(1)-SLR-LALR-CLR.
- Precedence and Associativity of operators.
- Finding value from expression tree.
- Ambiguous grammar.
Books and Study Material :
- Principles of Compiler Design by Aho , Ullman : This book contains all type of problems and every topic which is related to gate syllabus.
- Lecture slides from standford : Compiler (very good)
- Coursera course for compilers : Compiler
- NPTEL Video Lecture Compiler Design
- NPTEL web resources Compiler Design
Databases
Syllabus : ER-model, Relational model (relational algebra, tuple calculus), Database design (integrity constraints, normal forms), Query languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files, indexing, B and B+ trees), Transactions and concurrency control.
Important Points :
- No gate paper completed without Normalization. This is very easy once you understand and can solve questions quickly. Questions are like Finding normal form ( comes 70% times in gate paper ), finding candidate keys, decomposition of relation, loss less join and dependency preservation have more probability to come.
- SQL Queries also asked in the paper. Practice select clause properly with properties of having,group by, any ,all, exits. Question may come with relational algebra in common data section.
- Practice joins because there is more probability of tricky questions from them.
- Finding View and Conflict serializability. Finding Recoverable and Cascade schedule.lock based, Two phase, time stamp and graph based protocal with there properties like deadlock freedom, starvation freedom.
- formation and structure of B and B+ tress. primary and clustering index. Numerical Questions from no of block required in indexing of different type, collision resolution, minimum and maximum no of nodes in B,B+ trees.
Books and Study Material :
- Database system concepts by Silberschatz , Korth , Sudarshan : Before reading any other book i suggest you to read this book once. It is very good book for theory and it covers complete syllabus. (solutions available on net)
- Database Management systems by Raghu RamaKrishnan : very good book to practice questions. Solutions are also available on net. More you practice more your chances to success.
- Fundamentals Of Database system by Elmasri Navathe
- NPTEL lectures Database Design ( according to my view not very usefull but good for some topics like indexing )
- Coursera Lectures : Databases
Digital Logic
Syllabus : Logic functions, Minimization, Design and synthesis of combinational and sequential circuits; Number representation and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).
Important Points :
- Digital logic contains very simple questions. If you practice and use your brain in a right way you can do them easily.
- Practice K-Map. very high chances of very simple question. Don't loose your marks here.
- Practice Multiplexer, De-multiplexer, Encoder, Decoder questions.
- Understand concept of flip flop. They are given and modulas of counter is asked.
- Practice questions related to Floating Point representation, integer representation, ieee format, range and precision.
Books and Study Material :
- Digital Fundamentals by Thomas L. Floyd : Best book for Digital Logic. Its a complete package for gate. Contains very good level of theory and lots of multiple choice questions for practice.
- Digital Circuit and Design by Salivahanan and Arivazhagan : Good for start. Language is very easy.
- NPTEL Lectures from IIT Madras. : Digital Circuits and Systems : Very interesting course. Teacher is too good. Recommended by me.
Computer Organization and Architecture
Syllabus : Machine instructions and addressing modes, ALU and data-path, CPU control design, Memory interface, I/O interface (Interrupt and DMA mode), Instruction pipelining, Cache and main memory, Secondary storage.
Important Points :
- Addressing Modes : Theory and questions
- Numerical related to program counter after some instruction, no of one address-two address instructions, Values after shift and rotate instructions, horizontal and vertical programming related questions.
- Numerical Problems on Speed up of pipeline, time taken to complete instruction in pipeline and non-pipeline architectures, Hazards in pipeline, hazards removal, branch penalty etc.
- Numerical Problems on cache memory organization, mapping technique, multilevel caches, write through and write back technique
- Questions are more tricky in this subject. So you need to practice more on different types of Numerical Questions.
Books and Study Material :
- Computer System Architecture by M. Morris Mano : very good book for theory. Solutions available on net so you can practice all questions easily.
- Structured Computer Organization by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
- Computer Organization and architecture by william stallings
- NPTEL Web Resources pdf Computer Organization
- NPTEL Web Resources Computer Organization
- NPTEL Video Lecture Link1 Link2
Computer Network
Syllabus : ISO/OSI stack, LAN technologies (Ethernet, Token ring), Flow and error control techniques, Routing algorithms, Congestion control, TCP/UDP and sockets, IP(v4), Application layer protocols (icmp, dns, smtp, pop, ftp, http); Basic concepts of hubs, switches, gateways, and routers. Network security – basic concepts of public key and private key cryptography, digital signature, firewalls.
Important Points :
- Addressing related questions : Subnet address, supernet address, brodcast address, range of network, no of host, classless addressing, non continuous addresses, first host and last host finding etc.
- Properties Of Circuit Switching and packet switching, Routing Protocols and Numerical Problems on them.
- Flow Control and Error Control Policies. Numerical Problems on Window Size, No Of Sequence bits, frame size, bandwidth, round trip time, utilization, Hamming Distance, CRC. Congestion Control policies like slow start, congestion avoidence and Congestion Detection.
- IP Header , TCP and UDP header format, theory related to Ethernet and token ring.
- Basics Of Different Type of protocols like : FTP, HTTP, DHCP, ARP, RARP, SMTP, ICMP,POP
- Basic Concepts of Cryptography and firewalls.
