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241

Hello Everyone,

I’m Aditya Pradhan, a final year student of Information Technology at a state government college in Udaipur. I have secured $AIR\ 312$ in $GATE\ 2020$. I expected much better rank before the exam, but was not able to attempt more questions (attempted only $52$) and was depressed because of this. But hopefully I got only $4$ or $5$ of them wrong and landed at this rank. Now, I am preparing for IIT Kanpur M.S., IIT-B M.Tech. RA and IISc CDS Coursework and CSA Research interviews and hoping that my semester exam dates don’t clash with any of them.

Regarding my preparation journey, I used to study my semester subjects through standard books and resources given on $gatecse.in$ and started proper GATE preparation from the month of July after I got placed on-campus. I had gone through all the standard books once again and used to solve GO PDF after completion of a subject. In the month of January, I revised all the subjects once again and gave 7-8 full length mock tests.

I want to thank Arjun Sir for creating this platform and now people can crack GATE CS purely by self-studying and not relying on any coaching institute. Government of India should be grateful to GateOverflow for increasing the quality of students going for masters at IITs and IISc.

For future aspirants, my message is that utilize your $4$ years of engineering well. Even if your classmates have ‘copy-paste’ attitude, you should always try to learn using standard resources and do lab assignments on your own, trust me, this will build your base in Computer Science and will help you in the long run.

Thank you :)
------------------------------
Edit : I’m selected in IIT Bombay M.Tech. (RA) and will be joining it, for interview experience please visit: https://gateoverflow.in/blog/10586/iit-bombay-m-tech-ra-interview-experience

242

Interview Experience for M.Tech. RA C.S.E. in I.I.T. Hyderabad

My interview was in July 2020. Due to pandemic it was taken online on Microsoft Teams. It was taken by two professors in my panel say P1 and P2.

P1: Hello Shivangi. I am Prof Sathya Peri from CSE Dept. Show your ID Card.

(shown)

P1: Start with your introduction and educational background.

(told)

(As i was working for 1 year now in IT sector so he asked)

P1: Why are you interested in M. Tech. ?

(told)

P1: As we are short in time so we will ask questions now, just explain the concept and don’t write the code for it.

P2: How can we find the middle element in the linked list in O(N) and only one traversal?

As length of the linked list was not given and only one traversal was in condition so he gave me hint to solve with one slow and one fast pointer…solved at last

P1: How can we print values of a BST in decreasing order?

As Inorder traversal of a BST is ascending order so i initially put that in an array and then reversed the array…but later improved the traversal with modification as we can print like Right, Root and Left and this will give descending order.

P1: Have you heard about the famous 2 SUM problem where a sum is given and we have to find pairs in the array which on addition gives that sum?

I knew the O(N) solution of this using hashmap and told him that…he was impressed with that and later he modified the question for BST and for that the similar concept can be used and i was able to solve that also.

Because of time shortage only these questions were being asked.

Result: Selected for Round 2.

Later they gave us a google meet link where they explained about available projects in M.Tech. RA and gave us a google form to fill with our preference by next day before Round 2 interviews.

 

Round 2: On Microsoft Teams

Interview was taken in 2 panels and as per my preference, I had to give interview in both the panels.

Panel 1: All professors with interest in ML and AI field were there.

  1. They asked for the introduction first.
  2. Why M. Tech. after job?
  3. Tell in brief about B. Tech. Project.
  4. What languages you know and how much experience in C/C++ coding?
  5. What is your research interest and then I said machine learning and NLP, so hey asked about any courses that I have done and name of classification algorithms.

Panel 2: All Professors with interest in systems were there.

  1. They asked for the introduction first.
  2. As per my preference in Networking project they asked me basic question from computer network like
    1. What do you remember in CN?… I stated with layers in CN.
    2. Which is your favorite layer?… I said Network layer
    3. He asked me about routing algorithms…Distance vector routing and Link state routing.
    4. Which one is better for large network and why?
    5. What is count to infinity problem?
    6. Experience with programming in college and work… I told about working on JAVA in my job…so he asked which packages do I use in java.

Result: Selected for M2Smart Project

243

My journey towards AIR 39!!

I would like to start by thanking the person whose guidance made the journey pleasant and interesting, Arjun Suresh Sir. I believe it’s the legacy that he is continuing. As Lord Krishna guided Arjun during war similarly Arjun Sir is guiding all of us during our war.

I would also like to thanks Bikram Sir and other GO members for their contribution in my journey.


Students asked me whether to join a coaching institute? Which institute should I join?

I believe there are two ways you can gain knowledge.

  1. Read all the reference textbooks. Do everything by your own.
  2. Learn from those who are already master in it.

There are pros and cons of both. From textbooks, you get exact information but effort and time needed is more. To minimize your effort, you can get the guidance from GateOverflow. On the other part, from the coaching institutes you get required information and guidance in relatively less time.

I would like to say that it totally depends on you.

I chose mix and match of both the options. There is nothing bad in either of the option. As I said it varies from person to person.


Many candidates asked me about the strategy.

I believe,

Success is an iceberg! Yeah, that’s right.

For people, success seems to be small and easy from outside but they don’t realize the dedication, hard work, good habits, disappointments, sacrifices, failure and persistence behind it.

To achieve a good rank, first thing you need is a good time table then you have to follow it accordingly till the exam date.

I had a fixed time table. My day started at 6 am and ended at 11 pm. Also, it’s important to give priority to health. I used to workout daily for 2 hours.

Coming to the studies part. I completed the syllabus in two and a half months and then started the real part that is practicing and revising. I daily studied for 6 to 8 hours. Note that here ‘daily’ is important aspect, number of hours depends on the individual.

At the end, I would like to say don’t follow anyone. Everyone has their own strategy that suits them and may not suit you. So set your own time table, your boundaries and work smarter. All the best!!

