GATE 2026 day 2 shift 1 moderate in difficulty; CS-1 toughest with tricky questions; GA stays easy

The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE 2026) paper for day 2 shift 1 was moderate in difficulty level for both Computer Science (SC) and Statistics (ST) subjects. The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) conducted the GATE 2026 day 2 shift 1 from 9:30 am to 12:30 noon. GATE 2026 CS Feb 8 Exam LIVE.

The forenoon shift of the GATE 2026 exam for general aptitude subject was easily doable, as per the analysis report. The difficulty level of the Computer Science and IT-first paper (CS-1) paper was tough where students’ found tricky questions on compiler, and algorithm.

The Operating System (OS) and Theory of Computation (TOC) subjects were moderate in difficulty. The ST subject in the computer-based GATE 2026 day 2 shift 1 had questions from probability theory, statistical inference and design of experiments.

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GATE 2026 Analysis: CS section was lengthy, say students

The overall difficulty level of the exam was moderate, where the CS section was lengthy and logic intensive, while the ST contained questions on interpretation. The engineering institute will conduct the GATE 2026 day 2 shift 2 from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm for MTech aspirants.

The remaining GATE 2026 exams will be conducted on February 14 and 15 in dual shifts.

The GATE entrance exam will be conducted for 3 hours and consists of 30 questions in English. The GATE question paper carries a total of 100 marks, with general aptitude (GA) common to all papers accounting for 15 marks, and the remaining 85 marks covering the specific test paper syllabus.

The GATE exam is held for admission to MTech and PhD programmes offered by IITs, NITs, IIITs, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. GATE 2026 scores will also be used by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) for recruitment.