GATE ME Previous Year Question Papers PDF and Answer Keys

Every GATE Mechanical paper from the last five years is free on an official GATE site, with its answer key and no sign-up. The catch is that the institute which set a paper has often taken its own GATE site down, so the files now live in an archive kept by later organisers. This guide gives you the official links for every ME paper from 2022 to 2026, the traps inside those files, and a way of reading a paper that teaches you more than a timed attempt.

Key takeaways

• The official archive is served by three organising-institute hosts: IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee. Where a file sits on more than one, the bytes are identical.
• The 2022 ME file holds both sets in one PDF, each followed by its own key. Always cite a 2022 question with its set.
• From 2023 to 2026 there is one ME paper a year. The "S2" in the 2024 file name is the exam session, not a second set.
• Seven questions were marks to all and six keys accept more than one answer, so mark your attempt from the key itself.
• No technical question from 2022 to 2026 falls on material the 2027 syllabus dropped. Download pages change each cycle; check the current notification at gate2027.iitm.ac.in.

The words this guide uses

A question paper is the organiser's PDF of the 65 questions. An answer key is the organiser's table of question number, type, section, key and marks.

A set is a different paper: in 2022 ME was held as Set 1 and Set 2, with different questions. A session is the time slot the key records against each row. One file name below depends on the difference. The archive is the previous-years download page each new organiser maintains.

Every ME paper here has the same frame: 65 questions and 100 marks, Q1 to Q10 General Aptitude and Q11 to Q65 Mechanical. Q1 to Q5 and Q11 to Q35 carry one mark; the rest carry two. The GATE marking scheme guide explains MCQ, MSQ and NAT marking, which is common to every paper.

Where the archive actually lives

The organisers' own sites are mostly gone. Checked on 10 October 2026, IIT Kharagpur's GATE host (the 2022 organiser) times out, and IIT Kanpur's (2023) does not resolve. What survives is the archive the recent organisers keep:

• IIT Madras archive, with ME papers from 2021
• IIT Guwahati archive, with ME papers from 2019
• IIT Roorkee archive, with ME papers from 2019

If a link below has moved, try the same file on another host before concluding it is gone. See the GATE 2027 exam schedule for where the cycle stands.

The papers and keys, with links

These are the six GATE ME papers of 2022 to 2026, the papers the GATE ME 2027 book counts question by question. Every link was checked on 10 October 2026.

File sizes, to check your copy: 2026 paper 2,562,740 bytes and key 517,117; 2025 paper 864,914 and key 209,033; 2024 paper 1,102,200 and key 311,905; 2023 paper 1,484,929 and key 103,792; 2022 file 3,693,695 and key file 846,170.

The archives also carry ME papers from 2019 to 2021. They are official and fine for extra practice, but no number in this guide is counted from them.

The 2022 file: two papers and two keys in one PDF

The 2022 file is 101 pages and really four documents. Page 1 is a "SESSION - 1" divider, pages 2 to 47 the Set 1 paper and pages 48 to 49 its key. Page 50 is the "SESSION - 2" divider, pages 51 to 99 the Set 2 paper and pages 100 to 101 its key.

The separate 2022 key file covers both sets: pages 1 to 2 are Session 7 (Set 1) and pages 3 to 4 Session 8 (Set 2). It does not say whether it is final. The two sets' technical marks differ by only 4 out of 85, so weigh 2022 as one year.

Trap: "2022 Q35" is two different questions. Write the set, as in 2022 S1 Q35, in your notes, or you will mark one set's attempt with the other set's key.

Small things in the files worth knowing first

The 2024 name. ME24S2.pdf is session 2, the slot in which ME was sat. 2024 had one ME paper; ME24S1.pdf does not exist.

No printed year. The 2023 to 2026 papers name their organising institute instead, so the institute tells you the year.

