CAT Previous Year Papers: CAT exam is one of the toughest management entrance exams in India. Every year there are lakhs of CAT aspirants registered for the CAT, as per data approximately 3.5 lakh candidates have registered for CAT 2025. Common Admission Test is the basic eligibility criteria to enter in top IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) or B-schools. Due to high volume of candidates appeared for the exam according to the CAT previous year analysis, competition becomes intense and to crack the exam with 99+ percentile requires proper strategy and solving CAT past year question papers is important. Before starting solving CAT PYQs (CAT Previous Year Papers), candidates should cover the in-depth CAT syllabus analysis across VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). It is advisable to the CAT aspirants that they should cover sufficient questions from CAT previous year question papers before appearing for the actual CAT 2025 exam. This blog is the complete guide that will help students covering the CAT previous year papers, why solving CAT PYQs is important strategy to tackle CAT 2025 exam, analyzing the CAT last year paper and more.
Candidates can check the CAT previous year question papers slot-wise (Slot 1,2 & 3) with detailed solutions which will help you in strategizing the last-minute preparation for CAT 2025 exam across VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). Let’s deep dive into blog to check the direct link of CAT previous year papers with solutions.
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What is Common Admission Test (CAT)?
CAT is the management entrance examination which is the basic eligibility criteria required to enter in top Indian Institutes of Management or B-schools. There are total 3 sections in the Common Admission Test which is covering the VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning), and QA (Quantitative Ability). Talking about the marking scheme for CAT exam, candidates will +3 marks for correct answer and -1 marks for incorrect one. IIM Kozhikode will conduct the CAT 2025 exam. The other relevant information related to the Common Admission Test is mentioned in the table below.
| Key Aspects | Details (Common Admission Test) |
| CAT Full Form | Common Admission Test |
| Sections | 3 |
| Name of Sections | Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) Quantitative Aptitude (QA) Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LRDI) |
| Candidates Registered in CAT 2025 | 3,42,598 (approx.) |
| Marking Scheme in Common Admission Test | +3 marks for correct answer -1 marks for incorrect answer |
| Number of Questions | VARC – 24 DILR – 22 QA – 22 |
| Total Questions | 68 |
| CAT 2025 Conducting Body | IIM Kozhikode |
| Number of Attempts Allowed | Once a year |
| Sectional Time Limit | VARC – 40 minutes DILR – 40 minutes QA – 40 minutes |
| Total Duration | 120 minutes |
| Number of slots | 3 Slot 1 (Morning) : 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM Slot 2 (Afternoon) : 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM Slot 3 (Evening) : 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM |
What is CAT Previous Year Question Paper?
CAT last year question paper is the actual edition of the CAT previous year exam which covers the exam pattern, marking scheme, important questions across VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). It is very important for the CAT aspirants that they should cover CAT previous year papers to actually analyzing question patterns across sections. Understanding the question pattern and the topic-weightage is quite important for the students to maximize scores in the actual CAT exam.
Talking about the CAT 2024, the VARC section covers overall 24 questions, DILR section covers 22 questions and QA section covers 22 which means there are total 68 questions. The number of questions are same across slot 1, slot 2 and slot 3 in CAT 2024. Understanding the proper analysis of topics across VARC, DILR & QA will help candidates covering the overall CAT exam preparation with proper strategy. Candidates will get the complete CAT previous year question papers with detailed solution below that strategize the upcoming CAT exam preparation.
Why is Solving CAT Last Year Paper Important?
Solving CAT previous year question paper is very important for the candidates to get familiar with the Common Admission Test pattern because understanding the exam pattern with difficulty level is very important for students. Identifying important topics across VARC, DILR & QA will help later while solving questions because targeting high weightage-topics across section helps you in maintaining smart preparation strategy that will help in scoring 99+ percentile in CAT 2025.
Solving PYQs equally across VARC (Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability) is crucial because CAT (Common Admission Test) is a sectional exam which actually requires sectional cutoffs to get eligible for the admission in top IIMs or B-schools.
Third point is equally very important that is improving speed and accuracy both while solving CAT previous year question papers. This requires to be attained while solving PYQs before appearing for the CAT 2025 exam. Speed, accuracy and time management, all are important factors that candidate need to cover to enhance CAT percentile. Working on all these factors help in boosting confidence before the CAT exam and gauge overall preparation level.
How to Analyze CAT Previous Year Question Papers?
Candidates need to analyze the CAT previous year papers according to the sections whether it is VARC, DILR and QA. Talking about the VARC (Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning) section, candidate should solve maximum RCs (genre-wise) that have appeared in the CAT previous year papers along with the VA (Verbal Ability) questions. Given below are the glimpse of some important RCs and VA questions.
