CAT 2026 Answer Key: Release Date & How to Challenge

CAT 2026's own Information Bulletin does not address an answer key process, an objection window, or how queries would be raised. Every major entrance exam most CAT candidates have already sat runs a public answer-key process. Other major national entrance exams also use provisional answer keys and objection windows.

That does not mean the process does not exist, though. Recent CAT cycles have followed a pattern of their own, per consistent non-official reporting. That pattern is a provisional answer key and a candidate's own response sheet, released through login. There is also a short window to object. This page states both plainly: what the 2026 bulletin does not say, and what the recent-cycle pattern reports. It keeps the two separate rather than treating them as one. The exam's full official calendar sits separately on the CAT 2026 overview page.

The pattern worth knowing is reported consistently across CAT 2019 through CAT 2025. A provisional answer key and each candidate's own response sheet appear through the candidate login. This happens roughly 4 to 10 days after the exam. A short window to raise objections against specific answers follows. CAT 2025 reporting cites a Rs 1,200 fee per question. None of this is confirmed for CAT 2026 by IIM Indore itself.

No CAT 2026 answer key release date appears in IIM Indore's own Information Bulletin. The bulletin does not address an answer key at all for this cycle.

The historical pattern can be said honestly, though. Recent CAT cycles have put a provisional key out roughly one to two weeks after the exam. That range is reported consistently but never officially fixed by rule. CAT 2026's confirmed exam date is 29 November. Applying that pattern loosely to this date, a provisional key could be expected to release in the first half of December 2026. This is based on the assumption that IIM Indore follows the same practice this cycle. That is an inference from past years, not a 2026 confirmation.

No confirmed 2026 download process exists, since the bulletin does not describe one. Recent cycles have reportedly used one mechanism worth knowing. It works through the same candidate login every CAT applicant already has:

No separate public download link exists for a CAT answer key, for 2026 or any past cycle. In recent years, when the process has run, the key and response sheet reportedly sat inside a candidate's own login on iimcat.ac.in.

iimcat.ac.in remains the one correct address to check directly. It is the same official domain used for registration and the admit card. A candidate should watch that portal and their own registered email and phone for any 2026-specific update. They should not trust a third-party link claiming to be the "CAT 2026 answer key download page."

These are two different documents. Recent-cycle reporting describes both as arriving together.

A response sheet alone cannot tell a candidate their score. It only confirms what they selected. Pairing it against the answer key turns those choices into an estimated raw score. A response sheet is also not the same as the reconstructed papers. Those papers are described on the CAT 2026 previous year question paper page. One is a candidate's own official record. The other is an unofficial recreation of the paper itself. Neither document's 2026 process is confirmed by IIM Indore so far. Both descriptions above rest on recent-cycle, non-official reporting.

The pattern reported for recent cycles, including CAT 2025, runs as follows. Once the provisional key appears through login, candidates get a short window, typically a few days. In that window, they can raise an objection against a specific answer they believe is wrong. CAT 2025 reporting cites a Rs 1,200 fee charged per question raised. Some reports also mention a refund if the objection is accepted. That refund detail was not independently verified against any official source, though.

An objection, where the process runs, gets filed against one question at a time with supporting justification. It is not filed as a general complaint about the paper. IIM Indore then reviews objections before finalising the key. Only the final key, not the provisional one, feeds into any subsequent scoring, per how recent cycles have reportedly worked.

If a CAT 2026 answer key does become available, the calculation itself is simple arithmetic once a verified key exists. Getting that verified key in the first place is the real challenge. Recent-cycle marking is not confirmed by IIM Indore for 2026. That marking has run +3 for a correct MCQ, -1 for an incorrect MCQ, and 0 for an unattempted MCQ. It has also run 0 for a wrong or blank TITA answer, with a correct TITA still earning +3.

Applying that table to a response sheet checked against an answer key gives a raw score. That score comes out of a pattern-derived total. For a 68-question paper, that total works out to 204, as an arithmetic result, not an independently stated figure. That raw score is not a percentile by itself. Converting it needs the full applicant pool's performance that year. IIM Indore computes that conversion to build the CAT 2026 result page's percentile. A candidate cannot replicate it alone from a key.