CAT 2026: exam date, pattern, eligibility, syllabus and cutoffs

Complete Guide to the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2026-27

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is the entrance examination the Indian Institutes of Management conduct for admission to their postgraduate management programmes. Conducted annually by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on a rotational basis, CAT serves as the primary gateway for admission to the 21 IIMs and over 1,200 other top-tier business schools across the country, including FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IIT Bombay (SJMSOM), IIT Delhi (DMS), and NITIE (now IIM Mumbai). Every year, nearly 3.3 lakh candidates register for the exam, making it a test of both speed and extreme accuracy.

Exam Structure and Marking Scheme

The CAT exam is a computer-based test (CBT) that evaluates candidates on three distinct sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). Historically, the exam duration has been 120 minutes, with exactly 40 minutes allocated to each of the three sections. Once the 40-minute window for a section closes, candidates cannot return to it. This strict sectional time limit enforces a need for exceptional time management.

A caveat that matters more than it looks: for CAT 2026 the IIMs have not published a question count or a marking scheme. None of the five documents released on 26 July 2026 — the Information Bulletin, the press release, the eligibility notice, the Registration Guide and the newspaper advertisement — carries either. What they state about the paper is only this: 120 minutes, three sections, 40 minutes per section, and no switching between sections.

That is less than most sites will tell you, and the difference is that the rest is not sourced. Recent CAT papers have run to roughly 66 questions split across VARC, DILR and QA, with three marks for a correct answer, one mark deducted for a wrong multiple-choice answer, and no deduction on the type-in-the-answer questions. Treat that as the shape of past papers, not as a rule the IIMs have announced for this year.

The authority does publish one thing that settles the format: a mock test on the CAT website, which the bulletin points candidates to. That mock is the current paper - the question count, the on-screen marking rules and the section timer are all in it. Open it before you plan an attempt strategy, and confirm the sections you can and cannot return to.

What the sections cover has been stable: VARC is dominated by reading comprehension with verbal ability items such as parajumbles, paragraph summary and odd sentence out; DILR is set-based puzzles, charts and reasoning where the difficulty lies in choosing which sets to attempt; and QA tests school-level mathematics weighted towards arithmetic and algebra, with geometry, number system and modern maths alongside.

Detailed Syllabus Breakdown

While the IIMs do not release a fixed official syllabus, decades of past papers reveal a consistent pattern of tested topics.

1. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
The VARC section tests a candidate's ability to quickly comprehend complex, densely written texts spanning diverse topics such as philosophy, sociology, economics, science, and history. The key to mastering VARC is aggressive, diverse reading. Candidates must develop the stamina to read on a screen for 40 minutes without losing focus. The Verbal Ability subset requires logical deduction rather than grammatical rules. Parajumbles require candidates to sequence sentences to form a coherent paragraph, while Paragraph Summary asks for the core essence of a passage.

2. Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
DILR is less about prior knowledge and entirely about analytical agility on exam day. Standard topics include seating arrangements, blood relations, syllogisms, Venn diagrams, and quantitative reasoning sets. Data Interpretation involves analyzing complex tables, bar graphs, pie charts, and scatter plots. The modern CAT trend blends DI and LR, presenting logic-heavy data sets where candidates must infer missing variables before calculating answers. The strategy here is not to attempt all sets, but to correctly identify and solve the 2 or 3 easiest sets within the 40-minute limit.

3. Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
The QA section tests mathematical foundations up to the 10th-grade level, but the application required is highly advanced.
- *Arithmeticdominates the section, usually accounting for 40-50% of the questions. Topics include Time, Speed and Distance; Time and Work; Percentages; Profit and Loss; Ratios; and Mixtures.
- *Algebrais the second most tested area, covering linear and quadratic equations, logarithms, inequalities, and functions.
- *Geometry and Mensurationcover properties of triangles, circles, polygons, and coordinate geometry.
- *Modern Mathincludes Permutations and Combinations (P&C) and Probability, though its weightage has slightly decreased in recent years.

