By: Education Desk New Delhi | August 27, 2025 12:54 PM IST 2 min readGATE: List of subjects that were introduced between 2021-2025. (Image: MetaI/ representational)The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati will open the registration window for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2026 on August 28. This year, the Energy Science (XE-I) paper has been introduced under the Engineering Sciences (XE) category. With this addition, the total number of GATE papers has gone up to 30. Biomedical Engineering (BM), Environmental Science and Engineering (ES), and Humanities & Social Sciences (XH), Geomatics Engineering (GE), Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DA), and Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering (NM) are some of the papers that have been introduced over the past five years. For more updates on GATE 2026 registration, click hereThe response of the candidates taking the newly introduced papers has been mixed, with Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DA) drawing significant interest in its debut year.GATE New Subjects: Registrations & AppearancesYearSubjectRegisteredAppeared2024Data Science & Artificial Intelligence52,49339,2102022Geomatics Engineering4,32529772022Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering1,1026422021Environmental Science & Engineering9,0736,6312021Humanities & Social Sciences (English)5,6654,1322020Biomedical Engineering2,6822,165Source: GATE Registration DataMeanwhile, traditional courses Computer Science, Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering continue to dominate students’ choices. These courses are equally popular at the graduation level. The application for Computer Science paper has seen a significant increase over the years, however, Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DA) introduced last year is likely to give tough competition to the CS. Top 5 Subjects by Number of Appeared Candidates in GATE (2022–2025)Story continues below this adYearSubjectAppeared Candidates2025Computer Science & IT (CS)170,825Civil Engineering (CE)79,951Electrical Engineering (EE)67,701Electronics & Communication (EC)81,475Mechanical Engineering (ME)62,0152024Computer Science & IT (CS)123,967Civil Engineering (CE)85,869Mechanical Engineering (ME)65,546Electrical Engineering (EE)59,599Electronics & Communication (EC)63,0922023Computer Science & IT (CS)75,679Civil Engineering (CE)83,187Mechanical Engineering (ME)63,489Electrical Engineering (EE)55,292Electronics & Communication (EC)45,8332022Computer Science & IT (CS)77,257Civil Engineering (CE)100,043Mechanical Engineering (ME)89,567Electrical Engineering (EE)69,734Electronics & Communication (EC)54,292 Humanities & Social Sciences (XH) TrendsDisciplineRegisteredAppearedEconomics4,1612,973English5,6654,132Linguistics378297Philosophy702531Psychology5,7094,125Sociology2,1471,546The Humanities & Social Sciences paper, introduced in 2021, continues to attract aspirants across diverse disciplines with English and Psychology among the most popular in this category.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd