📝 Exams 15 min read 11 September 2026

CAT 2026: Everything You Need to Know About Dates, Eligibility, Registration and Exam Pattern

CollegePune Editorial Team

CollegePune Editorial

Get CAT 2026 dates, eligibility, registration details, fees, exam pattern, syllabus, admit card, result, cutoff, percentile guidance and FAQs.

CAT 2026: Everything You Need to Know About Dates, Eligibility, Registration and Exam Pattern

Written by: CollegePune Editorial Team · Last updated: September 11, 2026 · Source documents: IIM Indore's official CAT 2026 notification set (July 26, 2026)

If you're planning to sit for CAT this year, you've probably already noticed how much confusing, contradictory information is floating around online. So let's keep this simple. Everything below comes straight from the official CAT 2026 documents released by IIM Indore on July 26, 2026: the Advertisement, the Eligibility Notification, the Information Bulletin, and the Press Release. No guesswork, no recycled content from last year passed off as new.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) remains the single biggest gateway into India's IIMs and a long list of other respected B-schools. CAT 2026 will be conducted by IIM Indore on behalf of the IIMs, and it's scheduled for Sunday, November 29, 2026, run across three sessions in computer-based format.

One thing worth repeating right at the start: the only official website for CAT 2026 is iimcat.ac.in. IIM Indore has gone out of its way to warn candidates that no other website or portal is authorised to handle CAT registrations, payments, or updates, so if something looks even slightly off, don't enter your details.

CAT 2026 at a glance

Detail	Information
Conducting IIM	IIM Indore
Exam date	Sunday, November 29, 2026
Mode / Duration	Computer-based, 120 min (3 × 40 min)
Registration	Aug 3 – Sep 15, 2026
Fee	₹2,700 (General/EWS/NC-OBC) / ₹1,350 (SC/ST/PwBD)
Sections	VARC, DILR, QA
Admit card	Nov 4–29, 2026
Result	First week of Jan 2027 (tentative)
Score validity	December 31, 2027
Official website	iimcat.ac.in

What is CAT (Common Admission Test)?

CAT is a national-level MBA entrance exam that IIMs use to shortlist candidates for their postgraduate management programmes (usually called PGP) and their doctoral programmes (FPM). It's not just an IIM thing, though. A good number of non-IIM institutions also accept CAT scores for their own admissions. That said, the IIMs are quite clear that they have no say in how those other institutes run their selection process; once your score leaves the CAT system, what happens next is entirely up to the individual college.

For context, the official list of participating institutes and their programmes for CAT 2026 is available on iimcat.ac.in. Each IIM runs its own flavour of MBA. Some have specialised tracks in analytics, healthcare, digital business, or public policy, so it's worth checking a specific IIM's website if you have a particular programme in mind, rather than assuming they're all identical.

CAT 2026 Exam Date and Important Dates

Here's the full timeline in one place:

What's happening	When
Registration opens	August 3, 2026, 10:00 AM
Registration closes	September 15, 2026, 5:00 PM
Short edit window (photo, signature, city preference)	Right after registration closes
Admit card download	November 4 – November 29, 2026
CAT 2026 exam	November 29, 2026 (Sunday), three sessions
Result	First week of January 2027 (tentative)
Score validity	Till December 31, 2027

A small but important detail: the bulletin itself mentions that dates and processes can shift based on decisions from the Central or State governments, or the IIMs themselves. So even though these dates are official as of today, it's a good habit to check iimcat.ac.in periodically rather than relying on any single source (including this one) months down the line.

CAT 2026 Eligibility Criteria: Who Can Apply

Eligibility comes down to one of three situations:

You've already finished your Bachelor's degree with at least 50% marks (or the equivalent CGPA), and that degree came from a university recognised by an Act of Parliament, a State legislature, or one deemed a university under the UGC Act, 1956. If you belong to the SC, ST, or PwBD category, that requirement drops to 45%.

Or you hold a professional qualification instead: CA, CS, ICWA (now called CMA), or you're a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India, again with the same percentage requirement.

Or you're currently in your final year of a Bachelor's degree and haven't got your results yet. You can still apply, but here's the catch: if you get selected, your admission stays provisional until you hand over a certificate from your college confirming you've actually completed everything required for the degree, by whatever date the IIM specifies.

