On the day of the CAT 2026 exam, after each slot, we will help you with the CAT 2026 First Impression & Detailed Exam Review being made live here. Our CAT experts will also discuss the Paper Pattern, CAT 2026 Difficulty Level, CAT scores vs. Percentile for all the slots.
The overall analysis of CAT 2026 with section-wise and slot-wise difficulty levels is given below for your reference.
|
Sections |
Most Difficult |
Moderately Difficult |
Least Difficult |
|
VARC |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
DILR |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
QA |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
The CAT 2026 exam pattern is expected to be similar to CAT 2025. The notification for CAT 2026 was released on July 25th, 2026, and the exam is scheduled for November 29th, 2026. Thus, it’s high time for the aspirants to gear up their CAT preparation to get admission into their dream B-schools.
Some of the major points to keep in mind with regard to the CAT exam pattern are:
|
CAT Exam Components |
CAT Paper Pattern |
|
No. of Questions |
68 |
|
Number of Sections |
3 |
|
Sections |
VARC, DILR and QA |
|
Exam Duration |
2 hours |
|
Time Allotted per Section |
40 minutes |
|
Slots for Exam |
3 Shifts |
|
Mode of Exam |
Computer-Based Exam |
|
Medium of Instruction |
English |
|
Types of Questions |
MCQ and TITA |
Similar to the previous year's exam pattern, the marking scheme for the MCQ and TITA questions is different. Here is an overview of the marking scheme for CAT 2026
|
CAT 2026 Question Type |
For Correct Answers |
For Incorrect Answers |
|
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) |
+3 |
-1 |
|
Type in the Answer (TITA) |
+3 |
0 |
The provided CAT Exam Analysis for past years allows candidates to compare and understand the changes in exam trends over the years. You can go through the CAT Exam Analysis mentioned below to understand the exam better.
|
CAT Exam Sections |
Total Number of Questions |
Time Allotted |
|
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) |
24 |
40 Minutes |
|
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) |
22 |
40 Minutes |
|
Quantitative Ability (QA) |
22 |
40 Minutes |
|
Overall |
68 |
120 Minutes |
IIM Indore is responsible for the smooth conduct and execution of the CAT 2026 exam. With the release of the official CAT notification 2026, a few changes may be predicted in the recent CAT Exam Pattern. Here are some of them listed below that candidates should be aware of:
The duration of the CAT 2026 exam will be 120 minutes, with each section having a sectional time limitation of 40 minutes, after which candidates will not be able to submit answers for that particular section. Therefore, effective time management and test-taking strategies are crucial before appearing for the actual exam. All serious CAT takers should buckle down with their preparation, practice CAT previous year papers, and start attempting mocks on a regular basis if they want to ace CAT 2026.
Here we have provided a detailed CAT exam analysis for previous years covering details such as slot wise analysis, difficulty level of each slot, and key highlights.
|
Section |
No. of Questions |
No. of non-MCQ questions |
Time (in minutes) |
Difficulty Level CAT 2025 |
Ideal Score (Attempts) for CAT 2025 |
|
VARC |
24 |
4 |
40 |
Moderate |
12-13 (net correct) |
|
DILR |
22 |
10 |
40 |
Moderate - Difficult |
8-9 (net correct) |
|
QA |
22 |
9 |
40 |
Moderate |
8-9 (net correct) |
|
Total |
68 |
23 |
120 |
Moderate |
25-27 (Net Correct) |
The overall difficulty of CAT 2024 was higher than that of CAT 2023. The exam followed the exam pattern of CAT 2023, with 66 questions to be answered in 120 minutes. The distribution of questions across the sections also remained the same, with 24 questions in VARC, 20 questions in DILR, and 22 questions in QA. Each section had to be attempted in 40 minutes.
Among the 3 slots, there was only a marginal difference in the level of difficulty.
|
Section (CAT 2024) |
Most Difficult |
Moderately Difficult |
Least Difficult |
|
VARC |
Slot 2 |
Slot 1 |
Slot 3 |
|
DILR |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2/3 |
- |
|
QA |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
DILR was a comparatively easier section of CAT 2024 with time-consuming but doable questions. Ideally, a CAT score of above 90 will be considered a good score to achieve a percentile of 99%, as it was 84 in CAT 2023.
Detailed CAT Exam Analysis 2024CAT 2023 was held on 26th November 2023 in three slots. As per expectations, the exam pattern was the same as last year. The only surprise in the exam was that the VARC section of slot 2 had a mandatory VA question that was absent in the other two slots.
