🎯 Is Section A Enough to Crack CCAT-CDAC? Every year, thousands of aspirants target the highly competitive CDAC Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing (PG-DAC) program, viewing it as a fast track to a high-paying IT career. The entrance exam, CCAT, is their first hurdle. If you're excellent at Quants, Reasoning, and English, then you already have a great edge for clearing the exam. 🔍 Understanding the CCAT Scoring Reality Section A (50 Questions): Tests Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, English, and Computer Fundamentals. This is where non-IT and banking aspirants often shine. Section B (50 Questions): Tests core programming concepts such as C Programming, OOPS in C++, DSA theory, Networking, Big Data, and AI. This is the technical backbone of the exam. CDAC generates two critical ranks: Rank A: Based on your Section A score only. Rank A+B (The Decisive Rank): Based on your total score from both sections. If your Rank A is around the Top 100, and even if you perform poorly in Section B, you can still get CDAC-ACTS or even Sunbeam Pune if your combined A+B Rank is under 500. Looking at the Section A syllabus and questions, it’s not that big of a task to secure an AIR under 100 in Section A. So, if your grasp of Section A is really strong and Section B is weak, you can still get a good center like CDAC-ACTS and possibly Sunbeam Pune. ⚠️ The Programming Trap Let me share a real scenario from my time at Sunbeam during my PG-DAC course in March 2023. There was a student named Raj. He was brilliant at Section A, a former SBI Clerk who had also scored 90 percentile in CAT. That means he had already cracked competitive exams that require far higher-level reasoning than Section A. Raj scored an excellent Rank A of 90 in CCAT, securing a seat at Sunbeam with an A+B Rank of about 450. However, he did not prepare for Section B because he thought programming would be easy to pick up later once the course started. Unfortunately, the outcome was devastating. He struggled immediately with the fast pace of JAVA and OOPS. The backlogs grew every week, and despite his intelligence and hard work, his weak programming foundation forced him to quit the course after about a month. On the other hand, my friend Prakash and I weren’t as strong in Section A as Raj, but we had practiced C programming rigorously. We spent time playing with C, experimenting with pointers, and understanding how things work at a low level. When we joined Sunbeam, the difference was clear. We easily managed the pace, understood advanced topics faster, and consistently ranked in the Top 10 in module exams. 🚀 The Harsh Truth About PG-DAC The PG-DAC course is an intense, high-speed six-month boot camp. After factoring in project work and holidays, you effectively get around 4.5 months of teaching. CDAC is not designed to teach programming basics. The faculty must focus on advanced, placement-ready topics like Full Stack Development, advanced Data Structures and Algorithms, and enterprise technologies. If they spend time explaining basic C loops or what an object is in C++, they will never cover the advanced material needed to make you job-ready. If you enter the course without preparing for Section B, you are basically starting the race a mile behind everyone else. 💡 Final Verdict Is Section A enough to crack CCAT? No. It might give you a high Rank A, which can help secure a seat, but it’s not enough to ensure success or survival in the PG-DAC program. Your goal should be to maximize your A+B Rank by giving equal respect to Section B. Treat C Programming and OOPS concepts not as optional topics but as the minimum entry ticket for a successful career transformation through CDAC. What about you? What is your biggest fear about the CCAT exam right now, Section A or Section B? Let me know in the comments below!
