CAT 2026 Syllabus: Subject-Wise Topics & Exam Pattern

The CAT 2026 syllabus is divided into three core sections: Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). The exam features 68 questions totaling 204 marks across a 120-minute duration. IIM Indore has not issued an official topic-by-topic syllabus for CAT exam 2026, the CAT 2026 syllabus outline below is derived by analysing the last 10 years paper analysis by test-prep experts.

Official CAT 2026 notification out and the exam scheduled for November 29, 2026. The experts are expecting the test structure to mirror CAT 2025.

CAT 2026 tests three sections in a fixed order. They are Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA). IIM Indore confirms this structure in its own CAT 2026 Information Bulletin. The Bulletin also confirms the 40-minute lock per section and the no-switching rule. It confirms nothing below that level.

It covers the topic pattern that VARC, DILR and QA questions have carried across CAT 2022 through CAT 2025. IIM Indore does not release the actual CAT question paper. This pattern is reconstructed and cross-checked from recent papers instead. Read every topic list below as a study guide built from pattern, not a document you can hold IIM Indore to. For the full CAT 2026 exam calendar, eligibility and fee, see the CAT 2026 overview page.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, VARC, is the first of CAT's three sections. It runs on its own fixed 40-minute clock, confirmed in IIM Indore's CAT 2026 Information Bulletin. No official topic list sits under that section name. What follows is the pattern across CAT 2022 through CAT 2025 papers. IIM Indore does not release the actual paper, so test-prep sources reconstructed and cross-checked this pattern themselves. It is a pattern, not an IIM Indore document.

No official weightage exists for any of these topics, and it will not assign one. Reading comprehension has appeared in every recent cycle's VARC section alongside the other four topics above. IIM Indore does not state how many questions each topic draws in any single sitting. Coaching sources estimate this differently. Their numbers disagree closely enough that stating one fixed number here would be false precision, not a fact.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, DILR, is CAT's second section. It is also locked to its own 40 minutes with no switching, per IIM Indore's CAT 2026 Information Bulletin. DILR is the one section whose question count has actually moved between recent cycles. That shift is itself evidence that nothing below the section-name level is fixed by rule.

CAT 2022 and CAT 2023 carried 20 DILR questions against 24 in VARC. CAT 2024 and CAT 2025 moved DILR up to 22, without changing VARC. That two-question shift is the clearest evidence available that CAT's internal balance is not fixed cycle to cycle. IIM Indore has never stated a reason for it anywhere. The full previous-year comparison sits later here.

Quantitative Ability, QA, is CAT's third and final section. It is also locked to a fixed 40 minutes with no switching, confirmed in IIM Indore's CAT 2026 Information Bulletin. As with VARC and DILR, no official topic list exists under this section name either.

QA has held at 22 questions across CAT 2022 through CAT 2025, per the recent-cycle pattern. It is the one section IIM Indore has not resized while DILR moved. That stability is a pattern, not a rule IIM Indore has committed to for CAT 2026.

Knowing the CAT 2026 topic list is one thing. Knowing where to spend a fixed 40 minutes inside each section is another. The detail below goes one layer past the plain topic lists above. It is still built from the same recent-cycle pattern, not an IIM Indore document.

None of the three tabs above states a question-per-topic count. IIM Indore has not published one for any CAT cycle, 2026 included. Where a coaching source states one, treat it as that source's own estimate, cross-checked or not. Never treat it as a CAT 2026 fact.

CAT 2026 runs 120 minutes total, split into three fixed 40-minute sections in the order VARC, DILR, QA. There is no switching between sections once the clock starts on one. IIM Indore confirms this directly in its CAT 2026 Information Bulletin and Press Release. It is the only exam-pattern detail it repeats from that document.

The recent-cycle marking pattern awards +3 for a correct MCQ, -1 for an incorrect one, and 0 for an unattempted question. Non-MCQ, or TITA, questions carry no negative marking at all. IIM Indore has not stated a marking scheme for CAT 2026 in either document. Hold this as the pattern every recent cycle has used, not a confirmed 2026 rule.

For the full section-wise timing table, the MCQ-versus-TITA split and how CAT's scaled score works, see the CAT 2026 exam pattern page. Its job is the topic list. That page's job is the timing and marks mechanics.

CAT's section-level topic mix is not static. The clearest proof is the question count each section has carried across recent cycles. Total questions moved from 66 in CAT 2022 and CAT 2023 to 68 in CAT 2024 and CAT 2025. Coaching platforms have tracked this pattern across those cycles. That shift is itself proof the count is not fixed by rule.

DILR is the section that moved, from 20 to 22 questions, while VARC and QA held steady at 24 and 22. IIM Indore has not stated a reason for that shift in either its Information Bulletin or Press Release. That shift is visible only by comparing recent cycles against each other. The 2024-25 pattern, not the 2022-23 one, is the more current guide. It suggests a slightly larger DILR section in CAT 2026. Neither is an IIM Indore-confirmed figure for CAT 2026 itself, and it will not present it as one.