Important Text Books for Preparation of GATE Computer Science & Information Technology

What to study ?

In this section i will list some textbooks which you can follow during your preparation , you need not limit to these
only and go ahead with some more books that you like.

1 . Mathematical Logic: Propositional Logic; First Order Logic.

Set Theory & Algebra: Sets; Relations; Functions; Groups; Partial Orders; Lattice; Boolean Algebra.

Textbook : " Discrete Mathematics " by Tremblay and Manohar .

2 . Probability: Conditional Probability; Mean, Median, Mode and Standard Deviation; Random Variables;
Distributions; uniform, normal, exponential, Poisson, Binomial .

Textbook : " Probability , statistics and queuing theory " by S.C.Gupta & V.K.Kapoor

3 . Combinatorics: Permutations; Combinations; Counting; Summation; generating functions; recurrence

relations; asymptotics.

Textbook : " Intermediate Mathematics " , S.Chand publications , authors : B.V.Sastry and K.Venkateswarlu

" Higher Engineering Mathematics " by B.S.Grewal for generating functions and recurrence relations . ( Bessel's
formula , Lagrangian Polynomial )

" Introduction to algorithms " - Cormen etal ( CLRS ) for recurrence relations and asymptotics

4 . Graph Theory: Connectivity; spanning trees; Cut vertices & edges; covering; matching; independent sets;
Colouring; Planarity; Isomorphism

Textbook : " Intoduction to Graph Theory " by Narsing Deo

5 . Linear Algebra: Algebra of matrices, determinants, systems of linear equations, Eigen values and Eigen
vectors.

Textbook : " Higher Engineering Mathematics " by B.S.Grewal

6 . Numerical Methods: LU decomposition for systems of linear equations; numerical solutions of non linear
algebraic equations by Secant, Bisection and Newton-Raphson Methods; Numerical integration by trapezoidal and
Simpson's rules.

Textbook : " Numerical Methods " - by S.S.Sastry

7 . Calculus: Limit, Continuity & differentiability, Mean value Theorems, Theorems of integral calculus, evaluation
of definite & improper integrals, Partial derivatives, Total derivatives, maxima & minima.

Textbook : " Intermediate Mathematics " , S.chand publications , authors : B.V.Sastry , K.Venkateswarlu

8 . Formal Languages and Automata Theory: Regular languages and finite automata, Context free languages
and Push-down automata, Recursively enumerable sets and Turing machines, Un-decidability;

Textbook : " Formal Languages and Automata theory " , J.D.Ullman etal

9 . Analysis of Algorithms and Computational Complexity: Asymptotic analysis (best, worst, average case) of
time and space, Upper and lower bounds on the complexity of specific problems, NP-completeness.

Textbook : " Introduction to algorithms " - Cormen etal ( CLRS )

" Computer Algorithms " - Horowitz and Sahani

A very good textbook on " Algorithms " coming soon from Dr.M.N.Seetaramanth ( Tata Mc Graw Hill publications )

10 . Digital Logic: Logic functions, Minimization, Design and synthesis of Combinational and Sequential circuits;
Number representation and Computer Arithmetic (fixed and floating point);

Textbook : " Digital Logic circuits and Design " by Morris Mano

11 . Computer Organization: Machine instructions and addressing modes, ALU and Data-path, hardwired and
micro-programmed control, Memory interface, I/O interface (Interrupt and DMA mode), Serial communication
interface, Instruction pipelining, Cache, main and secondary storage.

Textbook : " Computer Organisation " by Morris Mano

" Computer Architecture " by Briggs and 2 chinese authors ( blue cover pad ) { for pipelining }

12 . Data structures: Notion of abstract data types, Stack, Queue, List, Set, String, Tree, Binary search tree,
Heap, Graph;

Textbook : " Data structures " Schaumm's outline series

" Data structures in PASCAL " by Horowitz and Sahani

" Data structures and Algorithms " by Weiss etal

" Introduction to algorithms " - Cormen etal ( CLRS )

13 . Programming Methodology: C programming, Program control (iteration, recursion, Functions), Scope,

Binding, Parameter passing, Elementary concepts of Object oriented, Functional and Logic Programming

Textbook : " Programming with C " - Byron Gottfried , Schaumm's outline series

" Principles of Programming Languages " by Robert W Sebesta, Addison Wesley

" Programming with C++ " - Balaguruswamy

14 . Algorithms for problem solving: Tree and graph traversals, Connected components, Spanning trees,
Shortest paths; Hashing, Sorting, Searching; Design techniques (Greedy, Dynamic Programming, Divide-and-
conquer);

Textbook : " Data structures " Schaumm's outline series

" Data structures in PASCAL " by Horowitz and Sahani

" Computer Algorithms " - Horowitz and Sahani

" Data structures and Algorithms " by Weiss etal

" Introduction to algorithms " - Cormen etal ( CLRS )

15 . Compiler Design: Lexical analysis, Parsing, Syntax directed translation, Runtime environment, Code
generation, Linking (static and dynamic);

Textbook : " Principles of Compiler Design " , Aho , Ullman etal .

" Systems Programming " by John . J . Donovan

16 . Operating Systems: Classical concepts (concurrency, synchronization, deadlock), Processes, threads and
Inter-process communication, CPU scheduling, Memory management, File systems, I/O systems, Protection and
security.

Textbook : " Operating system concepts " by Abraham Silberschatz and Peter Galvin

" Advanced Unix Programming " by W. Richard . Stevens

" Advanced Unix Programming " by N.B.Venkateswarlu , BPB publications

17 . Databases: Relational model (ER-model, relational algebra, tuple calculus), Database design (integrity
constraints, normal forms), Query languages (SQL), File structures (sequential files, indexing, B+ trees),
Transactions and concurrency control;

Textbook : " Database Management systems " - Raghu RamaKrishnan

" Database system concepts " - Silberschatz , Korth , Sudarshan

" Database systems " - C.J.Date {normalisation is very lucidly written }

" Principles of Database Systems " - J.D.Ullman { This is a very good book}

18 . Computer Networks: ISO/OSI stack, sliding window protocol, LAN Technologies (Ethernet, Token ring),
TCP/UDP, IP, Basic concepts of switches, gateways, and routers.

Textbook : " Computer Networks " - Tenenbaum

" Data communications and Networking " - William Stallings

Some more important books :

" Multiple choice questions " - Timothy . J . Williams , TMH publications

" Gate Question Papers " - G.K.Publishers { follow it only for questions , answers are all wrong in it }

How to study ?

Three golden words : Read the subject by posing questions " What " , " How " and " Why " . Always stress to
analyze the things by working out on the paper and don't take anything for granted, then things would be fine for
you and life will be smooth.

* Follow standard textbooks, read the concepts , understand them , think about how they would be useful and can
be applied practically ( what , how , why ) . Try to work out the exercise problems given at the back of each
chapter in the textbook ( once again not all , only those which you feel like useful for your preparation , there is no
point in wasting your time over 3 starred problems ) . Read two different subjects in parallel so that you wont feel
bored . Try to answer the questions related to a subject after you finish studying it from both " Multiple choice
questions " book by williams and questions from all the previous papers related to that subject . This would give
you some insight on the GATE questions and build your confidence as well .

** Another thing is that don't worry whether i can do well in GATE as my percentage in university exams is very
less , for people who think like that let me clarify your university percentage has nothing to do with GATE both of
them are entirely different ball games all together . The student with good basics , understanding , application will
definitely succeed irrespective of the percentage . one more thing is , don't worry even if it was too late to start the
preparation for one reason or the other , i tell you 2 months is more than enough for the preparation of the CS
paper even if you have not studied much for your university exams .

*** One important note to the undergraduates , see you believe it or not these 4 years of your B.Tech are the best
days of your entire life so enjoy them to the fullest , bunking the classes and going to movies , roaming with
friends , going to second show movies , playing cricket , getting ragged by the seniors and ragging your juniors etc
... . Studies is only part of life , it is not everything in life , there are many more beautiful things in life so , don't
miss them ( you cannot reuse time unlike space right )