GATE 2027 in Kozhikode: IISc Zone, Kerala's Split and Nearby Institutes

Search the Kerala rows of the official exam-city page for Calicut and you will find nothing. The entry is Kozhikode. The district administration's own site calls the place "Kozhikode, also known as Calicut", so the two names are the same city, but the form uses only the first.

The entry sits under the IISc zone, the one coordinated from Bengaluru. That can catch you out, because the organising institute for GATE 2027 is IIT Madras and the southern half of Kerala is in its zone. For a Kozhikode candidate, IISc is the office that handles exam-city matters.

The list has one Kozhikode entry and no split by area. Pick it, and GATE allots the actual centre. You see the address only on the admit card.

The list is tentative. GATE may add or remove a city, and may allot one outside your six choices if it has to. GATE 2027 is held only in India.

Kerala has nineteen exam-city entries on the official list, and they do not share a zone. This is the single fact that decides a Kozhikode form.

IISc zone (works with Kozhikode)	IIT Madras zone (does not)
Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad	Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Kollam
Thrissur, Palakkad, Angamaly	Alappuzha, Chengannur, Kottayam, Kanjirapally
Pathanamthitta	Idukki, Muvattupuzha, Kothamangalam, Aluva - Ernakulam

The rule is that all six choices must come from one zone. Once Kozhikode is on your form, every other city has to be from the left column or from elsewhere in the IISc zone.

Two entries need a second look. Pathanamthitta is in the IISc zone, while Kottayam, Chengannur and Kollam are IIT Madras. And Ernakulam district is divided: the district administration lists Aluva, Angamaly, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam among its municipalities, but only Angamaly is IISc zone. Aluva - Ernakulam, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam are IIT Madras. The Kochi page and the Thiruvananthapuram page explain the split from the other side.

Start with Kozhikode, then add places you could reach early on an exam morning or where someone could put you up the night before. A list for a student living in Kozhikode:

1. Kozhikode
2. Kannur
3. Wayanad
4. Thrissur
5. Palakkad
6. Kasaragod or Mangaluru

The IISc zone also takes in Karnataka, so the Karnataka cities are valid partners for Kozhikode. If you will be in Mangaluru or Manipal in February, put Mangaluru and Manipal - Udupi near the top. If you will be in Bengaluru, Bengaluru North or Bengaluru South can lead the list, with Mysuru as a back-up, and Kozhikode can drop to the end. The Bengaluru page and the Mangaluru page cover those cities.

Anyone who has registered already has six cities on the form. The official dates page lists the application data correction window, on candidate request and with a fee, as TBA.

These are the cities a Kozhikode student is most likely to add by mistake. Each is in the IIT Madras zone, and none of them can share a form with Kozhikode:

• Coimbatore, Ooty and Pollachi in Tamil Nadu
• Aluva - Ernakulam, Muvattupuzha and Kothamangalam in Ernakulam district
• Kottayam, Thiruvananthapuram and the other south Kerala entries in the table above
• Lakshadweep

Coimbatore is the easy slip, because Palakkad is on our side of the line and it is tempting to treat the two as a pair. The opposite case catches people too: if you are studying in Coimbatore or Kochi and want to write there, you have to build a fully IIT Madras-zone list and leave Kozhikode off. Choose the zone by where you will actually be in February, then pick the cities.

For questions about the Kozhikode exam city, write to the IISc GATE office in Bengaluru:

• IISc, Bengaluru-560 012: helpdesk.gate@iisc.ac.in, 080-22932644, 080-22932392, 080-22933333

Application questions go to the organising institute, IIT Madras: helpdesk@gate.iitm.ac.in or 044-22578200. Write from your registered email ID and quote your enrolment ID.

GATE 2027 runs over three weekends: 6 and 7 February, 13 and 14 February, and 20 and 21 February 2027. The city allotment notification is due on 4 January 2027, the admit card date is TBA, and results are due on 19 March 2027.

When the admit card comes out, find the centre on a map and plan the route from where you will spend the night before. If you are allotted Wayanad, Kannur or a Karnataka city, travel the previous day. The district administration lists Kozhikode Railway Station (code CLT) and KSRTC and private bus services connecting the city with the rest of Kerala and neighbouring states. If you write two papers, the official two-paper page says the second centre may differ, though in the same city. Carry the printed admit card and the original photo ID given in your application, and follow the admit card's own list of what you may take in.

NIT Calicut is in our own district; its address is NIT Campus P.O., Kozhikode. IIT Palakkad is at Kanjikode in Palakkad district. Each GATEiit page explains the institute's GATE routes for DA and CSE candidates.

Further away, IIIT Kottayam is in Kottayam, and NITK Surathkal and IISc Bengaluru are in Karnataka. The full list is on /institutes.

Keep the two decisions apart. Your exam city has no bearing on admission, so writing in Kozhikode does not help with NIT Calicut, and writing in Mangaluru does not count against you anywhere.

GATEiit is an online site with no centre or office in Kozhikode or any other city. Everything on it is free to use from home or a hostel.

Start with your paper. GATE DA is Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, and GATE CSE is Computer Science and Information Technology; each page carries the syllabus. DA and CS are an allowed two-paper pair in GATE 2027.

Then work through previous papers on /pyq and topic sets on /practice, with the GATE DA 2027 preparation guide or the GATE CSE 2027 preparation guide as your plan. The other guides take single topics in depth. The WhatsApp group linked from the DA or CSE paper page is where aspirants discuss questions.

All six exam days fall on Saturdays and Sundays, so weekend mornings are the time for full timed mocks. The GATE 2027 page and the exam-city overview cover the national picture.