244
I am an ECE, B.Tech pass out from NIT-Jamshedpur. A long story behind why I switched to CSE that I will tell in another post. First of all, salute to @Arjun sir for providing this platform. Bikram Sir and You are so so good in so so many ways. Thanks for being so generous to our each silly doubts and showed a lot of patience. This online community played a key role in GATE preparation especially for the students like me who do preparation from home without having a suitable GATE environment. Most of the GO test paper are really balanced with a good number of quality question, so big thanks to @Bikram sir for making test series possible. And thanks sir for your suggestion on avoiding my silly mistakes( But did 4-5 question silly mistakes in core section and could score 4.66 / 15 in aptitude ..:( my bad ). I didn't know about TIFR before but after seeing the question here with great ans, I even tried TIFR 16-17 and fortunately got selected in written test ( Interview is on 6th of April ). Irrespective of my GATE result, I learnt a lot just by reading answers and comments. Whenever needed any resource, gatecse.in helped a lot and with some important previous year statistics as well.  Thanks, @Praveen sir for giving the proper solution in TOC and Digital.
Finally, I want to thank all GO members who helped me in one or another way.

AIR - 265.
246
Can anyone tell any other algorithm which is there in syllabus apart from those mentioned below. Also, tell if something below is not there in syllabus

Dynamic Programming:-
1. Matrix Chain Multiplication
2. LCS
3. Subset Sum
4. 0/1 Knapsack
5. Floyd Warshall
6. OBST
7. Closest Pair

Greedy Method:-
1. Prim's
2. Kruskal's
3. Djikstra
4. Bellman Ford
5. Huffman Coding
6. BFS
7. Fractional Knapsack
8. Topological Sort
9. Stongly Connected Component

Backtracking:-
1. DFS

Branch and Bound:-
1. Travelling Salesman
247

Hello everyone :)

So after a long time, writing comments, answers and asking the question, finally a day came to write a testimonial.

i am currently final year undergraduate and secured AIR-14, GATE-2018(CSE).

Firstly, i would like to thank my family for having belief and faith on me. now 50% credit goes to me(my hard work, passion) and other 50% completely goes to Gateoverflow.

If i start to descirbe a role of gateoverflow in this testimonial, i will end up in taking lot and lot of time, therefore i will just summarize it. Arjun sir is my idol and i owe my success to him. apart from this a great thanks to Bikram sir, Habib sir, K.D sir, srestha mam, Anu007 sir and some of my good friends Hemant Parihar, Ashwin Kulkarni, just_bhavana, saxena0612, rahul sharma, Shivam Chauhan and many more.

Now here are some tips for GATE-2019 aspirants.

  1. Firstly end up in finishing your syllabus as early as possible, I finished my entire syllabus till August end (as it lays a foundation of your preparation). Finishing syllabus means you should know underlying concepts beneath every topic. GATE is an exam which only test concepts(not a rote learning or direct formulas) .
  2. Then revise your subjects on weekly basis(it is most important part of preparation), and practice as much questions as possible, and gateoverflow is indeed best for it, because practicing lot of new questions help in generating a mind that can tackle a new question in GATE
  3. Sometimes days come when you feel very low(like secured very less in test series, not able to grasp some concepts, not able to solve questions, at that time don't loose your will and keep going :)
  4. Never set a mindset, in exam i had a mindset that i have to not touch english questions, after exam i came to know that those questions were very very easy and due to which i was in lost of 2 marks(silly lost).

Finally, all the best to all the aspirants of GATE-2019, Use gateoverflow as much as possible(if you are really aiming for top ranks), have a faith and belief in yourself and that's all that is needed :)

Thank you!

248

CS  Computer Science and Information Technology



Section1: Engineering Mathematics   
Discrete Mathematics: Propositional and first order logic. Sets, relations, functions, partial
orders and lattices. Groups. Graphs: connectivity, matching, coloring. Combinatorics:
counting, recurrence relations, generating functions.
Linear Algebra: Matrices, determinants, system of linear equations, eigenvalues  and
eigenvectors, LU decomposition.
Calculus: Limits, continuity and differentiability. Maxima and minima. Mean value
theorem. Integration.
Probability: Random variables. Uniform, normal, exponential, poisson and binomial
distributions. Mean, median, mode and standard deviation. Conditional probability and
Bayes theorem.



Section 2: Digital Logic
Boolean  algebra. Combinational and sequential circuits. Minimization. Number
representations and computer arithmetic (fixed and floating point).



Section 3: Computer Organization and Architecture
Machine instructions and addressing modes. ALU, data‐path and control unit. Instruction
pipelining. Memory hierarchy: cache, main memory and secondary storage; I/O
interface (interrupt and DMA mode).



Section 4: Programming and Data Structures
Programming in C. Recursion. Arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, binary search
trees, binary heaps, graphs.  



Section 5: Algorithms
Searching, sorting, hashing. Asymptotic worst case time and space complexity.
Algorithm design techniques: greedy, dynamic programming and divide‐and‐conquer.
Graph search, minimum spanning trees, shortest paths.



Section 6: Theory of Computation
Regular expressions and finite automata. Context-free grammars and push-down
automata. Regular and contex-free languages, pumping lemma. Turing machines and
undecidability.  



Section 7: Compiler Design
Lexical analysis, parsing, syntax-directed translation. Runtime environments. Intermediate
code generation.



Section 8: Operating System
Processes, threads, inter‐process communication, concurrency and synchronization.
Deadlock. CPU scheduling. Memory management and virtual memory. File systems.


Section 9: Databases
ER‐model. Relational model: relational algebra, tuple calculus, SQL. Integrity constraints,
normal forms. File organization, indexing (e.g., B and B+ trees). Transactions and
concurrency control.



Section 10: Computer Networks
Concept of layering. LAN technologies (Ethernet). Flow and error control techniques,
switching. IPv4/IPv6, routers and routing algorithms (distance vector, link state). TCP/UDP
and sockets, congestion control. Application layer protocols (DNS, SMTP, POP, FTP, HTTP).
Basics of Wi-Fi. Network security: authentication, basics of public key and private key
cryptography, digital signatures and certificates, firewalls.

