CDAC C-CAT Preparation Guide

7 min readJan 2, 2022

Disclaimer: This is not a promotion for CDAC. This is a guide on why you should opt for CDAC PG Diploma courses, how to prepare for the C-CAT entrance exam and how you can get the most out of these specialized programs.

Every 6 months, the Center For Development Of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) starts a new batch for Postgraduate Diploma courses related to Information Technology. Only graduated students or students in their final year of graduation can take admission to these courses. There are some specific eligibility requirements for each course which you can obtain from the Admission booklet.

Little About Me.

I am an IT Engineering graduate from Pune University and graduated in the year 2020. I appeared for C-CAT in April 2021, and got enrolled in the E-DITISS course at CDAC ACTS Pune. It was May 2021 batch. The complete course was delivered in online mode and was called E-Diploma due to the pandemic situation.

Why should you prefer these courses?

The training is provided by people from the industry who are working with trending technologies.
These courses are regularly updated as per industry workforce requirements.
You get training in a specialized domain so that you can make your career in a specific domain like software development, AI, Big Data, Cybersecurity, DevOps, Mobile Computing, Embedded systems, etc.
You get practical-oriented training with hands-on labs.
Most of the students get placements in the CDAC Campus Placement Program with a good salary, good job roles, and good companies. And don’t worry, you’ll eventually get placed either on-campus or off-campus after completing the PG-Diploma.

All PG-Diploma programs provided by CDAC as per January 2022:

PG Diploma in Advanced Computing (PG-DAC)
PG Diploma in Embedded Systems Design (PG-DESD)
PG Diploma in Big Data Analytics (PG-DBDA)
PG Diploma in IT Infrastructure, Systems & Security (PG-DITISS)
PG Diploma in VLSI Design (PG-DVLSI)
PG Diploma in Internet of Things (PG-DIoT)
PG Diploma in Artificial Intelligence (PG-DAI)
PG Diploma in Mobile Computing (PG-DMC)
PG Diploma in Advanced Secure Software Development (PG-DASSD)
PG Diploma in Geoinformatics (PG-DGi)
PG Diploma in Robotics & Allied Technologies (PG-DRAT)
PG Diploma in HPC System Administration (PG-DHPCSA)

How To Prepare For The C-CAT Entrance?

This exam is a medium-level exam and is taken at all India-level for admissions to the various CDAC centers. Even if you are from a Civil, Mechanical, Electrical engineering background you’ll not find this exam a tough one. You need to prepare a plan and prepare accordingly.

All study material for the exam is available Online for free and can be studied deeply from books. You can also take Pre-CAT training provided by some centers.

Structure of the Exam.

There are a total of 3 sections (A, B, C) for the exam. Section A is compulsory for all courses. Section ( A + B + C) is required for only PG-VLSI, PG-DESD, and PG-DRAT courses.

While for all other remaining courses, you need to appear for Section (A + B).

The time for each section is 1 hour and you will get 50 MCQs.

In this article, I will focus only on Sections A and B.

Syllabus for each Section.

Section A: English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning.

Section B: Computer Fundamentals, C Programming, Data Structures, Object-Oriented Programming Concepts, Operating Systems.

Section C: Computer Architecture, Digital Electronics, Microprocessors.

Section-A Preparation Guide.

This section consists of class 10th level questions from aptitude and English.

Questions will be from topics like :

Number System, Percentages, Profit & Loss, LCM, HCF, Time & Distance, Averages, Ages, Time & Work, Partnership, Boats & Streams, Chain Rule, Clocks & Calendars, Pipes & Cisterns, Simple & Compound Interest, Permutations & Combinations, Probability, Blood Relations & Directions, Seating Arrangements, Coding-Decoding, Number Series, Analogy, Data Sufficiency, Syllogisms.

You don’t need to cover each topic. Here are some simple topics from the list which will help you fetch some good marks:

Number system
Percentages
Profit and loss
LCM, HCF
Average
Ages
Clock
Partnership
Blood relations and directions
Number Series

Every topic has some tricks which are used to create the questions for the exams. You should first watch some YouTube videos to get some basic idea about these concepts and learn the tricks.

Some of the YouTube channels which I recommend are:

These channels are more than enough for CCAT preparation.

After watching these videos and understanding the concepts, you should practice topic-wise questions from the R.S. Aggarwal book. Solve as many questions as you can and note down the tricks in your own words.

Each topic will hardly take 2 days. This means a total of 20 days for Section A preparation.

For English, you don't need to do something special. Most of the questions you can solve easily if you read some English daily. Even if you don’t read English daily, you should cover this topic at last in your preparation journey. Try practicing some passage comprehension and error correction questions.

Section-B Preparation Guide.

This section is purely technical and you will need to practice some programming. Start with the C Language.

C Programming:

You need to note down small rules which the C language has. For this, go to youtube and search for “C Language Output questions” and “C language MCQ Questions”. Make notes of all tricks mentioned in these videos. These tricks are the core component for obtaining more marks in this section. You'll get around 14–15 questions based on the C language.

Some recommended YouTube channels and Playlists for C language:

I would recommend reading a Book for C so that you can have a good understanding of the language.

Recommended Books:

Don’t forget to watch YouTube videos by searching “C Language Output questions” and “C language MCQ Questions”.

Special Note For Non-IT Background Students:

Learning programming does not require any prior technical experience. Programming is like simple maths topics and these MCQ questions are like puzzles. You can be an expert in any programming language in 1 month. It has no relation to your graduation background. Dedicate more time in learning a specific topic from different YouTube channels and different websites. Learning a topic from different sources helps you remember the concepts.

Every programming language has some specific rules which you need to remember to be a better programmer and get more marks. Try writing small programs on paper and computer, and execute them to get familiar with the errors and the related concepts.

OOP Concepts

Questions in this topic will be from topics like Classes, Objects, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction, Encapsulation, etc.

Generally, you don’t get output-based programming questions from this section. Most of the questions will be purely theory-based. Understand these simple concepts and you will be good to go for this section.

You can learn OOPS concepts by considering any language. It can be C++ or JAVA or Python etc. You don't need to practice programming in these languages. You have to understand these concepts by taking any of these languages as a reference.

Some recommended YouTube Videos and Playlists for OOPS:

Then search for “OOPS MCQ Questions” and watch these videos to make some notes. Such videos are helpful for MCQ based exams.

Concepts like Classes, Inheritance, Friend functions, and Static functions and variables are important for this part.

Operating Systems.

This subject consists of complex questions which deep dives into the working of modern operating systems. If you want to score more in this part then you will need to read some good reference books. One such book which I can recommend is “Operating System Concepts”

Recommended Youtube Vidoes and Playlists:

These videos are more than enough for CCAT.

Remember, quality is important. Don’t just rush to complete the subject. Choose some topics and understand them to make notes. At last, you should practice MCQ questions on Operating Systems from the internet.

Data Structures

This is the most important subject for students planning to enroll in the PG-DAC course. Most of your interviews will revolve around this subject, so prepare accordingly.

This subject demands a lot of coding practice for interviews. Luckily for C-CAT, most of the questions are generally theory based. You need to get a deep understanding of topics like Arrays, Linked lists, Stacks, Queues, etc. These topics are the building blocks for this subject. You can practice these topics in C or any of your preferred language.

Recommended YouTube Videos and Playlists:

For PG-DAC interviews, you should practice coding questions on HackerEarth, HackerRank, and LeetCode.