Preparation Strategy for CAT

A successful CAT strategy requires a minimum of 6 to 8 months of dedicated preparation. The journey should be broken down into three phases:

Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-3)
In this phase, the primary goal is conceptual clarity. Candidates should focus on finishing the entire QA syllabus chapter by chapter. For VARC, the habit of reading daily (newspapers like The Hindu, Mint, or international publications like AEON essays and The Economist) must be established. For DILR, candidates should solve 2-3 basic puzzle sets daily to build logical stamina.

Phase 2: Sectional Tests and Speed (Months 4-5)
Once the foundation is solid, the focus must shift to speed and accuracy under timed conditions. Candidates should start taking sectional mocks. This is the time to experiment with different test-taking strategies. For instance, in VARC, some candidates prefer doing all RC passages first, while others prefer starting with VA. In QA, learning to skip 'speed-breaker' questions is crucial. The art of leaving a hard question within 30 seconds is what separates a 90 percentiler from a 99 percentiler.

Phase 3: Full-Length Mocks and Analysis (Months 6-8)
The final two months should be dedicated entirely to full-length mock tests. A mock test is only as good as the analysis that follows it. Candidates should spend at least 3 hours analyzing a 2-hour mock. Every mistake must be categorized: Was it a conceptual error? A silly calculation mistake? Or bad question selection? By November, a serious candidate should have written and analyzed between 25 to 40 full-length mock tests.

Cutoffs and the IIM Selection Process

Scoring well in CAT is only the first step. The IIM admission process is a multi-stage funnel.

Stage 1: Shortlisting for Personal Interview (PI)
To even be considered for a shortlist, candidates must clear the sectional cutoffs. Top IIMs (BLACKI - Bangalore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Kozhikode, Indore) typically mandate a minimum of 80 to 85 percentile in *eachof the three sections, alongside an overall percentile of 90+. However, merely clearing the cutoff does not guarantee an interview call.

IIMs generate interview shortlists based on a Composite Score. This score gives weightage to the CAT score (usually 50-60%), 10th and 12th-grade marks, undergraduate academic performance, work experience (in months), and academic or gender diversity. Engineers generally require a much higher CAT percentile (often 99.5+) to secure calls from the top 3 IIMs compared to non-engineers (Arts, Commerce, Humanities), who receive academic diversity points.

Stage 2: The Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI)
Once shortlisted, candidates undergo the WAT and PI rounds (typically between February and April). The WAT evaluates written communication, logical structure, and awareness of current socio-economic issues. The PI is a rigorous stress test of a candidate's domain knowledge, self-awareness, ethical framework, and leadership potential. The final admission offer is based on a Final Composite Score, which heavily weighs the PI performance (often 30-40% of the final score).

Top Non-IIM Colleges Accepting CAT

Beyond the IIMs, several tier-1 B-Schools accept CAT scores:

1. FMS Delhi: FMS Delhi is part of the University of Delhi, and its tuition is set by the university rather than by a private board -- confirm the current figure on the FMS admission page, because it is the number that makes or breaks the comparison. It requires a CAT percentile of 99+.

2. SPJIMR Mumbai: Offers profile-based calls even at 85 percentile if the candidate has an exceptional academic and extracurricular record, alongside score-based calls at 99+.

3. MDI Gurgaon: A premier institute consistently ranked in the top 10, requiring around 97+ percentile.

4. IIT Bombay (SJMSOM) & IIT Delhi (DMS): Highly coveted among engineers, requiring 98+ percentile.

5. NITIE (IIM Mumbai): Specifically for engineering graduates, known for its supply chain and operations placements.

Ultimately, CAT is a test of emotional intelligence and stress management as much as it is a test of aptitude. Consistency, rigorous mock analysis, and maintaining composure on the final test day are the true keys to conquering this examination.

