The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati administered the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2026 first shift on February 7. Students reported the exam difficulty as moderate overall. The general aptitude section was considered easy, while the core engineering sections presented moderate challenges.
GATE 2026 February 7 Shift 1 Analysis
Candidates taking the GATE 2026 exam on February 7 found the question paper to be of moderate difficulty. The General Aptitude (GA) section was perceived as the easiest part of the exam. This section included conventional problems related to dice, Pythagoras theorem, and age-distance calculations. The core engineering science sections were rated as moderate.
Exam Paper Details
The GATE 2026 exam emphasized conceptual understanding and numerical applications. Topics like fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, and materials science carried higher weightage. A new section, energy science (XE-I), was introduced this year. Some questions in the XE-E section were lengthy. Assertion-based questions were also present.
The XE-D exam paper was rated moderate. Its general aptitude section mirrored questions from previous Mechanical GATE exams.
Subject-Wise Analysis
Student reactions and expert analysis provided a subject-wise breakdown of the GATE February 7 Shift 1 paper. The Engineering Sciences (XE) paper, in particular, was described as moderate to difficult. The mathematics component within the XE paper was challenging.
| Subject | GATE Feb 7 Shift 1 Difficulty Level | Topics Asked |
|---|---|---|
| AG | Moderate | Soil and water conservation |
| ES | Moderate to difficult | Thermodynamics |
| GG | Easy to moderate | Remote sensing |
| IN | Moderate | Sensors and transducers |
| MA | Moderate to difficult | Linear algebra, calculus |
| MN | Easy to moderate | Mine ventilation |
| TF | Moderate | – |
| XE | Moderate | Navier-stokes equations, pipe flow (major or minor losses), dimensional analysis, and potential flow |
| XL | Moderate to tough | Reaction-based questions from organic chemistry, SN1 and SN2, Nitric acid reaction, Buffer solution, and coordination compound |