CAT syllabus 2026
The IIMs do not publish a CAT syllabus. They never have. Every syllabus you will find online, including this one, is reconstructed from past papers. Anyone presenting theirs as official is guessing with more confidence than the evidence allows, and the giveaway is usually a topic list that has not changed since 2015.
What the IIMs do publish is the exam pattern, the tutorial and the sample questions. Everything below the section level comes from what has actually been asked.
CAT is a 120-minute computer-based test with three sections, 68 questions and 204 marks. Each section locks after 40 minutes and you cannot go back.
Syllabus by section
| Section | Questions | Marks | Syllabus page |
|---|---|---|---|
| VARC | 24 | 72 | VARC syllabus |
| DILR | 22 | 66 | DILR syllabus |
| Quantitative Ability | 22 | 66 | Quantitative Ability syllabus |
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CAT 2026 at a glance
| Conducting body | The IIMs, on rotation |
| Mode | Computer-based, at a test centre |
| Frequency | Once a year, usually the last Sunday of November |
| Duration | 120 minutes, 40 per section |
| Sections | VARC, DILR, QA, in that fixed order |
| Questions | 68 |
| Total marks | 204 |
| Question types | MCQ and TITA (type in the answer) |
| Marking | Plus 3 correct, minus 1 wrong MCQ, nothing for TITA or blanks |
| Medium | English only |
| Eligibility | Bachelor's degree with 50 per cent, or 45 per cent for SC, ST and PwD candidates |
| Score validity | The admission cycle it was sat for |
CAT exam pattern 2026
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) | 24 | 72 | 40 min |
| Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) | 22 | 66 | 40 min |
| Quantitative Ability (QA) | 22 | 66 | 40 min |
| Total | 68 | 204 | 120 min |
A correct answer is worth 3 marks. A wrong MCQ costs 1 mark. Type-in-the-answer questions carry no penalty, which is why leaving a TITA blank is always the wrong call. Blanks score zero either way, so a guess is free.
The order is fixed at VARC, then DILR, then QA. You cannot borrow time from a section you finished early, you cannot go back once the 40 minutes are up, and the on-screen calculator is basic.
These figures follow CAT 2025 and are what CAT 2026 is expected to run. We update this page the day the notification is out.
How the CAT pattern has changed
Useful context, because a lot of preparation material still reflects the older paper.
| Period | Duration | Questions | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 2019 | 180 min | 100 | 60 minutes per section |
| 2020 | 120 min | 76 | Shortened, three slots introduced |
| 2021 to 2023 | 120 min | 66 | VARC 24, DILR 20, QA 22 |
| 2024 to 2025 | 120 min | 68 | DILR moved back up to 22 |
The direction of travel has been fewer questions and less time per question. Selection matters more on the current paper than it did on the 100-question version, where volume alone could carry a score.
VARC syllabus
24 questions, 40 minutes, 72 marks. Around 16 come from four reading passages of four questions each. The remaining 8 are verbal ability, and almost all of those are TITA.
Reading comprehension
Passages of 400 to 700 words, drawn from long-form journalism and academic writing rather than textbooks. Subject areas that keep recurring:
- Philosophy, ethics and political theory
- Economics and political economy
- Sociology and anthropology
- History and history of science
- Literary criticism and aesthetics
- Environment, ecology and climate
- Psychology and behavioural science
Question types run to main idea, inference, specific detail, author tone, the function of a paragraph, vocabulary in context, and except or least likely questions.
Verbal ability
- Para jumbles: four or five sentences to be ordered, answered as a typed sequence
- Odd sentence out: five sentences, one of which does not belong
- Para summary: a paragraph and four candidate summaries
- Para completion: supplying the closing sentence
There is no grammar, no vocabulary list, no sentence correction and no fill in the blanks. Those disappeared after 2014. The full VARC breakdown covers passage selection, the trap patterns in wrong options and how to split the 40 minutes.
DILR syllabus
22 questions, 40 minutes, 66 marks, across four or five sets. DILR has no topic list in any meaningful sense. The IIMs can set anything that involves reading a structure and reasoning from it, and over five years they have.
Data interpretation formats
- Tables with missing values to deduce
- Bar, column and line charts, including stacked and grouped
- Pie charts, often two compared against each other
- Caselets where the data is given as prose
- Radar, bubble and scatter plots
- Mixed sets describing one situation through a table and a chart
Logical reasoning formats
- Seating and linear arrangements
- Grid and matrix puzzles
- Binary logic, truth and lie sets
- Venn diagrams and set theory
- Games, tournaments and points tables
- Scheduling across days, slots and shifts
- Routes, networks and distribution
- Selection and ordering under stated conditions
Set selection decides this section more than technique does. The full DILR breakdown covers how to judge a set in the first three minutes and which formats have been appearing recently.
