How to register for C-CAT

Admissions to all Post Graduate Diploma courses of C-DAC are done through C-DAC's computerized Common Admission Test (C-CAT).

Candidates have to apply for C-CAT Click Here

Every year, C-CAT is conducted in December/January (for February/March admissions) and June/August(for August/September admissions).

Candidates who clear the January 2022 C-CAT will only be considered for admission to C-DAC’s Post Graduate Diploma courses of March 2022 batch on the basis of their C-CAT ranks and centre/course

C-DAC's Post Graduate Diploma courses are full-time courses of 900 hours (approx 30 weeks). The list of PG Diploma courses being offered in March 2022 along with their eligibility criteria and fees is given in Table 1. Details of these courses are given in Section 17 of this Admission Booklet.

Students are required to have laptops/PCs with high-speed uninterrupted internet connection, webcam and microphone to effectively participate in the course from their homes or personal places. It is not advisable to join the online classes from mobile phones.

In addition to the common eligibility criteria given above, candidates with the course-specific qualifications mentioned in Table 1 are ALSO ELIGIBLE for the particular courses. Minimum percentage of marks required in the qualifying examination is also stated in Table 1. The minimum percentage of marks will be considered as per the norms of the university from where the candidate has graduated.

Table 1: C-DAC's PG Diploma courses and their eligibility criteria.

Laptop/PC configuration, and hardware, software and network specifications required for the online classes are given in Section 18 of this Admission Booklet.

There is no age restriction for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses. Candidates who have appeared for the final examination of their qualifying degree in 2021 will also be considered for admission to the above courses. By qualifying in C-DAC's admission tests of January 2022, such university result-awaiting candidates can apply for provisional admission in March 2022 batch, subject to the condition that:

(a)   All parts of their qualifying degree examination shall be completed by the date of joining the course, and

(b)   Proof of having passed the qualifying degree with at least the required minimum marks shall be submitted at C-DAC by 30 June 2022.

Admissions to all PG Diploma courses of March 2022 batch 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 on January 22 and January 23, 2022. Candidates have to apply for C-CAT online at www.cdac.in or acts.cdac.in. Candidates who clear the January 2022 C-CAT will only be considered for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses of March 2022 batch on the basis of their C-CAT ranks and centre/course preferences.

7.1 C-CAT Test Papers

C-CAT has three sections (Section A, Section B, Section C) of one hour duration each. As shown in Table 5, 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.

Table 5: Categories of PG Diploma courses and the corresponding test paper(s) in C-CAT.

7.2 C-CAT Syllabus

Table 6a: Indicative syllabus of the different sections of test papers in C-CAT.

The list of reference books for the various topics of C-CAT is given in Table 6b. Candidates are, however, advised to read more books than the ones specified in this table.

Table 6b: Reference books for the various topics in C-CAT.

C-CAT fee structure is given in Table 9. Candidates may note that the C-CAT fee once paid is not refundable.

Table 9: Category-wise C-CAT fee (inclusive of GST).

After filling the online C-CAT application form, the examination fee must be paid online. It can be paid using credit/debit cards through the payment gateway that will be opened upon clicking the 'Online' option of the 'Make Payment' step on the main menu of the application. Candidates are advised to follow the instructions/steps given on the payment gateway, and also print/save the transaction details for their records.

On receiving the examination fee at C-DAC, the ‘Make Payment’ step on the main menu of the online application will be tick-marked, and the status of payment will be updated on the ‘Status Check’ menu. The pdf application form obtained by clicking the ‘View/Print Application Form’ on the main menu will now have the transaction details of the payment made. Candidates facing any issues during online payment may contact C-DAC ACTS Pune through phone (020-25503143) or email (actssupport@cdac.in).

C-DAC’s PG Diploma admission process has two counselling sessions and three rounds of seat allocations. Counselling means online filling of preferences of courses and training centres by the candidates.

·       There are two rounds of seat allocations based on the first counselling. This means that using the course-centre preferences given by the candidates during the first choice filling, two rounds of seat allocations (Round 1 and Round 2) will be done. Further details of the first counselling and first/second rounds of seat allocations are given in Sections 16(f-j) of this Admission Booklet.

Depending on their C-CAT ranks, candidates will be allocated seats strictly based on the order of preferences of courses and centres given by them during the counselling. If some candidates' ranks are not good enough to get them their top preferences in the first round of seat allocations, they may be offered their lower preferred courses/centres depending on their ranks. Such candidates may be allocated their higher-preferred course/centre in the second round of seat allocation, depending on their ranks. However, if candidates get their first preference in the first round of seat allocation itself, then that will be their final allocated seat and there will be no change for them in the second round of seat allocations. The seats allocated in the second round are final and there will be no further change in them.

·       Through the second counseling, candidates who have not got/confirmed admission are given one last chance to online fill their preferences of courses and training centres for the vacant seats that arise after the second round of admissions. The second counselling is scheduled after the payment of the first installment fee of the second round of seat allocation. The third round of seat allocation is based on the second counseling. The categories of candidates who are eligible to take part in the second counselling, and more details of the second counselling and third round of seat allocation, are given in Sections 16(k-l) of this Admission Booklet.

During both the counselling sessions, candidates will be permitted to give preferences for only those courses belonging to the category they had selected in the C-CAT application form. However, a candidate can give as many preferences of training centres and courses belonging to the applied C-CAT category.

Based on the C-CAT ranks, admissions to various courses at different training centres are offered in the order of preferences of courses and centres given by the candidate and the number of seats available for the courses at the particular centres. Therefore candidates must take utmost care while filling the order of preference of the courses and centres. Under any circumstance, a candidate will not be allocated another course/centre which was not given as a preference during the counselling stage.

Open Day: After all the three rounds of seat allocations, an Open Day may be conducted in selected C-DAC centres that still have some vacant seats.

Table 13: Important dates related to admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses of March 2022 batch through the C-CAT of January 2022.