GATEAlgorithms
Algorithms for GATE
~9 marks — recurrences, sorting bounds and graph algorithms recur annually.
📊 ~6 Q · ~9 marks (9% of the paper)🧮
How toppers play this section
GATE tests whether you can bound growth and justify a choice, never whether you can write working code. Asymptotic questions are about growth rate rather than speed, and the master theorem plus a recursion tree covers almost every recurrence that appears. Sorting and hashing questions rest on two bounds worth internalising: the information-theoretic lower bound on comparison sorting, and the load factor's control of hashing performance. Design technique questions ask how subproblems relate — overlapping means dynamic programming, independent means divide and conquer, and a provable exchange argument means greedy. Graph algorithm questions are traversals with bookkeeping, and the distinguishing question is when the algorithm dares to finalise a vertex, which is exactly why Dijkstra fails on negative edges.
Chapters
Built to the GATE blueprint — notes, shortcuts, solved PYQ-style examples and practice in every chapter.
Topic-wise weightage in GATE
Expected question counts from previous-year paper analyses. Topics with an arrow already have a full chapter.
| Topic | GATE CS — single 3-hour CBT paper Q | Score used for M.Tech admission / PSU recruitment Q | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asymptotic Complexity & Recurrences | ~2 | Very high | |
| Searching, Sorting & Hashing | ~2-3 | Very high | |
| Algorithm Design: Greedy, Divide & Conquer, Dynamic Programming | ~2 | High | |
| Graph Algorithms | ~2-3 | Very high |
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