CAT 2026: Will the Exam Be Tough or Easy? Expected Difficulty Level

Based on the previous 5 years' trends, CAT 2026 is expected to be of an moderate to difficult level of difficulty.

• CAT 2026 will be conducted on November 29, 2026.
• CAT has shown significant difficulty variation between 2021 and 2025.
• The 99 percentile score changed from 100 marks in 2021 to 77 marks in 2023, before rising to 95 in 2024 and around 82–85 in 2025, depending on the score estimate used.
• DILR and QA have generally shown greater difficulty variation than VARC across recent CAT papers.
• CAT 2026 is expected to remain competitive, but its exact difficulty level can only be established after the exam.

IIM Indore is conducting CAT 2026, and its previous CAT papers provide some historical context for aspirants. However, these papers cannot be used to predict the exact difficulty of CAT 2026. The final difficulty will depend on the question paper across the three sections and the relative performance of candidates.

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CAT 2026 Difficulty Level: What Can Be Expected?

There is no official prediction from IIM Indore about whether CAT 2026 will be easy, moderate or difficult. Any pre-exam difficulty prediction is therefore based on historical trends, previous question papers and expert analysis.

The previous five CAT papers show that the exam does not follow a fixed difficulty pattern. CAT 2023 was considerably tougher than CAT 2024, while CAT 2025 again moved towards a more difficult paper.

Based on this trend, CAT 2026 could fall around the moderate to difficult range, although an easy or relatively easier paper cannot be ruled out.

CAT Difficulty Level Trend: 2021 to 2025

• CAT difficulty fluctuated significantly between 2021 and 2025 rather than following a consistent upward or downward trend.
• CAT 2021 was rated moderate to difficult, setting a relatively challenging baseline.
• CAT 2022 moved to the moderate category, indicating a lower difficulty level than 2021.
• CAT 2023 was rated very difficult, representing the sharpest difficulty spike in the five years.
• CAT 2024 was considered easier than usual, marking a clear reversal from 2023.
• CAT 2025 again moved towards the difficult category, although it was not rated as difficult as CAT 2023.

Year-on-Year Difficulty Analysis

• 2021 to 2022: Difficulty declined from moderate-to-difficult to moderate. Since the ratings are qualitative, an exact percentage change cannot be calculated reliably.
• 2022 to 2023: Difficulty increased sharply, with CAT moving from moderate to very difficult. This was the biggest upward shift in the period.
• 2023 to 2024: Difficulty dropped substantially, as the exam moved from very difficult to easier than usual. This was the biggest downward shift in the five-year trend.
• 2024 to 2025: Difficulty increased again, with CAT moving from easier than usual to difficult.
• 2021 to 2025: The exam ended at a higher difficulty level than it began, moving from moderate-to-difficult to difficult. However, the trend was highly volatile, with major changes in 2023 and 2024.

Check: CAT vs XAT vs SNAP 2026: Which MBA Exam Should You Take?

CAT 2026 Score vs Percentile: What Does the Previous Trend Show?

• 2021: The 99 percentile was associated with 100 marks, the highest score in the five-year table. This indicates that a relatively high raw score was needed for the same percentile.
• 2022: The 99 percentile score fell to 84 marks, a drop of 16 marks or 16% from 2021.
• 2023: The score fell further to 77 marks, which was 7 marks lower than 2022 and 23% lower than 2021. This coincided with the very difficult CAT paper reported for 2023.
• 2024: The 99 percentile score increased sharply to 95 marks, up by 18 marks or about 23.4% from 2023, consistent with the easier paper reported that year.
• 2025: The score declined again to around 85 marks, about 10.5% lower than 2024. Recent estimates vary by slot and predictor, so this figure should be treated as indicative rather than an official score benchmark.

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CAT 2026 Difficulty Level: IIM Indore's Previous CAT Papers

• 2013: The paper was moderate to difficult overall, with DILR and QA both rated moderate-difficult.
• 2014: The overall difficulty eased, with VARC described as easy/doable and QA as easy, while DILR remained moderate.
• 2020: All three sections were rated easy-moderate, making it the least difficult of the three IIM Indore-conducted papers in this comparison.
• Across these three editions, IIM Indore's papers moved from moderate-difficult in 2013 to easier levels in 2014 and 2020.

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CAT Section-wise Difficulty: VARC, DILR and QA

• The following table shows the difficulty level trend of all three sections: VARC, DILR, and QA in the CAT examination from the years 2021- 2025.
• Based on the analysis of this data, we can expect the three sections in CAT 2026 to be of at uniform level of difficulty, which means VARC, DILR, and QA will be of the same difficulty level.
• Now, this difficulty level of all three sections can be expected to be at an easy-to-moderate level.

Also Check:

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CAT 2026: How Normalisation Affects Score and Percentile

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CAT 2026 Preparation: What If the Paper Is Difficult?

There is no numerical table here, so I would not add a forced table. Instead, make the analysis practical:

• Do not prepare only for an easy paper: The 2023 and 2025 trends show that CAT can become considerably more demanding.
• Do not panic if the paper looks difficult: A difficult paper can lower the raw score required for a high percentile.
• Focus on selection: In a difficult paper, identifying solvable questions quickly becomes more important than trying to attempt everything.
• Maintain sectional balance: A strong overall score cannot always compensate for a weak section because many B-schools apply sectional cutoffs.
• Use mocks to build adaptability: Practising papers of different difficulty levels can help candidates adjust their attempt strategy on exam day.

Must check:

• CAT 2026 Preparation Online: Coaching, Free Courses, Study Material, Online YouTube and Reddit
• CAT Study Material 2026: Download Free CAT Study Material PDF for VARC, DILR, and Quant

CAT 2026 will be tough or easy: Quora Discussion

• The following Quora user answered the following when someone asked about CAT 2026 exam difficulty.

Source: Quora

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