Books and Study Material :
- Computer Network by Andrew S. Tanenbaum : Best book. Very good for theory. Language is easy and solutions available on net.
- Introduction to Data Communication and Networking by Forouzan
- Data and Computer Communication by William Stallings
- NPTEL notes Computer Networks IITM : Very Good and contains almost every Topic
- NPTEL notes Computer Networks IITKgp
- NPTEL Lectures Computer Networks Video Series
Information System and Software Engineering
Syllabus : information gathering, requirement and feasibility analysis, data flow diagrams, process specifications, input/output design, process life cycle, planning and managing the project, design, coding, testing, implementation, maintenance.
Important Points :
- This Subject is more related with theory. So better collect some institutes notes on this subjects or prepare yourself.
- Numerical Problem may come from COCOMO model, cyclomatic complexity etc.
- Study Different Models and there properties along with difference between them. Data flow Diagrams are also important.
Books and Study Material :
- Software Engineering by Pressman : good book for theory
- Software Engineering by Sommerville.
- NPTEL Videos Software Engineering
- NPTEL pdfs Software Engineering Notes : Very Good if you don't want to buy any book. It Contains almost everything. Language and examples are also good.
Web Technologies
Syllabus : HTML, XML, basic concepts of client-server computing.
Important Points :
- Practice html and xml on computer. Understand Basics.
Books and Study Material :
Syllabus
Probability: Conditional Probability; Mean, Median, Mode and Standard Deviation; Random Variables; Distributions; uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson, Binomial.
Mathematical Logic: Propositional Logic; First Order Logic.
Set Theory & Algebra: Sets; Relations; Functions; Groups; Partial Orders; Lattice; Boolean Algebra.
Combinatorics: Permutations; Combinations; Counting; Summation; generating functions; recurrence relations; asymptotics.
Graph Theory: Connectivity; spanning trees; Cut vertices & edges; covering; matching; independent sets; Colouring; Planarity; Isomorphism.
Linear Algebra: Algebra of matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, Eigen values and Eigen vectors.
Numerical Methods: LU decomposition for systems of linear equations; numerical solutions of non-linear algebraic equations by Secant, Bisection and Newton-Raphson Methods; Numerical integration by trapezoidal and Simpson’s rules.
Calculus: Limit, Continuity & differentiability, Mean value Theorems, Theorems of integral calculus, evaluation of definite & improper integrals, Partial derivatives, Total derivatives, maxima & minima.
Important Points :
- Engineering Mathematics is very important in GATE. It not only helps you to secure good rank but also gives you power to solve other subjects numerical problems. So practice this subject more.
- No gate paper completed without probability questions. Sometimes they are tricky and sometimes very easy. You need to practice simple question, Bays theorem, Normal and poisson distribution, mean and variance of different distributions.
- Different types of graph and there properties, graph coloring, isomorphism between graphs, Planner Graphs, Euler and Hamiltonian Graphs and some tricky problems which need practice to solve them
- Eigen values and eigen vectors question. Simple questions related to matrix.
- Finding Values of variable with some properties of linear equations like infinite no of solutions or unique solution.
- Newton Rapson Method and its application. Numerical Integration by different methods.
- Finding Maxima and Minima. Properties of limit, Continuity and differentiability. Finding values by Mean Value Theorem. Integration.
- Properties of relation, function. Partial and Total Ordering. Hasse Diagrams, Group Theory. Sets Related Questions.
- Tricky Problems on Permutations and Combinations. Pigeonhole principle.
- Simple problems on logic.
Books and Study Material :
- Discrete Mathematics by K Rosen : Best book for Mathematics. Contains half of the above topics. Mathematical Logic , Set theory , Combinatorics, graphs, trees are very good.
- probability by t.veerarajan : good book. Contains large no of questions in probability
- Introduction to Graph Theory By N Deo
- Higher Engineering Mathematics by B S Grewal : For Linear Algebra
- Numerical Methods by S.S. Sastry
- Discreate Mathematics by Tremblay and Manohar
- Intermediate Mathematics S. Chand : For Calculus
- Discrete Maths : NPTEL lectures, Best available for discreate maths
- Probability : Good Videos from IITKgp
- Graph Theory Lecture Notes
- Discrete Mathematics Lecture Notes
- Probability Web Resources
General Aptitude
Syllabus :
Verbal Ability: English grammar, sentence completion, verbal analogies, word groups, instructions, critical reasoning and verbal deduction.
Numerical Ability: Numerical computation, numerical estimation, numerical reasoning and data interpretation.
Important Points :
- Problems on Antonym, Synonym, Summary from paragraph, same or different pairs, Ordering of words, sentences etc.
- Problems on time and work, distance, data interpretation number system, percentages, clocks, coding and decoding, Venn Diagram, cubes, blood relation, Directions, Number odd man out, Boats and pipes etc.
Books and Study Material :
- Quantitative and verbal reasoning –By R.S. Agarwal
- Quantitative Aptitude Test : By T. S. Jain-Upkar publication
- English Grammer By Wren and Martin
- Vocabulary: BARRON’S BOOK -GRE