Marks to all. The keys mark seven questions MTA: 2022 S1 Q10, 2023 Q55, and 2024 Q7, Q10, Q19, Q34 and Q63. Six accept more than one answer: 2022 S1 Q29, 2022 S2 Q5 and Q27, 2025 Q56 and Q61, and 2026 Q52.

The 2026 letters. Every technical MCQ in 2026, 35 of them, is keyed (A). It tells a 2027 candidate nothing.

Figures. Diagrams and some formulas do not survive in the text layer, so search can miss a question. Scroll to the number.

How to mark your own attempt with the key

Marking an attempt properly is where most candidates get careless. Your score is the marks you earned, minus a third of a mark for each wrong one-mark MCQ and two-thirds for each wrong two-mark MCQ. MSQ and NAT carry no negative marks.

Here $C$ is the marks from correct answers, $W_{1}$ the number of wrong one-mark MCQs and $W_{2}$ the number of wrong two-mark MCQs.

A worked example

Suppose your attempt earns 46 marks of correct answers, with nine one-mark and six two-mark MCQs wrong.

Now check the MTA rows. In the 2024 paper five questions were awarded to everyone: Q7, Q10 and Q63 at two marks, Q19 and Q34 at one. That is up to 8 marks to credit whatever you answered.

Remember: Mark an attempt from the key's own columns. A copied answer list drops the MTA rows and the questions whose keys accept more than one answer.

How to read a paper so it teaches you something

The second use of a paper is as data. Assign each of the 65 questions to a subject of the 2027 syllabus, not the syllabus of the paper's own year, and add the marks. The technical marks must close at 85, with General Aptitude at exactly 15.

Counted this way, the 2024 paper gives Engineering Mathematics 13, Materials, Manufacturing and Metrology 16, Heat Transfer 9, and every other subject 4 to 8. A column that does not close is wrong, and that one check catches most errors.

The counted result for all six papers, each year weighted once, is in the GATE ME subject-wise weightage guide. Its warning: the 2023 paper differs from every other by 30 marks or more out of 85.

In one line: A paper attempted shows your speed; a paper counted shows where the marks sit, and only a column that closes at 100 can be trusted.

Which years matter for the 2027 syllabus

All five years from 2022 to 2026 are safe practice. Lagrange's equation and Heisler's charts left the syllabus, and no counted question had used them. One 2026 question, Q45 on Euler's law for solids, sits near the edge.

What the papers cannot cover is what is new. The 2027 syllabus adds 30 phrases and removes 5. Combustion, boiling and condensation, control systems under Vibrations, six sigma, and quality and reliability have no counted question. Read them from the syllabus, using the GATE ME 2027 syllabus changes guide.

The format moved more than the content: MSQs ran 6, 6, 8, 2, 1 and 0 across the six papers. Do not plan on zero.

Papers before 2022, including the 2019 paper set under IIT Madras, were set on older syllabi. Check each question against the 2027 syllabus before you count it.

What the papers cannot tell you

Six papers under five institutes show what has been asked and in what form. They cannot show a trend, and none was set by IIT Madras, which organises GATE 2027. Any claim about the 2027 setter's style from them is a guess.

The GATE ME 2027 book carries the finished count of all six papers question by question, every boundary decision on record, and 942 questions written for the book with worked solutions, including 10 mock tests.

Quick revision

1. Download from the IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati or IIT Roorkee archive; the files are identical.
2. The 2022 file is both sets plus both keys in 101 pages; always cite the set.
3. ME24S2.pdf is session 2 of a single 2024 paper, not a second set.
4. Credit the MTA rows when you mark yourself: seven questions, five in 2024.
5. Score with $\displaystyle S = C - \frac{1}{3}W_{1} - \frac{2}{3}W_{2}$; wrong MSQs and NATs cost nothing.
6. Count one paper against the 2027 syllabus and check it closes at 85 plus 15.
7. Read the 2027 additions from the syllabus, because no past paper covers them.