February 25, 2014

Typical Design Aptitude Test (DAT) questions

Hello friends,

As you are well aware that, after you apply for a IIT or IISc, you will receive a call for  Design Aptitude Test (DAT) and interviews. In order to get admission for the M.Des course you must clear both of these. Questions in interviews are often similar to the ones in DAT, so you can prepare accordingly.

Apart from regular CEED-like questions like "identify te material for ..." or "design a poster", there are some questions that test the engineering aptitude of the applicant. This is especially true for fields, like PD and MD,  that require a good knowledge of engineering.

Let me tell you a question they asked in DAT 2 years back at IITs and IISc

 "a wooden block of known weight is kept on a table. using a stopwatch and a ruler find a method to determine the coefficient of friction between the two surfaces".

Another one "how will you determine the thickness of the leg of a chair?"

"you are given an unknown flammable fluid. How will you determine whether its suitable for using in IC engines or not?"

Questions like these are based on the basics of physics. As a designer you might need to show that your design can sustain. Therefore premier design institutes test some of these basics.

For preparing these, i strongly suggest use of any standard physics textbook written for class Xth . NCERT textbook is available free of cost here.

For VC, last year the following questions were asked "design a typographic identity, logo and symbol for a Safari park and also come up with an interesting name for the same."

And the year before that, the question was to design a poster for increasing the tourism in india

For MD, they has asked to model a cube with the given dimensions, sketching an auto rickshaw and designing a tricycle for kids!

Feel free to ask any queries you have

15 comments:

Unknown said...

are these questions relevant to streams like Visual Communication too?
or are these centric to Product Design people?

Prasanna Gadkari (M.Des in Product Design from I.I.Sc. ) said...

Hi Mitali
I have updated the information given above to include questions related to VC and MD
And Congratulation on getting an interview call!
All the best!

Unknown said...

all credit to your wonderful blog! thanks :)

Unknown said...

Prasanna Sir, I got a call for PD &MD,,, the MD questions seem decent enuf,,, but the PD questions seem like the ones thats gonna require me to brush up my whole engineerin syllabus... the fact that you think that class Xth textbook is gonna cut ir is reassuring tho.... but arent they gonna test our desigining aptitude istead of grillin us on elementary and forgotten science...???
In that case, I request you to give the answers to the above questions,,, so that I can get an idea of the depth they seek in our answer....
Thank YOU for this awesome blog... Totally owe U the credit!!!

Prasanna Gadkari (M.Des in Product Design from I.I.Sc. ) said...

Hi Prasam Pal,
Besides your regular design questions quite similar to CEED they are going to test your skills in engineering for all PD candidates. Maybe you can think about the solution and email them to me. I am not quite keen on making them public yet :P

tarun said...

Hi Prasanna, I've a request for you, will you please visit my blog and comment on the works i have posted there? I have messaged you the link on facebook, it might be in your other folders in your message box. Will be very grateful if you take a quick look. :)

Unknown said...

How about the Material Test in PD?Also some idea about the Animation questions?

Unknown said...

What they will ask in Material test and on which material.

Anonymous said...



Hello Prasanna Sir,

Can someone please post what questions were asked in IDC studio test and in the interviews. How did the interviews go? How to prepare for them? Can someone share this years interview experience. I am preparing for next year.

Also wanted to know if joining classes helps, they are very expensive so I am thinking if it really helps, can someone share their experiences in CEED coaching classes?

Thanks,
Santosh






Chetan Yadav said...

sir how can i calculate my pc-ile for iitd application?

Unknown said...

i want to do interior designing. so what are the types of questions that will be asked in the entrance exam? are they of the engineering type?

Unknown said...

aptitude test naturally the studying capability, the specific capability which is needed to accomplish
studying a job, aptness,relevance, preparedness or propensity to obtained knowledge.


aptitude test

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Akash Ranglani said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Aptitude Test Practice said...

Great blog post! Aptitude tests play a crucial role in various aspects of life, from job applications to educational pursuits. Aptitude tests practice is a smart move for anyone looking to excel in these assessments.

Post a Comment

Discussion