249

2021 GATE Overflow Interview Experience Links.

College Name Interview Experience Blog Link Program Specialization
BARC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/14029/barc-interview-experience-2021 M.Tech. CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13585/iisc-csa-mtech-reseach-interview-experience-2021 CSA M.Tech. Research CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13583/iisc-mtech-research-online-written-screening-test-questions CDS M.Tech. Research CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13558/iisc-research-interview-experience-printing-engineering CDS M.Tech. Research CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13540/iisc-bangalore-tech-course-work-written-test-questions-2021 CDS M.Tech. Research CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13537/iisc-bangalore-tech-course-work-interview-experience-2021 CDS M.Tech. Research CSE
IISC https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13453/various-interview-questions-research-programs-iits-iisc-2021 CDS M.Tech. Research CSE
IIT Bombay https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13421/iit-bombay-ms-intelligent-systems-interview-experience MS CSE
IIT Bombay https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13453/various-interview-questions-research-programs-iits-iisc-2021 MS  CSE
IIT Gandhinagar https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13434/iit-gandhinagar-interview-questions-2020 M.Tech. CSE
IIT Gandhinagar https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13356/iit-gandhinagar-mtech-regular-interview-experience-2021 M.Tech. CSE
IIT Indore https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13596/iit-indore-interview MS CSE
IIT Indore https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13476/iit-indore-ms-cse-interview-experience-2021 MS CSE
IIT Indore https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13381/iit-indore-ms-research-cse-interview-2021 MS CSE
IIT Jodhpur https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13532/iit-jodhpur-mtech-cse-interview-experience-self-sponsored M.Tech. CSE
IIT Jodhpur https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13530/jodhpur-self-sponsored-with-fellowship-interview-experience M.Tech. AI
IIT Kharagpur https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13597/iit-kharagpur-ms-interview MS CSE
IIT Madras https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13430/iit-madras-ms-interview-experience MS CSE
IIT Madras https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13423/iit-madras-ms-intelligent-systems-interview-experience MS IS
IIT Madras https://gateoverflow.in/blog/13453/various-interview-questions-research-programs-iits-iisc-2021 M.Tech. CSE
250

I am writing this post not to give any tips about the preparation strategy as it has already been given/will be given by many toppers.

This post is just an attempt to motivate whoever is planning to take a drop.

Last year (2017-18) was a nightmare for me and I know there are a lot more to come as this is what life is! I have faced many hurdles in a short period of time and each of them had broken me from inside.

Background: I have done my graduation from a private college in West Bengal. I was not a very average student in my college. My theoretical as well as practical knowledge was not bad I believe and my gate prep had significant contribution in that. Still was not able to crack the initial rounds of many companies and finally got placed at an MNC which offered pretty low lpa (3.36). I am not being over confident at all but I believed I deserved better than this when I saw some particular students getting higher package than me. But I also knew some students who deserved much better, yet stuck in the same kind of package.  In short I encountered a series of rejections during that time. Nonetheless, I got that one job and had to stay happy with it.

2nd half of 2017: After getting this average lpa I became sad but had to come out of that zone else I would have also ruined the Gate paper. I really worked hard and was dedicated throughout the entire period. I compromised with all kinds of social gatherings, entertainment just to focus on Gate.

Feb, 2018: But…I still ruined it ( 1000< my rank <2000)

I became clueless as what to do next! The final year project kept me distracted from this thought for quite a while but after the final sem got over I realized I had to face the tough reality now!

After Gate there comes an array of tests like ISRO, PGEE, ISI etc.

I filled up their form but totally lost the motivation to study for them. Naturally couldn’t clear ISRO and PGEE but somehow cracked the ISI written but was not selected after the interview.

April-May, 2018: The good part was that I got calls from IIITD and IIT, Mandi for interview. I could clear only IIT Mandi but didn’t wish to go there. 

June, 2018: Now I was getting some lower NITs and state govt colleges. I just didn’t know what to choose.

Whether

  1. Join company and appear for Gate’19
  2. Join a state govt college and appear for Gate’19
  3. Totally take a drop and appear for Gate’19

Then one of my seniors suggested me to join the state govt college (JU i.e. Jadavpur University) and prepare for the next year. The curriculum over there was not hectic so I might be able to balance both of them simultaneously.

On the other hand, rejecting a job offer was also frightening me from inside. But then after consulting with many experienced people (seniors, cousins…) I realized that it would be really difficult for me to manage job and gate prep simultaneously.

August, 2018: So finally I decided to join JU. It had some strict rules on attendance which supposedly had started from that year only. I soon realized that if I had to abide by their rules of attendance, I can’t give proper time to my prep. Each day was difficult for me in the beginning. I used to cry from inside thinking about what was happening to me. Why was it happening to me when I genuinely tried a lot for Gate’18!

I literally didn’t know where I was heading to! 

After attending JU for 2 months with a lot of gaps in the middle I decided to leave it! Thankfully my family was very supportive about it.

 I talked to our coordinator and he advised me to concentrate on Gate prep only else I would lose it again! I didn’t expect such cooperation from a college which I was planning to leave :P

Nov, 2018: I totally left JU. I decided not to appear for the semester exams there.

I fully concentrated on Gate’19 prep, participated in the discussions on Gateoverflow which has immensely helped me in clearing many concepts!

But then everything should be done within limits. I felt that I was spending too much time here and less on my actual prep. I tried to get over the addiction and was able to do it after days of trying .You cannot suddenly stop it. In order to stop, you have to reduce it first.