A couple of things people often overlook. If your university doesn't have a fixed system for converting CGPA to a percentage, the formula used is simply your CGPA divided by the maximum possible CGPA, multiplied by 100. And here's a line straight from the bulletin that's easy to miss but genuinely important: meeting the minimum eligibility criteria doesn't mean you'll get shortlisted anywhere. Each IIM applies its own additional filters on top of this. Also, make sure you keep one email address and one phone number active throughout the entire process. IIMs are strict about this.

For the broader picture on how entrance exams line up across the year, see our Pune entrance exam calendar.

Reservation categories at a glance

These follow the standard central government reservation framework applied to CAT admissions, not a CAT-specific scheme:

Category	Seats reserved
SC	15%
ST	7.5%
NC-OBC	27%
EWS	Up to 10%
PwBD	5%

If you're applying under NC-OBC or EWS, pay close attention to certificate timing. NC-OBC certificates need to be issued on or after April 1, 2026. EWS certificates must be valid for 2026–27 and assessed specifically for the 2025–26 financial year. If you applied for one of these certificates on time but it hasn't arrived yet, you're not out of luck: you can still register by uploading a single PDF containing a filled undertaking form, your older certificate, and proof that you've applied for the new one. Just don't skip any of these three documents, because an incomplete upload can get you disqualified from the whole process.

One more thing worth flagging clearly: once you register under a category, you cannot change it later. So double-check this before you hit submit.

CAT 2026 Registration: How to Apply

Registration happens entirely online at iimcat.ac.in, between August 3 and September 15, 2026. While filling the form, you'll be asked to pick five test cities in order of preference from a dropdown. Take this seriously, because your final city allotment depends on it.

After the registration window shuts, there's a brief edit window where you can tweak your photograph, signature, or city choices, but only if you've already paid the fee and completed registration within the deadline.

On fees: SC, ST, and PwBD candidates pay ₹1,350, while General, EWS, and NC-OBC candidates pay ₹2,700. This is a one-time payment regardless of how many IIMs or programmes you're applying to through CAT; you don't pay separately for each. And once it's paid, it's paid. There are no refunds under any circumstances, so make sure you're actually ready to appear before you complete the transaction.

Form stages, broadly: register (email/mobile) → fill personal, category and qualification details → upload photo, signature and category documents (or the undertaking PDF if pending) → pick five cities → pay and submit. Category and payment are both final.

CAT 2026 Exam Pattern

CAT 2026 runs for 120 minutes, split evenly into three sections of 40 minutes each:

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
Quantitative Ability (QA)

The catch is that you can't move between sections. Once your 40 minutes on VARC are up, that section locks and you move to DILR, with no going back to finish something you skipped earlier. This makes time management within each section genuinely critical, more so than in exams where you can bounce around freely.

IIM Indore will also put out a mock test on the official website closer to the exam date, built to mirror the actual test interface. If you do nothing else in your prep, at least take that mock once. It removes a lot of exam-day anxiety.

A quick honest note here: the official notification confirms the three sections and the 40-minute-per-section rule, but it doesn't spell out exactly how many questions each section will have. Based on how recent CAT papers have looked, each section has generally carried somewhere around 19 to 24 questions, but treat that as an estimate rather than a guarantee. The real count will be clear once the mock test or exam itself is out.

CAT 2026 Marking Scheme

This part isn't in the official CAT 2026 bulletin either (IIMs typically don't publish a separate marking-scheme document), but the scheme has stayed consistent for a long time now, so it's reasonable to expect it holds:

Response (unofficial — based on recent years)	Marks (unofficial — based on recent years)
Correct answer (MCQ or TITA)	+3
Wrong MCQ	−1
Wrong TITA	0 (no negative marking)
Unattempted	0

Because TITA questions have carried no penalty in recent years, there's usually no reason to leave one blank if you have even a rough idea. Normalisation itself isn't addressed in the CAT 2026 bulletin; it's a practice CAT has followed in recent years to account for difficulty differences between sessions, and past CAT score reports have described the process in general terms without publishing the exact formula. Whether and how it applies in 2026 will only be confirmed through the official instructions and mock test closer to exam day, so treat this as background rather than a settled 2026 rule.

CAT 2026 Syllabus: What the Exam Tests

CAT doesn't hand out a formal syllabus document the way some other exams do. Instead, think of it as testing your aptitude across three broad zones that map to the three sections. The topic lists below reflect recent CAT trends, not an official 2026 syllabus.

VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension)

Reading Comprehension
Para Summary
Para Jumbles
Odd Sentence Out
Sentence Placement

DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning)

Tables, graphs and charts
Caselets
Arrangements
Games and tournaments
Scheduling and sequencing puzzles

QA (Quantitative Ability)

Arithmetic
Algebra
Geometry and mensuration
Number Systems
Modern Mathematics

Again, this is drawn from how the exam has consistently played out over the years rather than a syllabus IIM Indore has published for 2026 specifically. The mock test is genuinely the most reliable way to gauge actual question style and difficulty.

CAT 2026 Exam Centres and Admit Card

CAT 2026 will be held across roughly 170 cities in India. You choose five of these when registering, and you'll eventually be allotted one, ideally one of your picks, though in rare cases of high demand you might get a nearby city instead. Once a centre is assigned, it's final; there's no changing it later. IIMs also reserve the right to add, remove, or shift test cities and centres at their own discretion, so it's not entirely locked in stone from their end either.

Your admit card, downloadable between November 4 and 29, 2026, will list your exact test centre address and session timing. Carry a printed copy along with valid photo ID on exam day. This is standard practice, and instructions closer to the date will confirm the specifics.

CAT 2026 Preparation: A Few Honest Tips

There's no official IIM-prescribed preparation strategy, obviously. That part's on you. But a few things genuinely help most aspirants:

Give yourself real runway. With the exam landing on November 29, the months between registration and the test are your prep window. Use them deliberately rather than cramming in the last few weeks.

Take the official mock seriously. It's not just a formality; it shows you exactly how the section-locking and timer work, which trips up a lot of first-timers on actual exam day.

Think about accuracy over volume. If the recent marking pattern holds, wrong MCQs cost you marks but wrong TITA answers don't, so your attempt strategy should reflect that difference rather than treating every question the same.

Practice within the 40-minute constraint specifically, not just overall exam length, because you genuinely cannot borrow time from one section to finish another.

Keep checking the official site periodically. The bulletin itself admits things can change based on government or IIM decisions, so staying updated isn't just good advice, it's necessary.

CAT 2026 Result and Scorecard

Results are expected in the first week of January 2027, though the bulletin flags this as tentative. Once declared, your scorecard shows up on the CAT website, and you might also get an SMS. Keep in mind your score is only valid until December 31, 2027. After that, IIMs won't entertain any queries about reissuing it, so don't sit on it indefinitely.

CAT 2026 Cutoff: What to Expect

Here's where we have to be upfront: none of the official CAT 2026 documents mention specific cutoff numbers, and that's not an oversight. Cutoffs simply aren't decided until after the exam happens. Each IIM works out its own cutoff based on how difficult that year's paper was, how many people applied, and how many seats it has to fill.

What the bulletin does tell us is that every IIM sets its own eligibility bar and decides its own weightage for shortlisting. CAT performance matters a lot, but it's rarely the only factor. Your academic record, work experience, and other inputs can come into play too, depending on the institute.

When people say "CAT cutoff," they usually mean one of three things: the qualifying cutoff (minimum to be considered, not a shortlist guarantee), the shortlist cutoff (where calls actually went out that year), or the competitive percentile (the realistic range where seats have converted once other factors are weighed).

If you're eyeing specific IIMs, it's worth looking at previous years' cutoff trends as a rough guide, while keeping in mind that this year's numbers could land differently.

CAT Percentile and College Options

A question we get constantly: "With X percentile, where can I get in?" Here's a general planning framework, not a promise:

CAT percentile	General planning view (not an admission prediction)
99+	Very strong CAT percentile; highly competitive for top IIMs, subject to profile and sectional criteria
95–99	Strong range for several IIMs and leading non-IIM B-schools
90–95	Competitive for many institutes, depending heavily on profile and category
Below 90	More non-IIM options; IIM possibilities depend strongly on category and institute

No percentile guarantees admission. Category, sectional scores, academics, work experience and each institute's own criteria all factor in.

Colleges Accepting CAT Scores: IIMs and Non-IIM B-Schools

All IIMs use CAT scores as the entry point for their PGP and FPM programmes. Beyond that, a fairly long list of non-IIM institutions also accepts CAT scores; the current, updated list lives on the official CAT website. Just remember, as mentioned earlier, IIMs have zero involvement in how those non-IIM colleges run their own admissions.

Disclaimer: The exact number of IIMs (21 vs. 22, following IIM Guwahati's 2026 establishment) is reported inconsistently across sources. Please confirm the current count via the official participating-institutes list at iimcat.ac.in.

For comparing courses, fees, cutoffs and placements, our top MBA colleges in Pune guide is worth a look alongside your CAT prep.

