The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore is scheduled to release the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2026 admit cards on Wednesday, November 4. Registered candidates can download them from the official website, iimcat.ac.in.
The examination will be held on November 29 in three sessions for admission to management programmes at the IIMs and other participating institutions.
With less than four weeks remaining, an analysis of the last three years' Slot 1 question papers provides insights into the examination's structure and the types of questions candidates have encountered.
A comparison of the actual Slot 1 question papers from 2023, 2024 and 2025 shows that the total number of questions increased from 66 in 2023 to 68 in 2024 and remained at 68 in 2025.
The examination continued to cover three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA).
In VARC, reading comprehension passages remained a significant component. The papers tested candidates' ability to identify arguments, draw inferences, interpret information and evaluate statements.
The 2025 paper also included questions involving paragraph summaries, sentence placement and identifying the odd sentence in a sequence.
The DILR sections required candidates to interpret information, identify relationships and solve problems using multiple conditions.
Rather than testing isolated facts, these questions demanded careful interpretation of the information provided.
The Quantitative Ability sections included problems involving arithmetic, algebra, geometry and number properties.
Across the three papers, candidates were required to apply mathematical concepts to unfamiliar problem situations.
However, these observations relate only to the Slot 1 papers and should not be interpreted as a prediction of the CAT 2026 question paper or its difficulty.
Admit card release: November 4, 2026
Examination date: November 29, 2026
Conducting institute: IIM Indore
Examination mode: Computer-based
Official website: iimcat.ac.in
The admit card will contain the allotted examination centre, test slot, reporting time and other instructions.
Candidates should verify these details after downloading the document and follow the examination-day guidelines issued by the conducting institute.