I have extreme exam fear for which I took CBTs and also took many mocks at home. CBTs helped me realize that I have to practice waking up earlier as I felt sleepy during the CBT :P  

Finally the D-day came. The Apti questions were pretty easy. Then the 1 mark questions were also easy. I felt very confident from inside. But when the 2M questions came, I started getting nervous when I had to leave 5-6 questions at a stretch (I marked them for review). Still, the nervousness was not like the one which I felt during Gate’18. I proceeded and did all those questions which I could in the 1st scan. Then I returned to the questions which I had marked for review.

I could solve some of them. I solved a total of only 51 questions in this easy paper as I wasted my time over analysing some easy questions as tension of getting –ve marks engulfed me.

According to me this year’s paper was not really well set as it didn’t really test some core concepts.

Anyway, I secured AIR 308 ( marks: 68, GS:777, cat: Gen) and took admission in IITG Mtech CSE.

Some imp tips:

  1. Never fully trust someone during preparation. Be self-dependent and don’t rely on others to get information. You might be misled.
  2. Some will say stuffs like “I have prepared for only a month”, “I am appearing for Gate only because I have filled up the form”. Try to stay away from these Big liars (Some of these people might be genuine but most of them are not).
  3. Always participate in the discussions on GO but within a limit :P
  4. Don’t avoid studying from books. I hated reading books but had to do it to enhance my knowledge. It was tough initially but later I started enjoying it when I began to know new things from book. If there is time constraint, then study the imp topics only.
  5. Test series marks might not be a deciding factor of your actual Gate performance, but to clear your concepts and widen your knowledge, GateBook and Gateoverflow tests should be taken and for increasing speed Made Easy tests are good.

Token of THANKS:

Firstly many many thanks to Arjun Sir. Gateoverflow’s contribution was immense!!!

I enrolled to the GATEBOOK online video lectures during my Gate’19 prep. It has helped me a lot to understand some really important concepts. I would like to thank Kiran Sir and his team for this.

My family, friends have been a constant source of motivation.

I would like to mention some people whose participation in this forum was of great significance. 

Prashant Sir, Digvijay Sir, Soumya, Shaik Masthan, srestha Magma, Mk Utkarsh, Arvin, Somoshree, Headshot, Prince Sindhiya and all the veterans. It’s been a while since I have participated in any discussion here so I might be forgetting names of some important people. Please pardon me for that. Last but not the least thanks to my elder sis Trishna and my parents for supporting me throughout the journey… :)

251

Reading the past year’s toppers testimonials on GO and thinking whether I will be able to perform well and be an example for future aspirants always seemed to be a motivating factor for giving my best, and now this feeling is totally magical. I am Tejasvi Sharma, a BE CSE 2018 graduate from UIET, PU, Chandigarh, managed to climb up from 4 digit rank(1707) in Gate-18 to 2 digit rank(78) in Gate-19. Joined an abc coaching for last year’s attempt but was not satisfied by the performance last year. Thought of giving an attempt with Job for the next year. Got motivation from my senior who also achieved the same feat there. About the preparation strategy, the best thing is planning beforehand and creating a roadmap for the journey that lies ahead. The best resources available for study are the standard textbooks by the renowned authors and not the local books being used in the college or at other institutes. If you have plenty of time to read every book at least twice or thrice then it is best , but if you lack time then only go for video classes but that too for only some of the subjects and book should be read at least once in that case too. Just like people usee to open instagram, facebook  I used to open https://gateoverflow.in/activity for the recent activity and happenings on GO, daily at least 4-5 times. You have any doubt be it a previous year question or any xyz coaching material question, the moment you search the key term in GO , you will find the same already answered most of the times and that too by the likes of veterans including @Arjun sir, @Bikram sir , @Shaik sir ,@Sreshta mam and many more. Really also  appreciate the efforts of GO team in keeping the past data admission responses, result responses, cutoff ,interview experiences  and revision slides and discussions done by  @Arjun sir and there are many more. Not to forget the GO testing platform which is available 365 days 24/7 and gives real experience for the past year examinations. As has been rightly said ‘Those who sweat more in training bleed less in war’ so give good quality tests by joining a decent test series and try to learn from the mistakes and constantly aim for improvement. Also there is no shortcut to success so yeah one has to invest a lot of time for the same and there is no substitute for that. Thanks GO for everything..

 

 

253

National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT)

Test Series Announcement

Complete Schedule for 10 tests date-wise - [link]

We are thrilled to introduce the NIELIT Test Series by GO Classes, a comprehensive program designed to help you excel in your exams and enhance your skills. This test series offers you a valuable opportunity to assess your knowledge, improve your performance, and boost your confidence.

🎯 Key Features

1️⃣ 10 Standard-Quality Tests:

The NIELIT Test Series consists of $10$ standard quality tests crafted using standard universities and other standard resources.

2️⃣ First 2 Tests for Free:

We are pleased to offer the first $2$ tests of the NIELIT Test Series completely free of charge.

3️⃣ Complete Syllabus Coverage:

Each test in the series covers the entire syllabus, ensuring that you are thoroughly prepared for every topic and concept. You can access the official syllabus:

4️⃣ Affordable Price:

The entire test series is priced at just $299$ rupees, offering great value for your investment.

🔗 Payment Link:

Prepare effectively with the GO Classes NIELIT Test Series.
 

254

I was called in for the interview at 4:21 pm and the interview lasted till 5:22 pm. The interview panel consisted of about 5-6 members. They all sat around a roundtable. For rough work, I was given plain white rough sheets and a pencil.

First of all, they asked me some general questions like when did I arrive in Mumbai, whether I liked the city or not, etc. After that, they told me to write my favorite 5 subjects.

I wrote :

  1. Algorithms and Data Structures
  2. Theory of Computation
  3. Operating Systems
  4. C language
  5. DBMS

 

1. Algorithms

Q1: What all notations are used to find the time complexity of a program?

Q2: Explain all asymptotic notations with their graphs.

Q3: When we write f(n)=Ѳ(n) this means f(n)<= c1*n and f(n)>=c2*n , here is c1==c2?

