GATE CS 2026 Set 1 Q.4: Quantitative Aptitude

A student needs to enroll for a minimum of 60 credits. A student cannot enroll for more than 70 credits. The credits are divided amongst project and three distinct sets of courses namely, core courses, specialization courses, and elective courses. It is compulsory for a student to enroll for exactly 15 credits of core courses and exactly 20 credits of project. In addition, a student has to enroll for a minimum of 10 credits of specialization courses. The maximum credits of elective courses that a student can enroll for is ______

Official answer and solution

Official answer: D
From: Official GATE 2026 answer key

Solution

Maximize elective credits by setting total credits to the upper bound (70) and specialization credits to the lower bound (10).

Let $C, P, S, E$ denote the credits for core courses, project, specialization courses, and elective courses, respectively. We are given:

$60 \le C + P + S + E \le 70$
$C = 15$ , $P = 20$ , and $S \ge 10$

Therefore:

E \le 70 - (C + P + S) \le 70 - (15 + 20 + 10) = 70 - 45 = 25

Thus, the maximum credits of elective courses a student can enroll for is $25$ .

Final answer

Option (D)

Common trap

Subtracting from the minimum total credits (60) instead of the maximum total credits (70).

The answer is the one in the official GATE answer key. The solution is this site's own explanation.

Source

Paper: GATE 2026 Computer Science and Information Technology - Session 1 (CS1)
Question: 4 of 65
Section: General Aptitude

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