Toughest Paper of GATE 2025

GATE Toughest Papers

Highest Marks out of 100

Most Difficult Subjects

Reasons of Difficulty

Number of Students that Appeared

Number of Students Who Passed

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

Expected between 50 and 60 marks

• Ship stability calculations
• Ship Structures and Strength

• The complex nature of the questions
• Many questions require mathematical calculations. 

To Be Updated

To Be Updated

Architecture and Planning

Expected between 60 and 70 marks

• Urban Design, Landscape and Conservation
• Building Construction and Structural systems

• The GATE AR syllabus has different specialized topics that require concept understanding, quick calculations, design skills, which can be tough for a student to grasp and answer different types of questions correctly. 

To Be Updated

To Be Updated

• Heat Transfer
• Thermodynamics
• Engineering Mathematics

• Questions from Engineering Mathematics were moderate to tough due to lengthy calculations.
• Some tricky numerical-based questions were asked from Heat transfer.

To Be Updated

To Be Updated

• Electromagnetics & Communications 
• Network Theory
• Signals Systems
• Analog Electronics
• Electronics Devices Circuits

• Students found the Electromagnetics & Communications tricky to solve. 
• NAT questions required many lengthy calculations which made this section time-consuming. 
• There were some tricky conceptual-based questions. 

To Be Updated

To Be Updated

Civil Engineering

Expected highest marks will be less than 90. 

• Environmental Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• RCC
• Irrigation and Hydrology
• OCF
• Strength of Material
• Structural Analysis

• GATE 2025 Civil Engineering paper was held in two shifts. The paper was moderate to difficult.
• The GATE Civil Engineering afternoon session paper was more difficult due to complicated calculations.
• Some students find the questions lengthy. 
• The questions required deep conceptual understanding.
• There were few direct formulae-based questions. 
• Geotechnical Engineering and Structural Analysis had tricky questions. 

To Be Updated

To Be Updated

GATE Toughest Papers

Highest Marks out of 100

Most Difficult Subjects

Reasons of Difficulty

Number of Students that Appeared

Number of Students Who Passed

Biomedical Engineering

54.33

• Signals And Systems
• Biomechanics
• Medical Imaging Systems

• Many questions require Mathematical calculations
• It becomes difficult for students to prepare the syllabus as it has various multidisciplinary topics that require in-depth understanding. 

1860

124

Mining Engineering

58.33

• Surface Environment
• Underground Hazards
• Surface Mining
• Underground Coal Mining 

• There were many indirect questions.
• The language of the questions was difficult for students to interpret. 

7046

1344

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

55.33

• Potential flow theory
• Ship stability calculations
• Ship Structures and Strength

• Many questions were mathematical calculations
• To solve questions students must have in-depth knowledge about ship specifics like seakeeping behavior, stability calculations, etc

361

70

Humanities and Social Sciences (Philosophy)

58.67

• Epistemology
• Metaphysics
• Western Philosophy

• Some of the questions are open-ended.
• To solve questions one must have a proper understanding of different kinds of philosophy concepts.

340

84

Humanities and Social Sciences (Sociology)

63

Classical Sociological Traditions

Indian Society/Sociology of India

• Questions require critical thinking by students which can be time-consuming since the GATE exam is time constraint. 

1020

266

GATE Toughest Papers

Highest Marks out of 100

Most Difficult Subjects

Reasons of Difficulty

Number of Students that Appeared

Number of Students Who Passed

Agricultural Engineering

49

• Engineering Mathematics
• Hydrology
• Irrigation

• The core Agriculture Engineering questions and Mathematics questions were tough to solve.
• Mathematics questions were time-consuming. 

2337

207

Mathematics

50.33

• Calculus
• Complex Analysis
• Numerical Analysis 

• Questions were lengthy to solve
• The Core Mathematics section was tough to solve

16753

2480

Biomedical Engineering

60

• Signals and Systems
• Biomaterials
• Medical Imaging Systems

• Questions require a strong knowledge of core Biomedical topics and conceptual understanding.
• Some questions require Mathematical calculations.

1444

140

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

60

• Fluid Mechanics
• Marine Hydrodynamics

• Questions were deeper Mathematical knowledge and calculations.

335

65

Mining Engineering

63.33

• Geomechanics and Ground Control

• There were many application-based questions.
• The questions require complex calculations.

6032

1036

GATE 2025 CSE Marks vs Rank vs Score Analysis

GATE Rank vs Marks vs Score Analysis 2025

GATE Toughest Papers

Highest Marks out of 100

Most Difficult Subjects

Reasons of Difficulty

Number of Students that Appeared

Number of Students Who Passed

Biomedical Engineering

45.33

• Biomechanics
• Signals and Systems
• Analog and Digital Electronics

• Many questions were indirect and the language of the questions was tricky. 
• Questions were complex and required time to solve.

1614

104

Statistics

49

• Multivariate Analysis
• Matrix Theory
• Probability

• The GATE Statistics paper was difficult due to the theoretical and conceptual questions, demanding a strong comprehension of statistical concepts. 

1436

88

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

58.33

• Fluid Mechanics and Marine Hydrodynamics
• Ship Resistance

• The questions require a deep understanding of seakeeping, structural analysis, and ship design.
• There were many time-consuming Mathematics questions.

642

134

Mathematics

63.33

• Complex Analysis
• Partial Differential Equations
• Functional Analysis

• Questions require thorough calculations and were time-consuming.
• The nature of the questions was indirect and complex. 
• The negative marking made it tougher to score good marks in GATE MA. 

Mining Engineering

64.67

• Mining Geology
• Geomechanics and Ground Control
• Mine Development and Surveying

• Many of the questions require real-world mining scenarios which need critical thinking and problem-solving skills to solve.
• The core subjects of Mining Engineering were also time-consuming and challenging, requiring in-depth analysis to answer.

4276

985