Q4: Find time complexity :

Void fun1(int n){

int i=1;

int s=i;

while(s<n){

   ++i;

   s=s+i;

   }

  }

  Q5: Consider the C statement int a[], what can be the maximum size of the array?

 

2. Data Structures

Q1: What all data structures can be used to represent graphs? (I told adjacency list and adjacency matrix)

Q2: In which case we prefer adjacency list and in which cases adjacency matrix?

Q3: Draw a graph(any random example), make adjacency list representation of that and also indicate how to represent adjacency list in C language.

 

3. Operating Systems

Q1: An array is a contiguous allocation of memory, but in paging or other memory allocation schemes the array is stored in a discontinuous manner(supposing the size of the array is large).In that case how to retrieve array?

Q2: What is the virtual memory? What are additional things required at the hardware level to implement virtual memory?

Q3: What is re-entrant code?

Q4: Suppose there are two processes and they both have printf() statement. So, the code for the printf() function will be copied in main memory for the execution. This coping of code is done one time or each time the printf() function is being called?

 

4. Theory of Computation

Q1: What are the different types of automata?

Q2: ∑={a,b,c} L=Ending with ab or bc or ca

Identify type of language and draw a FA if possible.

Q3: ∑={0} L=Containing zeros in the multiple of 6

Identify the type of language and draw a FA if possible.

Q4: Write grammar for the unequal number of zeros and ones.

Q5:Is the grammar above, same as the grammar for { 0m1n |m!=n,n>=0,m>=0}.

 

5. C language

Q1: Difference between(in terms of memory allocation) :

 

int a;

                      

struct t{

int a;

};

 

#define a 100

 

Q2: What are macros?

Q3: Write a macro that returns 1 for an even number and 0 for an odd number.

 

6. DBMS

Q1: Draw an ER diagram for the BARC institution where we have two entities Employee and Department where an employee belongs to a single department but a department can have multiple employees. Assume attributes of your own.

Q2: Write an SQL query to retrieve Department name and number of employees in the department.

 

7. Computer Networks

Q1: Explain flow control, congestion control and contention control policies and in which layer of OSI Model they come into the picture.

 

Overall it was a nice experience. The interviewers were very helpful and supporting. Even if you go wrong they give you hints and make you reach the correct answer.

Result selected.

255

First of all not even questions are out, so we never know our exact marks. Still if you have attempted less than 35 questions there is less chance of IITs in open merit. So what next?

  1. Soon coaching institutes will start new batches to attract you
  2. There are other exams like BITS/IIITs
  3. State level colleges, repeat (hardly works) or not
  4. MS abroad
  5. Sit at home and repeat
  6. Try some/already having job and repeat

Now, what you should do depends on you and what you want in your life. Some people even after studying at IITs dont do any job- for those kind of people option 3 is good- can select a higher option in matrimony profiles. Otherwise no one should select this.

If you do not have an issue going abroad option 4 is good. Option 2 is also good as these colleges are on par with IIT standard. Though IIITH exam usually have plenty of previous GATE questions copied.

Options 1, 5, and 6 (how to REPEAT) depends on you. Personally I have only told 2 people to repeat though indirectly. Both of them had ranks around 650 and next time they got high 2 digit ranks. But believe me they worked their hardest for this difference. And work hard does not mean they solved 1000s of questions more. Mainly they studied the concepts they did not know- so how can you do this?

  1. If you lack basic problem solving skills and base knowledge in subjects - that is you are not even qualifying GATE- only class room coaching can save you. But remember that it will only take you to qualifying level. i.e., you should prepare yourself for self study. For example, you should learn about DFA, NFA etc. from class room coaching and understand decidability etc. by self study.
  2. If you are good in some subjects (able to score 80% above in them), you are very well enough to score a top rank by self study. Get standard books and start reading concepts in depth like you know for your favorite subjects. GATE only needs basic knowledge but basic must not be corrupted by coaching.
  3. Realize that to improve your rank and especially to jump to top 100, you need to make a jump in your knowledge level which is not easy. Only if you are ready to do this, go for repeat. Simply repeating whatever you did last time for more hours won't be enough.
256

 

I'm Abhishek, one of the selected candidates for the BARC OCES/DGFS 2020 Computer Science interview. I was selected through the online written test in which I scored 183.57/300. Total of 87 candidates selected for BARC CS interview. My interview was on 23rd Dec. 2020 at BARC, Mumbai.

Directly, coming to the interview, the panel consists of 6 people and there were 2 different parallel panels that were taking the interview. I entered the cabin and they asked me to sit on the chair.

Then one of the interviewers asked me my name, I answered then he asked: Is this your first time in Bombay, I answered. Then he asked me about my final year B.Tech project, I answered. Then they asked me to tell them some of my favorite subjects. I told Algorithms, Data structures, Operating System, and Compiler Design. One of the interviews asked about my Gate rank and score.

So, these are the other interview questions:

  1. Explain hashing in detail(what is hashing, types of hashing, complete code in C/C++ to insert an element, they asked about time complexity to find an element in open chaining, etc.).
  2. How Binary search works and how it is different from hashing. What is the time complexity of binary search? I told. Why is it logn?
  3. What happens if we divide the array in 3/4th and then use binary search, are comparisons increase, decrease, or remains the same and why?
  4. Given a directed graph, how to detect a cycle in the graph? What is the time complexity of your algorithm by using an adjacency matrix/list?
  5. What is an integer pointer? How it is different from an array of pointers?
  6. Scanning two indices of an array using pointers.
  7. 2-D matrix representation using pointers and accessing elements.
  8. Check whether two strings are the same, less than, or greater than using pointers.
  9. Passing a function name as a parameter to other functions using the concept of pointers.
  10. Explain Wi-Fi architecture, how wi-fi works?
  11. Explain Bluetooth architecture, how it works?
  12. Explain the TCP/IP model, briefly explain any protocol of your choice, how it works?
  13. Explain TCP handshake mechanism(Connection establishment, Data Transfer, Connection Termination phase in detail).
  14. What is Redo/Undo in DBMS?
  15. what is the concept of log files?
  16. What are cursors?
  17. Write an SQL query to find duplicates names from a table given that the Table does not have any primary key.
  18. What is linking and how it is done?
  19. What is the difference between Machine Learning and Deep learning?
  20. What is the difference between regression and Interpolation?

