CAT 2026: Exam Date, Notification, Registration, Fees & Pattern

What is CAT?

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is India's largest MBA entrance exam, conducted once a year by one of the Indian Institutes of Management on a rotating basis. Its score is the primary admission input for the 21 IIMs and is accepted by more than a thousand other B-schools, including FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IMT Ghaziabad and the management programmes of several IITs. Roughly 2.5–3 lakh candidates take it each year — 2.58 lakh appeared in CAT 2025 out of 2.95 lakh registrations.

CAT tests three things: how well you read and reason with language (VARC), how you handle data and logic under pressure (DILR), and your quantitative fundamentals (QA). It is a speed-and-accuracy exam more than a knowledge exam — the syllabus rarely goes beyond Class 10 mathematics, but the questions demand sharp application.

CAT 2026 important dates

The dates below are expected, projected from the last several CAT cycles. The convening IIM confirms all dates in the official notification.

For reference: CAT 2025 was conducted by IIM Kozhikode on 30 November 2025. The convening IIM for 2026 will be named in the notification.

Eligibility criteria

• Degree: A bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% for SC/ST/PwD candidates).
• Final-year students: Eligible to apply; admission remains provisional until you submit proof of degree completion.
• Professional qualifications: CA, CS and ICWA holders with the required marks are eligible.
• Attempts and age: No limit on attempts, no age limit.

Note that meeting the minimum eligibility only lets you take the exam — each IIM applies its own shortlisting criteria (academics, work experience, diversity) on top of your CAT score.

Registration process and fees

Registration is entirely online at iimcat.ac.in. The expected fee, unchanged from CAT 2025, is:

You pay once, regardless of how many IIM programmes you select. The fee is non-refundable and payable only online (UPI, cards, net banking). The steps:

1. Register on iimcat.ac.in with your name, date of birth, email and mobile to receive a User ID.
2. Fill in personal, academic and work-experience details.
3. Upload your photograph and signature in the specified format.
4. Select preferred test cities in order of preference.
5. Choose the IIM programmes (and other participating institutes) you want your score sent to.
6. Pay the fee and save the confirmation. A limited correction window usually opens later for select fields.

Exam pattern

The pattern has been stable since 2021 and is expected to continue:

• Marking: +3 for a correct answer; −1 for a wrong MCQ; no negative marking on TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions.
• Sections are locked: you cannot switch between sections; each 40-minute block ends before the next begins.
• Three slots (morning, afternoon, evening) on the same day; scores are normalised across slots before percentiles are computed.
• An on-screen calculator is provided; physical calculators aren't allowed.

Syllabus at a glance

The IIMs publish no official syllabus. Based on the past decade of papers:

• VARC: Reading comprehension (4 passages typically), para jumbles, para summary, odd sentence out, sentence completion.
• DILR: Caselets built on tables, graphs and charts; seating arrangements, puzzles, Venn diagrams, games and tournaments, data sufficiency.
• QA: Arithmetic (percentages, ratios, time-speed-distance, time and work — the heaviest topic), algebra, geometry and mensuration, number systems, modern math (P&C, probability, progressions, logarithms).

After the exam: how IIM selection works

1. Phase 1 — Shortlisting: Each IIM sets its own sectional and overall percentile cutoffs and weighs academics, work experience and diversity.
2. Phase 2 — WAT / GD / PI: Shortlisted candidates face a Writing Ability Test and/or Group Discussion followed by a Personal Interview, typically February–April 2027.
3. Phase 3 — Final offers: Composite scores (CAT + interview + profile) decide admission; document verification follows.

CAT 2026 FAQs