Quantitative Ability syllabus
22 questions, 40 minutes, 66 marks. Class 8 to 10 mathematics, arithmetic-dominant, with no calculus and no trigonometry beyond the basics.
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Arithmetic | Percentages, profit and loss, interest, ratio and proportion, averages, mixtures, time and work, time speed and distance, partnership |
| Algebra | Linear and quadratic equations, inequalities, modulus, functions and graphs, logarithms, surds and indices, maxima and minima |
| Geometry and mensuration | Triangles, circles, polygons, coordinate geometry, areas and volumes, basic trigonometry |
| Number systems | Factors, divisibility, remainders, cyclicity, HCF and LCM, base systems |
| Modern maths | Permutations and combinations, probability, progressions, set theory |
Arithmetic has carried the largest share of QA for several years running. If your preparation time is short, that is where it goes. The full quant breakdown lists every subtopic and sets out a two-pass approach to the 40 minutes.
What is not in the CAT syllabus
- No current affairs or general knowledge
- No calculus, differentiation or integration
- No matrices, determinants, vectors or complex numbers
- No statistics beyond mean, median and mode
- No direct grammar, vocabulary or sentence correction
- No essay in the exam itself, though several IIMs run a written ability test at the interview stage
Anyone telling you to revise Class 11 and 12 maths for CAT is working from the wrong exam.
How to use this syllabus
A topic list is a checklist, not a plan. Three things convert one into the other.
Work backwards from the clock. 68 questions in 120 minutes is under two minutes each. Any topic you can only solve by the long method is a topic you cannot use in the exam, however well you know it.
Treat arithmetic and reading comprehension as the spine. Between them they account for roughly 16 of the 24 VARC questions and the largest block of QA. Everything else is built on top of those two.
Sit full papers earlier than feels comfortable. Sectional strength does not survive contact with a fixed order and a locking clock, and most candidates discover that in the exam rather than in practice.
How CAT compares with the other MBA entrance exams
CAT is the shortest of the three major papers and the only one with a hard sectional clock. XAT adds a Decision Making section and general knowledge, and still tests grammar directly. The GMAT is adaptive, has no negative marking, and dropped geometry entirely in 2024.
| CAT | XAT | GMAT | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sections | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Questions | 68 | 95 | 64 |
| Duration | 120 min | 180 min | 135 min |
| Sectional clock | Yes, 40 min each | No, within Part 1 | Yes, 45 min each |
| Adaptive | No | No | Yes |
| Negative marking | 1 mark on MCQs | 0.25 | None |
| Geometry | Tested | Tested | Not tested |
| Grammar tested directly | No | Yes | No |
| Score validity | 1 admission cycle | 1 admission cycle | 5 years |
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official CAT syllabus?
No. The IIMs release the exam pattern, the tutorial and sample questions, not a syllabus. Everything topic-level is reconstructed from previous papers.
Has the CAT syllabus changed for 2026?
There is nothing to change, since none is published. The pattern has held at three sections and 40 minutes each since 2021.
How many questions are in each section?
24 in VARC, 22 in DILR and 22 in QA on the CAT 2025 pattern, making 68 in total.
What is the CAT marking scheme?
Plus 3 for a correct answer, minus 1 for a wrong MCQ, and nothing deducted for a wrong TITA or an unattempted question.
Can I move between sections?
No. Each section closes at 40 minutes and the order is fixed at VARC, DILR, QA.
How many TITA questions are there?
Usually between 8 and 12 across the paper, though the IIMs do not announce the split in advance.
Is calculus in the CAT syllabus?
No. CAT quant stops at Class 10 level mathematics.
Which section is hardest?
DILR has the lowest average attempt rate of the three, which is why percentile jumps there are larger than in QA for the same raw score.
Do I need an engineering background?
No. The syllabus is school mathematics and a commerce or arts candidate covers it in the same preparation time.
Is the CAT syllabus the same as XAT or SNAP?
Largely for quant and verbal. XAT adds decision making and general knowledge, and neither appears in CAT.
How long does the CAT syllabus take to cover?
Covering it is rarely the constraint. Most candidates finish the topic list in three to four months and spend the remaining time on speed and selection.
Does CAT have sectional cut-offs?
The IIMs set their own sectional and overall percentile requirements, and they differ by institute. The exam itself has no cut-off.