Overall, it was a nice experience and they helped when I got stuck. My interview went for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

That’s it!

Thanks for reading. Hope it helps!

PS: I’m not selected in the final list of candidates. Total of 7 candidates selected for the OCES position. (https://www.barconlineexam.in/engineer/documents/Final-Selection-Engg.pdf)

257

Backstory

Hi, I am Darshit Gandhi. At my time, JEE was not compulsory after 12th Std in Gujarat, we had GUJCET exam. So I gave GUJCET and scored pretty well in that exam. I was not having any craze for IITs during that time. So I decided to pursue my B.E. in CSE from one of the topmost college of Gujarat. During my B.E. also, I had no plans of doing  M.Tech.

In my second year of B.E., one of my friend asked me to go with him in the demo class for GATE. I went with him to give him some company, but was unaware of the fact that this thing was gonna change my future.

 

Attempt 1 : GATE CS 2021 - The Beginning

Even though I have joined an local offline coaching in my 2nd year, but I was not at all taking it seriously. I was just attending the classes, making notes, then I come home and just forgot to revise. This was my life for 1.5 years. Initially, it was very difficult for me to understand subjects like OS, DBMS, COA, etc. as it was only my 2nd year, and we were just studying C++ in our college. But one good thing in my coaching was that once they complete the syllabus, they start to teach again the whole syllabus. So, after around 1 year, we started to study our whole syllabus again in around July 2019. And now this time, I was understanding what was taught in the class. But now also, after coming home, I was not doing anything. I was treating this like some college semester exam and this was my biggest mistake. Revision is very very very important if we are preparing for GATE exam. It is a very boring and tedious thing, but we cannot get good rank without doing enough revision (There may always be some exceptions). 

Anyways, until Feb 2020, I was just attending the classes and making notes and nothing extra. Then, I realized that I am having only 1 year for my GATE exam. Now I was worried wondering that how will I complete 10-12 subjects in 1 year along with college work. So from March 2020 onwards, I started my serious GATE preparation. I started to take subjects one by one, started studying them, referred notes, google and also youtube. Initially, I was following youtube channels like Ravindrababu Ravula, Knowledge Gate, Gate Smashers, etc. and websites like Gate overflow, geeksforgeeks, etc. So I studied the subjects in this order : Discrete Maths → TOC → Compiler → DBMS → DS → Algorithms → OS → CN. I haven’t touched COA because that was the most difficult subject for me. I haven’t touched Maths, Aptitude and Digital because I was in a dilemma that I will complete this all subjects in January because these are “EASY” subjects. But I was very wrong. Also, at that time, “PUBG mobile” was at its peak in India, I used to play everyday from 2 pm to 5 pm with my friends. The thing is that I always underestimated GATE exam. Finally PUBG mobile got banned in October and I guess that was some kind of relief for me from this gaming addiction.

I tried to complete my syllabus (except the 4 subjects) till December end. Then I tried giving some tests from Made Easy test series and was scoring decent marks. Now, I did the same mistake during this time also as I did initially when I started my preparation. I was just “reading” the questions which I answered wrong, not “understanding” it. Also, I was not checking the questions that I answered right. They are equally important as the wrong ones, as we might have got the correct answer by some wrong method. 

I was planning to do Maths, Aptitude, Digital and COA in January, but our 7th semester Final exams were scheduled in January due to pandemic. So now,my most of January went for this college exams, and I resumed my GATE studies from around 20th January. Now, the link has broken, and I have also decided to give GATE 2022 next year. I was very scared because my 4 subjects were left to study and I also need to do revision of previous studied subjects. So I decided to go with revision of my previous and left the remaining subjects. I gave around 8-10 full length tests and my average marks were around 54-55 out of 100 and I was getting rank around 500-1000.

13th February 2021 – I woke up at 9 am. My exam slot was in the afternoon. I did not touched any books on that day. I was laying down and closing my eyes and sometime just roaming in the house. Time came, and I went to gave the exam. Initially, I solved 2 questions correctly, so that gave me some confidence, but the 3rd question was from Paging (OS) and I took around 20 min to do that question. I was not moving forward because I know that I will definitely solve that question. I got some odd number as the answer and I was not sure whether I solved it correctly or not (I came to know much later that it was correct). So now I just solved 3 question in 30 min and now I only had 150 min left for 62 questions. My heartbeat increased like anything. I continued solving other questions, but there was a lot of pressure on me at that time. I was very angry at me when the exam got over, but I kept the smile on my face. I asked my friends who were at that exam centre, they also told that the paper was very difficult and their exam went ok. I was somehow relieved after listening that everyone found that the exam was tough, but then also deep down, I knew that I could definitely do better. After the answer key came, I got to know that I can easily score 7-8 marks more if I was able to calm myself down during the actual exam. 

It will not matter how much we have studied, only thing that matters is that how are we able to handle ourself during that 3 hours of the actual exam.

My result came early than the actual mentioned date, I had zero expectation of getting a rank under 300 this time. I opened the website and found out the I got AIR 732. Was not happy and was not sad either. Getting under 1000 rank in GATE CS is a very big achievement in itself. I might have got IIT BHU, IIT Dhanbad, NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal, NIT Surathkal, etc, but my goal was only top 7 IITs. So now I have decided that I will prepare for GATE 2022.