| TOPIC | SLOT 1: Genre | SLOT 2: Genre | SLOT 3: Genre |
| RC – 1 | Idea of Craftmanship | Spices Trade | Chinese Liquor – Moutai |
| RC – 2 | Economics and their interests | Peer Review | Space Contamination |
| RC – 3 | Digital rights of content | Unintended Consequences of Technology | Need to regulate AI |
| RC – 4 | Bandicoots in Australia | Carnivore – Human Conflict | Languages becoming endangered |
| Para summary – 1 | Animals and Intelligence | How states use the DIME mode | Lyric Poetry |
| Para summary – 2 | Cartographers and maps | Concern about the limitations on comedic freedom | Living things and regularization |
| Para summary – 3 | Language and Codes | Interdisciplinary collaboration between physicists and scientists | Tradwife and vintage dress |
| Fill in the blank – 1 | History – Italian Madrigals | Science Research – Staying Up late | Inflation and Work |
| Fill in the blank – 2 | Silk Roads & Developing Countries | First Phase of Globalization | Somalia drought crisis |
| Fill in the blank – 3 | Brain and Evolution | Strange Fact about Hens | Vietnam War |
| Odd one out 1 | Animal Rights | Biological Basis for Gender | Forecasting and opinions |
| Odd one out 2 | Urbanites and Transport | Cultivated Meat | Neuron and Synapses |
For QA (Quantitative Ability) section, candidates should cover important sections that are Algebra, Arithmetic, Number System, Modern Maths and more by solving CAT previous year question papers. This will increase speed and accuracy in QA section along with analyzing the high-weightage topic which later help in increasing CAT percentile. Candidates can download the complete CAT question papers with detailed solutions for accessing QA section below.
Now, coming to the DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning) section which is quite complex for many candidates to attempt whether they are coming from engineering or non-engineering background. Solving different DILR sets from CAT previous year papers will be really helpful in the near future to tackle complex questions across DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning) section.
CAT Previous Year Papers: Slot-Wise (Slot 1,2 and 3)
This section covers the CAT previous year question papers (year-wise) with different slots. Candidates can go through CAT question papers year-wise for the detailed analysis and also candidates can check for the topic-wise questions across VARC (Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). This overall help students to maintain the preparation strategy for CAT along with focused approach.
CAT 2024 Question Paper – (Slots 1,2,3) with Solutions
CAT 2023 Question Paper – (Slots 1,2,3) with Solutions
CAT 2022 Question Paper – (Slots 1,2,3) with Solutions
CAT 2021 Question Paper – (Slots 1,2,3) with Solutions
CAT Previous Year Papers [2000-2024] & Detailed Solutions
Given below are the direct access link to the CAT question papers (year-wise) with their detailed solution. Candidates can access the papers by clicking on the link which is given below.
CAT Previous Year Question Paper: CAT Exam Pattern
| CAT 2024 Sections | Total Questions | Time Limit |
| VARC | 24 | 40 mins |
| DILR | 22 | 40 mins |
| QA | 22 | 40 mins |
| Total | 68 | 120 mins |
Also Check: CAT Exam Pattern
CAT Previous Year Paper Analysis (Complete Analysis)
This section covers the complete analysis of the CAT exam (year-wise) which is according to the difficulty level including VARC (Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). The detailed information about the CAT previous year paper analysis is mentioned in the table below.
| Sections | CAT 2024 Difficulty Level | CAT 2023 Difficulty Level | CAT 2022 Difficulty Level | CAT 2021 Difficulty Level | CAT 2020 Difficulty Level |
| Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) | Moderate | Moderate to Difficult | Moderate | Moderate to Difficult | Moderate to Difficult |
| Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) | Moderate | Easy to Moderate | Difficult | Difficult | Difficult |
| Quantitative Ability (QA) | Moderate | Difficult | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate |
| Overall | Moderate | Difficult | Moderate-Difficult | Moderate-Difficult | Moderate-Difficult |
How to Access CAT Previous Year Question Papers from iQuanta?
Candidates can directly access the CAT past year papers from iQuanta by directly accessing the link mentioned below. Candidates will able to access all the past year papers of CAT exam with slot 1, slot 2 and slot 3.
Conclusion: CAT Previous Year Papers
Solving CAT past year papers are very important for the candidates who are serious for the CAT exam so that they will not only build speed by solving multiple questions but along with that maintaining confidence and focused approach that overall help candidates in scoring maximum CAT percentile. Only analyzing the topic-wise questions will not really helpful for the candidates who wish to pursue CAT 2025 but along with that they have to understand the approach while solving the CAT previous year question papers.
FAQs: CAT Previous Year Question Paper
There are different factors which are important for analyzing the CAT previous year papers including understanding exam pattern and difficulty level, improve speed as well as accuracy, enhance time management, identify important topics & trends as well as helpful in building confidence before the CAT exam.
Candidate can easily analyze CAT previous year papers according to sections. For VARC, candidate need to cover the important RCs from the past year papers of CAT. For QA, candidate should cover maximum questions across Algebra, Arithmetic, Geometry, Number System as well as Modern Maths. DILR section is considered as one of the complex sections to maintain accuracy as well as important one to score high in the CAT exam. To do so, candidate have to cover maximum number of DILR sets from the CAT previous year question papers.
According to that CAT last year question paper, the VARC section covers 24 questions, DILR section covers 22 question and QA section again covers 22 questions. The overall questions covered in the CAT past year papers are 68.
Candidates can easily download CAT previous year papers from iQuanta with their detailed solution and also slot-wise.
Candidates should cover at least 6-8 CAT previous year question papers to understand the overall difficulty level, exam pattern, and more related factors.
Yes candidates should get CAT previous year question papers according to the slots (1,2,3) across VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability).
CAT question papers are really helpful for the candidates to understand the questions pattern across VARC (Verbal Abillity & Reading Comprehension), DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) and QA (Quantitative Ability). Solving maximum papers leads to understand the difficulty level which help candidates in the upcoming CAT exam.
CAT last year paper is the actual exam papers from the previous year CAT exam whereas the mock test are the reflection of the actual CAT exam papers which are designed by the high quality educators and reflect the actual exam pattern of CAT.
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