CAT Exam 2026: Dates, Eligibility, Fee and How IIMs Use Your Score

The CAT exam (Common Admission Test) is the entrance test the IIMs use to shortlist students for their management programmes. For CAT 2026, registration is over and the test is on Sunday, 29 November 2026. Admit cards can be downloaded from 4 November. If you did not register, you cannot sit this cycle, and the other MBA entrance exams are your next step.

This guide gives the official CAT 2026 dates, who is eligible, what the fee was and, the part most guides skip, how two IIMs actually turn a CAT score into an offer. Dates, fee and eligibility come from the official CAT 2026 portal documents. The selection rules come from the 2027-29 admission policies published by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore.

CAT 2026 dates

The IIMs' media release of 29 September 2026 says no further extensions would be granted beyond the edit window. For reference, the CAT 2025 advertisement had listed results for the first week of January 2026, as a tentative date. Watch the portal for the 2026 result date rather than relying on last year's pattern.

CAT exam eligibility

The CAT 2026 eligibility document sets one marks rule for everyone, and the answer to most "can I apply?" questions sits in it.

Meeting this minimum only lets you register. The document itself warns that clearing the eligibility bar does not guarantee a shortlist at any IIM. If your marksheet shows a CGPA, use the CGPA to percentage calculator to see where you stand, then confirm the conversion with your university.

CAT 2026 registration fee and documents

The registration guide states the fee as Rs 2,700 for General, EWS and NC-OBC candidates and Rs 1,350 for SC, ST and PwBD candidates, with payment transaction charges shown separately on the form.

• Photograph: JPG or JPEG, within 1200 x 1200 pixels, under 80 KB, white background and not older than six months.

• Signature: JPG or JPEG, within 80 mm x 35 mm and under 80 KB.

• Certificates: a valid EWS, NC-OBC, SC or ST certificate, or a disability certificate, scanned as PDF.

• On test day: printed copies of the same photograph, which are affixed to the admit card.

• Test city: you pick five cities in order of preference, and one is allotted subject to availability.

CAT exam pattern: the three sections

CAT scores are reported by section as well as overall. The IIM admission policies name the three sections as Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). Both IIMs covered below set a minimum percentile in each section, which is why a lopsided score can lose you a call even when your overall percentile looks strong.

Question counts and timing are fixed in the candidate instructions and mock tests on the official portal, so take the portal's own mock and check the instructions there before test day. Do not rely on a coaching site's description of last year's paper.

How IIMs use your CAT score

CAT is the first filter, not the whole decision. Both IIMs below publish their formulas, and they show how much a percentile is worth next to your other marks.

IIM Ahmedabad, PGP 2027-29

IIM Ahmedabad shortlists for its written test and interview on a composite score. Sixty-five percent of the raw composite comes from your total CAT percentile, and 35% from an application rating built from your 10th, 12th and bachelor's percentages, gender and full-time work experience. It also sets minimum CAT 2026 percentiles.

After the interview and writing test, its final score weights the personal interview at 50%, the writing test at 10% and the earlier composite at 40%. A strong CAT gets you to the room; the interview decides most of the offer.

IIM Bangalore, PGP 2027-29

IIM Bangalore first forms a shortlist of candidates above its minimum section scores, then builds a pre-interview score out of 100 points. CAT carries 55 of them, split as VARC 19, DILR 21 and QA 15. The 10th, 12th and bachelor's scores carry 10 each, work experience or a professional course 10, and gender diversity 5.

At the final stage the weights change. The personal interview counts 40, the written ability test 10, CAT 25, and the 10th, 12th and bachelor's scores 5 each, with work experience 10. IIM Bangalore's published cut-offs for the previous batch (based on CAT 2025) were 80, 75 and 75 percentile in VARC, DILR and QA for General candidates, with 85 overall. It states that the scores of those called for interview were higher.

Other IIMs publish their own rules, so read each policy before you decide how to prepare. Percentile cut-offs from past years are a guide, not a promise for this cycle.

What to do now, whether or not you registered

• If you registered: download the admit card from 4 November, check the test city and reporting time, and keep the printed photographs ready. Spend the remaining weeks on timed mocks from the portal and on your weakest section, since section cut-offs apply.

• If you missed CAT 2026: you can still reach an MBA this year. Read our guide to MBA entrance exams in India, then the steps in the MBA admission process.

• If you do not want an entrance exam at all: see MBA without CAT and online MBA without CAT. The online MBA course page lists the programmes we track.

• If you have work experience: an executive MBA uses GMAT or GRE at the IIMs instead of CAT.

New to the degree itself? Start with the MBA course page or the MBA full form guide. When you shortlist colleges, compare them on the NIRF management ranking, which carries every year's published ranks.

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