 

Attempt 2 : GATE CS 2022 - The Conclusion

For GATE 2022, I only have to prepare those subjects which I left in GATE 2021, revise those previous subjects and solve more and more problems. I got placed from my Campus Placements and decided to take that job as a backup and prepared for GATE 2022, so that I don’t have to worry that what if I don’t get under 300 rank this time also. So having something in backup is a plus point. It will be very difficult to prepare along with a job, but believe me, it will help you lose some of the burden from your head.

I started with COA, but then had a 2 months break because my 8th semester of college was ongoing and I had to complete my lab assignments and project work. I started my GATE preparation again in July 2021 but not full fledged, because I had my job from 9 am to 7 pm and then studying at night with tired mind was very difficult. But then also, I made up my mind to study in whatever time I get. Moreover, this year, Valorant was at its peek. So I used to play everyday for around 2-3 hours from 8 pm to 9pm/10pm. Yeah, I know, I really need to do something regarding my gaming addiction :( 

I used to start studying from 9 pm/10 pm and study till 2 am/3 am. On Saturday/Sunday, I used to study for 4-6 hours. I would suggest to study more on normal weekdays than on weekend and relax on weekends. Watch some movie/ web series during the weekend and relax your mind. I might have completed around 15-20 web series and many-many movies during this span. 

Now I know that this time, I need some coaching to study the subjects like COA, maths, etc. I cannot do it by myself. So I got the Unacademy subscription in Unacademy’s scholarship test and started to prepare from it. I studied COA from Vishwadeep Gothi sir and that was the best course of COA that I have ever seen. I got each and every concept that Vishwadeep sir taught and I was very happy that now I finally started to understand COA. I studied other subjects like Maths (Engg and Discrete) , digital, etc from Unacademy. Yes, I left aptitude this time also :(

In like November end, I finished the new subjects and decided to start with revision of the old subjects. Trust me, this was the worst part. I barely could remember anything from the subjects that I studied before. I should have revised those subjects in regular intervals. Believe me, this revision process is very very boring, but we need to do it in regular intervals, otherwise it will be very difficult for us to grasp everything during actual exam. Anyways, I decided not to stop and I started studying my previous subjects notes from starting. 

 I started to give tests and I saw that there is no improvement in my marks from the last year. Till February, I gave around 10-15 full length tests and this year, the highest marks that I got was 54. Last year, my average marks was 54 and now, after giving 1 extra year, finishing all the subjects, highest marks that I got is 54. This was really frustrating for me. It feels like I have done nothing in this last 1 year. I decided not to worry about it now as it cannot be changed. This time, instead of just reading the wrong questions from my tests, I understood it and made sure that if this pattern comes next time then I can solve it. But still, I was not checking the questions that I got right, due to the lack of time.

5th February 2022 – I woke up at 7 am as I had to reach the exam centre by 8 am. I solved the 1st question quickly, but the the real villain came – MSQs. There were approx 15 MSQ in GATE CS 2022. 15 might seem a very small number but this made the whole difference. In 95% of cases, I was sure about the 3 out of 4 options of MSQs but not sure about the fourth option. GATE 2022 CS paper came out more difficult than GATE 2021 CS. Because of MSQ, my confidence went down drastically. I was very very scared because this was my second attempt and I don’t want to lose this one. So I left all the MSQ and started doing MCQ and NAT. But in the mind, only one thing was there, how the hell am I going to solve these many MSQs. Also, along with MSQs, one more problem came. My favourite subject was Computer Networks, and in GATE 2022 CS, very tough questions were asked from Computer Networks. These two things really had a very bad effect on me. But then, I thought to keep solving as many questions as I can. I was just literally solving the questions in a hurry and then directly went to other question, I was not even checking the questions that I solved. My mind was panicking at that moment and I thought the I might have to give GATE one more time next year.

This time, after I completed my paper, I just ran out of the exam centre without talking to anyone and went home. I was very scared that I didn’t even checked my answers when the actual answer key came out. I was behaving like I have not at all given the GATE exam. After thinking much, I decided to take admission in any college that I will get at my rank, and will not go for GATE 2023. I was expecting around 700-1000 rank.

 

Climax

It was 16th March i guess, time was 11:30 pm. I saw in one to the telegram groups that one person has typed “results are out”. My heartbeat increased and I instantly checked out the website. I was shocked and happy at the same time. Turned out that every GATE 2022 CS aspirant found the paper difficult. I entered my GATE registration number and password and as soon as I logged in, I scrolled down to see my rank. I had secured AIR 227 in GATE CS 2022. I was shocked for sometime after seeing the result and I was completely silent for a minute. I logged out and then tried logging in again, thought maybe it was some glitch. But it was real. I really secured AIR 227. I told my mom (who was sitting just next to me) that “mummy result aavi gayu and aa vakhte mane pakku IIT madi jase” (Mom, results are out and I will definitely get IIT this time). My father was sleeping in the next room, I woke him up and told “pappa result aai gayu, aakha India ma maaro 227 rank aayo che” (Dad, results are out, I got rank 227 in whole India). I was really happy and emotional. My 4 year GATE journey has finally came to an end.

 

