Admissions to all PG Diploma courses are done through C-DAC’s Common Admission Test (C-CAT) that will be conducted in computerised mode physically at C-DAC’s test centres. Candidates have to apply for C-CAT online at www.cdac.in or acts.cdac.in. Candidates who clear tC-CAT will only be considered for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses on the basis of their C-CAT ranks and centre/course preferences.
C-CAT Test Papers
C-CAT has three sections (Section A, Section B, Section C) of one hour duration each.
As shown in Table , depending on the category of courses selected by the candidate, he/she will have to either appear for just one test paper (Section A) or two test papers (Section A and Section B) or all the three test papers (Section A, Section B and Section C). The medium of C-CAT is English.
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. There will be +3 (plus three) marks for each correct answer, -1 (minus one) for each wrong answer, and 0 (zero) marks for each un-attempted question. The maximum mark a candidate can obtain in any one section of C-CAT is 150.
 Categories of PG Diploma courses and the corresponding test paper(s) in C-CAT.
| COURSE
CATEGORY |
COURSE NAME | C-CAT
PAPER(S) |
| I | PG Diploma in Geoinformatics (PG-DGi) | Section A |
| II | PG Diploma in Advanced Computing (PG-DAC) | Section A +
Section B |
| PG Diploma in Big Data Analytics (PG-DBDA) | ||
| PG Diploma in IT Infrastructure, Systems & Security (PG-DITISS) | ||
| PG Diploma in Artificial Intelligence (PG-DAI) | ||
| PG Diploma in Internet of Things (PG-DIoT) | ||
| PG Diploma in Mobile Computing (PG-DMC) | ||
| PG Diploma in Advanced Secure Software Development (PG-DASSD) | ||
| PG Diploma in HPC System Administration (PG-HPCSA) | ||
| PG Diploma in FinTech & Blockchain Development (PG-DFBD) | ||
| PG Diploma in Cyber Security & Forensics (PG-DCSF) | ||
| III | PG Diploma in Embedded Systems Design (PG-DESD) | Section A +
Section B + Section C |
| PG Diploma in VLSI Design (PG-DVLSI) | ||
| PG Diploma in Robotics & Allied Technologies (PG-DRAT) |
C-CAT Syllabus
The C-CAT examination has three sections A, B & C and the C-CAT syllabus or topics and the duration of the each section is provided in table below:
 Indicative syllabus of the different sections of test papers in C-CAT.
| TEST PAPER | TOPICS | DURATION |
| Section A | English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning | 1 hour |
| Section B | Computer Fundamentals, C Programming, Data Structures, Object Oriented Programming Concepts, Â Operating Systems | 1 hour |
| Section C | Computer Architecture, Digital Electronics, Microprocessors | 1 hour |
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. There will be +3 (plus three) marks for each correct answer, -1 (minus one) for each wrong answer, and 0 (zero) marks for each un-attempted question. The maximum mark a candidate can obtain in any one section of C-CAT is 150.
Reference books for the various topics in C-CAT.
| SECTION | TOPIC | REFERENCE BOOK |
| A | English | Any High School Grammar Book (e.g. Wren & Martin) |
| Quantitative Aptitude & Reasoning | Quantitative Aptitude Fully Solved (R. S. Aggrawal)
Quantitative Aptitude (M Tyara) Barron’s New GRE 2016 |
|
| B | Computer Fundamentals | Foundations of Computing (Pradeep Sinha & Priti Sinha) |
| C Programming | C Programming Language (Kernighan & Ritchie)
Let Us C (Yashavant Kanetkar) |
|
| Data Structures | Data Structures Through C in Depth (S. K. Srivastava) | |
| Operating Systems | Operating System Principles (Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne) | |
| OOP Concepts | Test Your C ++ Skills (Yashavant Kanetkar) | |
| C | Computer Architecture | Computer Organization & Architecture (William Stallings) |
| Digital Electronics | Digital Design (Morris Mano)
Digital Design: Principles & Practices (John Wakerly) Modern Digital Electronics (R. P. Jain) |
|
| Microprocessors | Microprocessor Architecture, Programming & Applications with 8085 (Ramesh Gaonkar)
The Intel Microprocessor (Barry Brey) |
C-CAT Fee
Candidates may note that the C-CAT fee once paid is not refundable
| Course Category | C-CAT Paper(s) | C-CAT Fee |
| I
II III |
A
A+B A+B+C |
Rs 1350/-
Rs 1550/- Rs 1750/- |