CDAC – CAT
C-CAT or CDAC – CAT is the entrance examination for all Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) post graduate diploma courses. CDAC, an initiative of the government of India Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is the premier R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Founded to counter the restrictions imposed by US for importing supercomputers, C-DAC has today emerged as a premier institute in training as diverse as high performance computing, grid and cloud computing, multilingual computing, electronics and embedded systems, software technologies and cyber security, and health related IT. The education and training division of CDAC imparts quality training to deserving candidates in order to boost the IT productivity of the country. Starting from Pune, C-DAC has now established its presence in other cities of India as well like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, etc. As India’s premier computing institute, C-DAC is always on the lookout of opportunities that will help further India’s development in the information technology sector.
Traditionally, India has always been at the forefront of sharing its knowledge and expertise with its neighbours and especially the developing countries. C-DAC, with the co-operation of MEA & MeitY, has collaborated with many IT related projects to promote the product and technologies available across centre to meet the ever-increasing requirements of the global IT industry.
C-DAC shot to limelight with the introduction of Param, an affordable supercomputer of those times. One of the newest offering from C-DAC is ‘Param Shavak’, a Deep Learning supercomputer meant for academic institutions and research organizations that employ deep learning techniques for GPU accelerated machine learning applications, big data problems (computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing, life sciences) and artificial intelligence.
CDAC offers various courses in advanced computing. A few popular courses that C-DAC offers include Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing (PG-DAC), and C-CAT is the entrance examination for this course. Formally called as Computerized Common Admission Test, it is a national level test conducted by CDAC for those interested to pursue a career in advanced computing like Big Data, AI, IoT, and other such fields. C-CAT is conducted online at a national level. Dates for the C-CAT test are announced in advanced by C-DAC. As a norm CDAC conducts the C-CAT courses twice every year – typically in December / January and June / July for admissions in the February / March semester or August / September semester respectively. The results of the C-CAT are announced within a month. While you can give your preference for courses and C-DAC centres, the choice ultimately depend on how well you fare in the C-CAT exam.
Candidates can complete the registration by visiting the C-DAC website. Before appearing for the C-CAT examination, it is better to be extremely familiar with the syllabus, and the eligibility criteria. It is also important to note that a candidate can appear only for the specific section(s) in C-CAT as per the category of the courses opted by him / her at the time of filling the online application form.
C-CAT is an important examination for those who want to pursue a post grad degree in computers at C-DAC. It has three sections (Section A, Section B, Section C) of one hour duration each. Every section in C-CAT will have 50 objective-type questions. Each question will have four choices as possible answers of which only one will be correct.
Section A of the C-CAT test consists of English, Quantitative Aptitude and Reasoning. Section B consists of Computer Fundamentals, C Programming, Data Structures, Object Oriented Programming Concepts, and Operating Systems, while Section C of the C-CAT test consists of Computer Architecture, Digital Electronics and Microprocessors.
Successful candidates are required to go through three sessions of counseling to determine course allocation. All the candidates who have been allotted a seat will need to pay the admission fee and register themselves at the training centers.