Based on the data provided by CAT takers, we have revised the data to match the trends displayed. Here are a few observations and a revised comparison of slots and expected overall & sectional percentiles.
The overall difficulty of CAT 2023 was higher than that of CAT 2022. The exam followed the exam pattern of CAT 2022, with 66 questions to be answered in 120 minutes. The distribution of questions across the sections also remained the same, with 24 questions in VARC, 20 questions in DILR, and 22 questions in QA. Each section had to be attempted in 40 minutes.
Among the 3 slots, there was only a marginal difference in the level of difficulty.
|
Section (CAT 2023) |
Most Difficult |
Moderately Difficult |
Least Difficult |
|
VARC |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
|
DILR |
Slot 3 |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
|
QA |
Slot 3 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 1 |
DILR was the most difficult section of CAT 2023 and the easiest was VARC. Ideally, a CAT score of 84 was required to get a 99%ile in CAT 2023.
Detailed CAT Exam Analysis 2023|
Expected Percentiles |
VARC Score |
DILR Score |
QA Score |
Overall Score |
||||||||
|
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
Slot 1 |
Slot 2 |
Slot 3 |
|
|
99 |
40 |
40-42 |
38-40 |
25-27 |
25-26 |
27-28 |
25-28 |
28-30 |
27-28 |
80-81 |
82-83 |
78-80 |
|
95 |
28-30 |
30-33 |
28-30 |
18-20 |
18-20 |
18-20 |
20-22 |
20-22 |
18-20 |
55-56 |
57-58 |
57-58 |
|
90 |
22-24 |
24-26 |
24-25 |
15-17 |
14-15 |
15-17 |
15-17 |
15-17 |
15-17 |
45-48 |
46-48 |
46-48 |
|
85 |
20-22 |
20-22 |
20-22 |
13-14 |
12-13 |
12-14 |
12-14 |
12-14 |
12-14 |
39-41 |
40-43 |
40-41 |
|
80 |
18-20 |
18-20 |
18-20 |
11-12 |
10-11 |
10-11 |
10-12 |
10-12 |
10-11 |
35-37 |
36-39 |
36-37 |
* As soon as the CAT Answer Key is out, fill in the score calculator to get your exact overall percentile along with a predicted sectional percentile.
As per the expectations, CAT 2022 followed the pattern of 66 questions to be solved in 2 hours with 40 minutes allotted to each section.
The marking scheme remained the same: +3/-1 for MCQs, and +3/0 for non-MCQs. The overall level of difficulty for CAT 2022 slot 3 was difficult with respect to CAT 2022 Slot 1 and Slot 2. Thus, the LOD across the three sections of the three slots varied slightly:
An overall raw score of around ~84 could fetch a 99%ile in CAT 2022.
CAT 2022 Paper Pattern & Section- score wise for 99%ile+
|
Section Name |
Total Questions |
Time Limit |
Score for 99%ile |
|
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) |
24 |
40 Minutes |
39 |
|
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) |
20 |
40 Minutes |
29 |
|
Quantitative Ability (QA) |
22 |
40 Minutes |
33 |
The overall difficulty level for CAT 2021 was moderate. An overall raw score of around 97-99 was good enough to fetch a 99%ile in CAT 2021. CAT 2021 followed the CAT 2020 exam pattern of reduced time (2 hours) with 40 minutes allotted to each section. However, the number of questions under each of the sections reduced. CAT 2021 had 66 questions to be attempted in 2 hours with the section-wise distribution of questions as follows: VARC: 24 questions in 40 minutes; DILR: 20 questions in 40 minutes; QA: 22 questions in 40 minutes.
|
Section |
No of questions |
Non MCQ Questions |
Time in Minutes |
Difficulty Level |
Ideal Score/Attempts for 99 %ile |
|
VARC |
24 |
5 |
40 |
Moderate |
35-38 (15-18) |
|
DILR |
20 |
5 |
40 |
Moderate |
28-30 (10-12) |
|
QA |
22 |
8 |
40 |
Easy |
39-42 (15-17) |
|
Total |
66 |
18 |
120 |
97-99 (42-48) |
The CAT 2026 exam analysis will include slot-wise difficulty level, expected cut-offs for top IIMs, and section-wise and slot-wise detailed analysis by our CAT experts.
The live updates on CAT exam analysis 2026 will be available on 29th November after the first slot is over. Students can catch live updates after by our mentors after each slots.
Yes, Career Launcher will cover slot-wise analysis for CAT 2026 after each slot is over.
CAT exam 2026 section-wise analysis will include the number of questions from each section - Both MCQ and TITA, questions from each topic and number of good attempts.
