GATE 2026 February 7 Shift 2 Analysis: ‘Moderate to difficult’; GA remains 'doable'

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati conducted the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE 2026) February 7 shift 2 exam from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. As per the students’ reaction, the GATE 2026 Feb 7 shift 2 paper was 'easy to moderate' in difficulty level. GATE 2026 Feb 7 Exam LIVE

According to students' feedback, the overall difficulty level of the GATE 2026 February 7, Shift 2 exam paper ranged from moderate to difficult.

The general aptitude section was easy and mostly solvable. It included questions from topics such as dice problems, paper folding, Venn diagrams, permutations and combinations, analogy, and direction sense.

The biotechnology section was relatively difficult, and some concepts that had not appeared in previous years were found in this exam.

Also read GATE 2026 February 7 Shift 1 Analysis: Students find MTech Paper 1 moderate overall, GA easy

GATE 2026 Feb 1 shift 2 paper analysis

The engineering mathematics section was also on the difficult side, with questions from differentiation, integration, eigenvalues, and simultaneous equations. The Agriculture (AG) section was of moderate difficulty and contained some statement-based questions.

In the Biotechnology (BT) subject, questions were asked from topics such as monod growth kinetics, transfer functions, sterilisation and thermal action, volumetric mass transfer, translation inhibitors, and polymers.

The GATE 2026 Shift 2 question paper includes seven papers — AE, BT, CH, CY, GE, PH, and XH. The exam is a 3-hour online test for 100 marks with 65 questions. It has two sections: General Aptitude (15 marks) and the subject paper (85 marks).

The GATE paper includes MCQs, MSQs, and numerical answer-type questions. As per the marking scheme, the negative marking applies only to MCQs.