Points to Remember – Ending Credits

  • Never lose hope. The minute you lose hope, it is all over. Nothing can be achieved without hope and confidence. Just make your goals clear and work hard to achieve it even if you have to sacrifice something you like.
  • Revision is must. Revise all the subjects at regular interval otherwise it will be very difficult to grasp all the subjects at once in the end
  • Make good and crisp notes, this will help you to revise the subjects more efficiently.
  • Don’t leave out any subjects. I heard some people saying that we don’t need to prepare all the subjects, we can leave 1-2 subjects. But what if some very easy question comes out of the subject that you left and a hard question comes out of the subject that you have prepared. (This happened with me, a very easy question came from COA in GATE 2021).
  • Try completing your whole syllabus till November and start solving the test series from November only. Revision should be carried out in regular intervals.
  • Analyze the test series properly. Don’t just read out the questions that you did wrong, try to understand that concept and in future if any question comes from that concept, make sure you solve it. Also try to check the question that you did right, whether you did it with the correct method or if there any other shortcut way to solve the same questions or not.
  • Don’t ever rely on test series marks. Don;t get demotivated if you get less marks in test series. There is no relation of test series with the actual exam (Highest marks that I got in test series while preparing for GATE 2022 was 54).
  • Try focussing more on theory concepts more than numericals as I think in next few years, MSQ will take over. If you study the theory concepts, you will become strong both in theory and problem solving. Trust me, it feels worse when you know 3 out of 4 options in the MSQ and not sure about the 4th option.
  • Make sure you stay relax during the actual 3 hours of the exam. It will not matter if you have studied enough, but if you panicked during the exam, it can become worse.
  • During the exam, try to given a fix amount of time to each question, if you are not able to solve it in that time and if you sure that you will definitely get an answer, then only proceed otherwise move to next question.
  • Maths and Aptitude consists of 27 marks. Don’t think of neglecting these subjects, these are very scoring subjects.
  • Time management is a key thing in GATE exam. If you don’t manage you time well, then it will create a big problem during your actual exam.
  • Don’t study 14-18 hours one day and 2-3 hours on other day. Study for 4-6 hours consistently. And do other things as well to relax your mind. I use to play PC/mobile games to relax my mind.
  • Don’t discuss the paper after your exam gets over, just go home and do everything that you have been planning to do since long time. There is not point of regretting as we cannot change our answers now. Open the question paper only when the actual answer key comes.

 

Post – credit scene

A big Thank you to my family, teachers and friends who have pushed me higher throughout this whole journey.

Hope this article is helpful. I might not have the best rank but still I hope that it will help you in your preparation journey.

Hope you achieve all your dreams and make your parents and all your loved ones proud. Best of luck.

Thanks For Reading.

Darshit Gandhi.

258
I qualified the written exam of Mtech CS and selected for interview and my interview was scheduled on 15th june 2:30-5:00 pm.
There were 4 professors (as the day was saturday thats why less professor otherwise there can be more on week days) in the class. As I entered in the class they greeted me and offered me to sit, then they asked me about my college and university as they don't know about that, then they asked me about the city also and i told them all these stuffs, then they asked me about my favourite topics in maths and favourite subject , i told them number theory and combinatorics, for cs i said toc, but they said that if they asked from ds and algo will that be a problem for me? Now, as i prepared only for toc but now i can't say also that no don't ask from ds and algo, so i said yes you can ask.
Questions
1) Combinatorics:-As due to rain, the match between the teams in icc world cup got cancelled , So lets the total team be 10, exclude semi finals and finals , consider only league match, tell me the total number of matches that played between the teams such that each team has get exactly one match get cancelled due to rain among them.(I answered this but after hints).
2)34x=43y
Prove that x+y is a composite number.(I solved this but after hints).
3) Graph of cosx vs sinx( I draw the graph and gives correct answer, now they were shocked as i draw within 10 seconds).
4)3cosx vs 4sinx.( After think for 30 seconds, i draw this also and that was also correct).
5)prove that i raise to the power i is a real number( one professor said skip this question.) Still i tried but don't get the answer and skipped that one.
6)Given the array of numbers such that A[i]=i, for all i except when i=t, and A[t]=t+1, Find the t.( I first started writing algo then they asked me to explain my approach first i told that my algo will take O(n), so then they asked can i optimized the algo , then i took some examples and then told them that i will apply binary search which will take O(log n). Then said OK Thank you leave now.

End game:- My rank was 36(general category but seats are 17) in the merit list as i qualified for the interview also, but don't think that only getting name in merit list will give you admission in isi ( as i don't know about this earlier, My only advice to juniors who are giving isi 2020 mtech cs is that just try to score maximum in mma and pcb).
259

Those scoring above 50 marks in GATE and interested to appear for IIT Research Interviews can fill this form if you feel any guidance is required. A select group of people shall be given guidance by some seniors.

https://goo.gl/forms/hC4P3rDkv109zrUv1

260

I am Shreyansh Jain, a B.Tech CSE 2018 graduate from a tier-3 college, managed AIR-86 in GATE-19 with two months of dedicated preparation.


This post might help people who messed up their exam or could not held their nerves on the D-day. I will try to pin point everything wrong I did while preparing last year. Before that I would like to thank everyone who has contributed in the making of GO book and Arjun sir especially for all his selfless efforts to make this platform and bringing all aspirants under one roof.


After GATE 2018, I was looking for an answer to the question “Should I drop completely / or continue preparation with job / or focus on Job entirely?” having scored AIR 323.  As I got placed in a product based company so I thought I can continue preparing with job. But frankly speaking, preparation with job is a myth atleast in a start-up cultured product based company. It will only build pressure as there's no such thing as multi-tasking – just doing lots of things badly. So I decided to quit in mid November, luckily my company had provision of leave with LOP provided I should rejoin in mid-January (PS: I am still employed and working, will resign soon :D). All I had were two months to revise everything and practice. I planned to dedicate 2-3 days for revision of each subject with subject tests to check I wasn’t missing important concepts. It took me three weeks to revise all subjects except Maths and Discrete. For Maths and discrete I took few more days. After this I gave full tests only in the 2nd month of my preparation which included past year tests, made easy test-series,tests by @rituraj and @bikram sir.

Mistakes I rectified :

  • Gave full tests in single sitting of 3 hours (earlier used to shut the window to take break and later resume)
  • Referred GO book and following thread discussion for doubts clearance (used some other resource last year)
  • Made use of options like “Not Answered” and “Mark for Review” to prioritize order of solving problem based on difficulty level
  • Mentally prepared myself not to get panic by looking at some alien problem (test by @rituraj helped)

Blunders I made :

  • Ate something non-sense night before exam, woke up with headache
  • $225 \times 4 =1000$, might cost me with IITB

All the best to future aspirants. Prepare well without thinking about results. 

Thank you :)