Start with an honest caveat, because it changes how you prepare. The IIMs notify CAT at section level only. The CAT 2025 official advertisement describes the test, the dates, the fee and the centres, and then points candidates to the detailed notification on iimcat.ac.in; it does not publish a topic-wise syllabus in the way NTA publishes one for JEE Main or NEET. The section names themselves come from the institutes' own admission documents: IIM Ahmedabad's PGP 2026-28 admissions page states that in CAT-2025 there are three sections, Quantitative Ability (QA), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC). What follows is therefore a working topic map drawn from those three section definitions and from what past papers have actually asked. Treat it as a preparation map, not as a notified syllabus, and confirm the current notification when CAT 2026 opens.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension is the section that rewards reading over revision. The bulk of it is reading comprehension: passages of roughly 400 to 600 words drawn from economics, philosophy, science, history, sociology, art criticism and current affairs, each followed by inference, tone, main-idea and application questions. The verbal ability portion tests the same comprehension skill in compressed form: paragraph summary, where a passage must be reduced to one sentence without adding or losing meaning; para-jumbles, where four or five sentences must be restored to their original order; and odd-sentence-out, where one sentence does not belong to the paragraph the others form. Note what is largely absent in the current format compared with older papers: standalone vocabulary lists, grammar-correction drills and idiom questions are not where the marks sit. Reading dense, argumentative non-fiction daily does more for this section than any word list.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning is a set-based section rather than a question-based one. Sets typically run to four or five questions each, and the difficulty lies less in any single question than in choosing which sets to attempt. Recurring set types include tables with missing values, bar, line and pie representations, caselets given in prose with no chart at all, linear and circular seating arrangements, grid and matrix puzzles, allocation and scheduling problems, tournament and games-based sets, routes and networks, Venn diagram and set-membership problems, binary logic with truth-tellers and liars, and quantitative puzzles that combine arithmetic with constraint reasoning. There is no formula sheet for this section. What is being tested is whether a candidate can read a messy set of conditions, decide within ninety seconds whether it is solvable, and then hold several constraints in mind at once.

Quantitative Ability draws on school mathematics, but on the reasoning built with it rather than on advanced technique. The topic clusters that recur are these.

• Arithmetic: percentages, ratio and proportion, averages and weighted averages, mixtures and alligation, time speed and distance, time and work, simple and compound interest, profit, loss and discount.
• Algebra: linear and quadratic equations, inequalities and modulus, functions and graphs, logarithms, surds and indices, maxima and minima, arithmetic and geometric progressions.
• Geometry and mensuration: triangles and their properties, circles, quadrilaterals and polygons, similarity and congruence, coordinate geometry, and surface area and volume of cones, cylinders, spheres and prisms.
• Number system: factors and multiples, HCF and LCM, remainders and cyclicity, divisibility rules, base systems and properties of integers.
• Modern mathematics: permutations and combinations, probability, set theory and Venn diagrams.

Arithmetic and algebra together account for the largest share of what candidates report attempting, which is why a preparation plan that opens with geometry and number theory usually misallocates its first two months.

One structural point is worth more than any topic list, because it tells you what a section is actually worth. IIM Bangalore's PGP 2026-28 admission procedure document assigns 55 points to CAT at the pre-interview stage and splits them across sections: VARC 19 points, DILR 21 points and QA 15 points. At the post-interview stage the CAT weight drops to 25 points, split as VARC 8.75, DILR 10 and QA 6.25. At that one institute, in that one cycle, DILR carried the heaviest weight of the three. Other IIMs weight differently, and the split is republished each year, so read the admission document of the institutes you are actually targeting rather than assuming the sections are equal.

Because nothing is notified topic by topic, the honest boundary of the syllabus is what past papers have asked. Work from released papers and full-length mocks rather than from any list, including this one, and check each shortlisted institute's own admission document for how it will weight the three sections in your cycle.

Work backwards from the score you actually need, because the institutes publish that number and it is not the same everywhere. For the PGP 2026-28 batch, IIM Ahmedabad set a minimum CAT-2025 overall percentile of 95 with 85 sectionally for General and EWS non-PwD candidates; IIM Calcutta set an overall minimum of 85 for OPEN candidates; IIM Bangalore set an aggregate of 85 for General. Those are floors for the first shortlist, not interview calls. Choosing a target before choosing a study plan is what separates a directed year from a busy one.

