GATE AR 2025 — Paper analysis

Exam Overview

GATE 2025 Architecture and Planning (AR) was conducted on 2 February 2025 by IIT Roorkee as the organizing institute. The paper carried 100 marks distributed across 65 questions to be answered in 180 minutes. The question paper followed the standard GATE AR structure with three distinct sections: General Aptitude (GA, Q1–Q10, 15 marks), a common Architecture and Planning section (Q11–Q49, 60 marks), and an optional section where candidates chose either AR-B1: Building and Construction (Q50–Q65, 25 marks) or AR-B2: Planning (Q66–Q81, 25 marks). This optional-section design allows candidates to leverage their area of expertise — structural systems and building services for B1, or urban planning and governance for B2 — while keeping the core paper identical for all aspirants.

Topic-wise Weightage

The common section (Q11–Q49) spanned a broad spectrum of topics. Housing standards and building construction dominated with roughly 20 questions, covering NBC provisions, water supply and sanitation systems, structural mechanics, and building materials. Planning framework and urban governance accounted for about 10 questions, touching on URDPFI guidelines, Burgess concentric zone model, UNESCO heritage sites, garden history, and sponge city concepts. Economics and governance contributed around 6 questions on HDI indicators, SDGs, PMAY, and land acquisition acts. Geospatial techniques and surveying appeared in 3 questions involving remote sensing, NDVI, and Total Station. Transport planning had 2 questions on traffic analysis zones and modal share. In the optional sections, AR-B1 was heavily skewed toward structural analysis (beams, RCC, piles), HVAC, acoustics, and illumination, while AR-B2 focused on migration, hedonic pricing, urban agglomeration, transport engineering, and census classification.

Difficulty Assessment

The overall difficulty of GATE 2025 AR can be characterised as moderate. The General Aptitude portion was on the easier side, with straightforward analogy (Q1), grammar (Q2), and probability (Q5) questions. Q3 (relative motion with Pythagorean theorem) and Q8 (figure reflection and rotation) were the trickiest GA questions requiring spatial reasoning. In the AR common section, the recall-based MCQs (Q11–Q26) were largely accessible to well-prepared candidates — questions on URDPFI neighbourhood park population, NBC doorway width, Miyawaki technique, and BIM dimensions tested standard textbook knowledge. The match-the-following questions (Q29–Q33) were time-consuming but not conceptually difficult. The MSQ questions (Q27–Q28, Q35–Q37) required careful elimination; Q37 was declared MTA (Marks To All), indicating ambiguity in the original framing. Among NAT questions, Q38 (water supply calculation, answer range 42000–42200), Q44 (Total Station, 179000–184000), and Q49 (modal share, 320000–330000) demanded multi-step numerical precision. Q48 (Sky View Factor, 0.40–0.43) was a standout question requiring geometric decomposition of circular segments — arguably the most analytically demanding problem in the common section.

Notable Observations and Controversies

Two questions were awarded MTA (Marks To All): Q37 (types of footings) in the common section and Q52 (paint constituent) in AR-B1. The MTA designation typically signals that the question had either more than one defensible answer among the options or an ambiguity in the framing that made it unfair to penalise any particular response. This is a significant data point for candidates analysing their expected scores, as it effectively grants free marks to all examinees irrespective of their answer. Additionally, Q41 (NDVI wavelength bands) in the common section and Q67 in AR-B2 share identical subject matter — remote sensing — raising the question of whether candidates who opted for AR-B2 had a slight advantage from topic overlap. The GATE AR paper has historically included such overlaps, but the replication of an entire concept across both the common and optional sections is worth noting for future preparation strategy.

Preparation Takeaways

For GATE 2026 aspirants, this paper reinforces several patterns. First, the NBC of India, 2016 remains the single most frequently tested document — doorway widths, embodied energy, solid waste rules, and accessibility standards all made appearances. Second, URDPFI 2015 guidelines are a close second in terms of question volume, particularly for neighbourhood-level norms and park standards. Third, match-the-following questions continue to be a reliable format, testing the ability to connect concepts across columns — candidates should practise these under timed conditions to build speed. Fourth, numerical problems in the NAT category increasingly require multi-step reasoning rather than simple formula plug-in; Q48 (SVF), Q49 (modal shift), and Q63–Q64 (RCC beam) all required layered calculations. Fifth, the optional section choice between B1 and B2 should be made based on genuine conceptual strength rather than perceived difficulty, as both sections had comparable difficulty levels in 2025 — B1 favoured candidates comfortable with structural and building-service calculations, while B2 suited those with a stronger grounding in planning theory and quantitative transport methods.

Key Statistics

Parameter	Value
Total questions (common)	49
Total questions (with optional)	65 (pick any 16 from B1 or B2)
Maximum marks	100
Duration	180 minutes
MCQ questions	44
MSQ questions	11
NAT questions	20 (including B1/B2)
MTA questions	2 (Q37, Q52)
Questions with figures	7
Negative marking	MCQ only (1/3 for 1-mark, 2/3 for 2-mark)

Figure-Dependent Questions

Seven questions in this paper critically depend on figures or diagrams that cannot be conveyed through text alone. These are: Q8 (reflection and rotation of a composite figure — options themselves are figures), Q34 (see-saw static equilibrium diagram), Q48 (sky view factor circular projection with hatched regions), Q49 (modal share pie chart), Q53 (material test stress-strain graph), Q54 (Classical Greek temple Doric order diagram with labels P, Q, R), and Q81 (four-arm uncontrolled intersection diagram). Candidates attempting this paper from text-only sources should refer to the original GATE question booklet for these figures. The extracted images in the accompanying gate-ar-2025-images/ directory provide the essential visual information for each of these questions.

Cross-year comparison (2021–2026)

See also the full comparison on previous year papers.