CAT 2026 Admission Process & Counselling

Unlike some entrance exams, CAT doesn't funnel everyone into one centralised counselling process. Instead, each IIM runs its own shortlisting and selection independently once results are out. Most follow some combination of a Written Ability Test, Group Discussion, and Personal Interview, though the exact mix and how much weight each carries varies from one IIM to another.

Typical path: Registration → Exam (Nov 29) → Result (Jan 2027) → Shortlisting → WAT/GD/PI → Final selection → Admission. Stages and weightages differ by IIM; there's no centralised counselling.

And it bears repeating: clearing the minimum eligibility bar doesn't automatically mean you'll clear an individual IIM's cutoff or make it through their process. Keep an eye on each shortlisting institute's own website for their specific requirements and timelines.

For where CAT and SNAP scores land at Pune B-schools specifically, see our MBA cutoff guide for Pune colleges.

Where a Good CAT Score Can Take You

A strong percentile opens doors into fields like consulting, corporate strategy, finance and banking, marketing, operations and supply chain, analytics, and increasingly, public policy roles through specialised programmes some IIMs now run. Several IIMs have also introduced newer, more focused MBA tracks in business analytics, digital business and AI, healthcare management, tourism, and so on, reflecting where industry demand has been heading.

Outcomes vary by institute, batch and programme, so it's worth checking placement reports and browsing our admission guides and tips before deciding.

CAT 2026 FAQs

What is CAT 2026?

It's the Common Admission Test conducted by IIM Indore, used as the entry test for MBA and doctoral-level management programmes at IIMs and a number of other B-schools across India.

When exactly is the CAT 2026 exam?

Sunday, November 29, 2026, run across three sessions in a computer-based format.

When can I register, and by when do I need to finish?

Registration opens August 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM and closes September 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM.

How much does CAT 2026 registration cost?

₹1,350 for SC/ST/PwBD candidates, ₹2,700 for General/EWS/NC-OBC candidates. It's a one-time fee and it's non-refundable.

Am I eligible for CAT 2026?

Yes, if you have a Bachelor's degree with 50% marks (45% for SC/ST/PwBD), hold a qualifying professional qualification like CA/CS/ICWA/FIAI, or you're a final-year student awaiting results (admission then stays provisional until you submit a completion certificate).

What does the CAT 2026 exam pattern look like?

Three sections (VARC, DILR, and QA), each locked to 40 minutes, adding up to 120 minutes total, with no switching between sections mid-test.

How many test cities can I select, and can I change my centre or category later?

Five cities, in preference order. You'll usually get one of your picks, but once allotted, a centre is final. Only city preferences can be edited, in the short post-registration window, and only if you've paid. Category is locked at submission and can't be changed at all, so verify both before you submit.

Does CAT have negative marking?

Based on recent years (not officially confirmed for 2026), yes: −1 for a wrong MCQ, +3 for any correct answer, no penalty for a wrong TITA. Worth confirming via the official mock test.

When can I download my admit card?

Between November 4 and November 29, 2026, from the official CAT website.

When will results be out?

Tentatively, the first week of January 2027. Your score stays valid until December 31, 2027.

What counts as a "good" CAT percentile?

There's no official benchmark. It varies by IIM, year, category and applicant pool. The most competitive IIMs have historically shortlisted from the very high percentile range, but sectional scores and profile matter too, so always check individual institute policies rather than a rule of thumb.

Which colleges accept CAT scores besides the IIMs?

A range of non-IIM institutions do; the current list is on the official CAT website. IIMs have no role in how those colleges select candidates.

Can I apply to all IIMs through one CAT 2026 application, and is there centralised counselling?

Yes to the first: one registration and fee covers all participating IIMs, each shortlisting independently. No to the second: every institute runs its own shortlisting and selection, so track each one separately.

Is there only one official website for CAT 2026?

Yes, iimcat.ac.in. IIM Indore has specifically warned against any other site or platform claiming to be affiliated with CAT 2026, so stick to this one for registration, payments, and updates.

This piece draws entirely on the official CAT 2026 Advertisement, Eligibility Notification, Information Bulletin, and Press Release published by IIM Indore on July 26, 2026, all available at iimcat.ac.in, the only authorised source for CAT 2026 updates. Sections marked as based on recent years (marking scheme, question counts, topic map, percentile guide) are not part of those documents. Details can be revised at the CAT authorities' discretion, so always cross-check there. And if you're also weighing which MBA colleges, courses, or cutoffs make sense for you, CollegePune.com is a good place to keep exploring alongside your CAT prep.

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