The single most important structural fact is that every one of those institutes applies a sectional minimum as well as an overall one. A candidate at the 99th percentile overall who falls below the sectional floor in one section is filtered out at the first gate. IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta both add a further condition: a positive or non-negative raw score in every section. This means abandoning a section is never a viable strategy, however tempting it is to protect a strength. Divide time by weakness, not by preference.

Section by section, the leverage differs. VARC improves through daily reading of dense argumentative prose rather than through drills; a candidate who reads editorials, long-form essays and book reviews for six months arrives with a comprehension speed that cannot be manufactured in the last four weeks. DILR improves almost entirely through set selection. The skill worth practising is spending ninety seconds deciding whether a set is solvable, then committing or walking away, which is built by attempting sets under a timer and reviewing the ones you should have skipped. QA rewards the opposite habit: consistent, unglamorous accumulation across arithmetic and algebra first, with geometry and modern maths layered on later.

Mocks are the instrument, but only if the analysis takes longer than the attempt. A useful review separates four errors: questions you got wrong, questions you got right by guessing, questions you skipped but could have solved, and questions you attempted but should have skipped. The fourth is usually where the largest gain sits, and the one candidates least often examine.

Remember also that CAT is not the whole application. IIM Calcutta's composite score for the 2026-28 batch allots 56 points to CAT, 10 to Class 10 marks, 15 to Class 12 marks and 4 as a gender diversity factor, out of 85. IIM Bangalore assigns 10 points each to Class 10, Class 12 and bachelor's scores at the pre-interview stage, plus 10 for work experience or a professional course. Those academic marks are already fixed and cannot be improved, which is a reason to research which institutes weight academics lightly, not a reason to despair.

Finally, plan past the test. At the final stage, IIM Bangalore weights the personal interview at 40 points and the written ability test at 10, against 25 for CAT; IIM Ahmedabad weights the personal interview at 50% and the analytical writing test at 10%, against 25% for CAT. More than half the final decision is made after the exam. On the calendar, both the CAT 2024 and CAT 2025 advertisements show registration opening on 01 August and closing in mid-September, with the test in the second half of November, so a serious plan starts a year out, not in August.

CAT is reported in percentiles, not marks. A percentile places a candidate against everyone else who sat that year's paper, which is why institutes publish percentile floors and why a percentile is broadly comparable across years in a way a raw score never is. Two gates apply at once: a sectional percentile in each of VARC, DILR and QA, and an overall percentile. Both IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta add a raw-score condition on top, requiring a positive or non-negative raw score in every section.

The published numbers are qualifying floors, not the level at which calls are made. The institutes say so themselves. IIM Bangalore footnotes its table: the scores of those called for interviews were higher. IIM Calcutta notes that the actual section-wise and overall percentile cut-offs may be much higher, since they depend on how many candidates are called per category. Reading a published minimum as a target is the most common misreading of these tables.

These are the minimum CAT 2025 percentile requirements published by three IIMs for their 2026-28 batches, for General or OPEN non-PwD candidates.

Reserved-category floors are lower and are published in the same documents. IIM Bangalore's CAT 2025 table gives 70/65/65 sectional with 75 aggregate for NC-OBC and EWS, 65/60/60 with 70 for SC, 55/55/55 with 65 for ST and 50/50/50 with 60 for PwD. IIM Calcutta's Stage I table gives 45/45/45 with 55 overall for PwD. IIM Ahmedabad publishes a separate PwD column, at 85 overall and 75 sectional for General and EWS.

Two practical rules follow. First, a cut-off is meaningless without the institute name and the CAT year attached, because it is set per institute and republished every cycle. Second, the newer and smaller IIMs and the non-IIM institutions that accept CAT scores generally publish lower floors than the three above, so a percentile that closes one door opens several others. Always read the admission document on the institute's own website for the cycle you are applying in.