Xavier Aptitude Test 2026 ( XAT )
Check XAT 2026 GK and Decision Making expected topics and questions based on previous year analysis. XAT 2026 exam will be held on January 04. Candidates preparing for exam must check the important topics, section wise weightage and download previous year XAT question paper PDFs.
XAT Expected Questions for DM and GK
Xavier Aptitude Test 2026 preparation requires more than just strong Quantitative Ability and Verbal Skills. XAT General Knowledge and Decision Making Sections play important role in determining the final percentile and XLRI final shortlisting. Candidates preparing for XAT exam can check XAT GK & Decision-Making most expected topics based on previous year question paper analysis.
This article by Shiksha provides most expected XAT GK topics, decision-making question types, and repeated themes based on previous year official papers, trend analysis, and XAT pattern.
XAT Decision Making section includes 18 to 19 questions which are based on themes like HR, Socio Political Issues and Business. Three questions are related to Analytical and Numerical Reasoning. The difficulty level of XAT DM questions is easy to moderate which requires common reasoning skills. This section includes negative marking of 0.25 marks for incorrect answer and 0.10 marks for 8 unattempted questions. Some of the important topics covered in XAT DM sections in previous year questions papers are:
| Expected Topics |
Expected Question Type |
|---|---|
| Workplace Ethics & Policy Making |
|
| Development vs Environment vs Livelihood |
|
| Educational Institutions & Governance Conflicts |
|
| Data-Driven Decision Cases (Graphs + Ethics) |
|
Yes, the XAT exam has negative marking of -0.25 marks for wrong attempt. Unanswered questions have no negative marking but if there are 8 consecutive unanswered questions, 0.10 marks will be deducted.
Thus, the candidates must select questions to solve very carefully in the XAT exam. They should solve only those questions which they know they can solve accurately. The XAT exam has sectional time limit too, so you may not want to waste time on a question that you cannot solve accurately.
You stand to lose both time and marks. So be careful in selecting questions in the XAT exam. The sectional cut off for XAT is usually 80 percent accuracy. Practice a lot of mock tests to develop this skill.
In XAT, Reading Comprehension passages are usually taken from Philosophy, Psychology, History, Art, research articles. Sometime, the XAT RC section also has poems. These areas are chosen to test the candidates, who are largely Science, Commerce and Engineering graduates, on their ability to come out of their comfort zone and adapt to unfamiliar situations. Out of 26 questions, about 14-16 questions are based on RC passages or a poem. Candidates must target solving about 10 questions accurately to score well. XAT has negative marking so do not mark an option as your answer if you are not 100 percent sure of it.
Based on ,MBA
XAT 2026 Decision Making required logical and ethical reasoning to score. To score in decision making section of XAT 2026, candidates must:
Also Read: XAT Preparation 2026: All About Decision Making- Tips and Tricks
XAT General Knowledge section includes 20 questions which has to be solved in 10 minutes. The questions of GK is divided into two parts: Current Affairs and Static GK. 08 questions will focus on static GK and 12 will questions will be from current affairs. There is no negative marking in this section. Scores of XAT GK are used by XLRI for final selection. Check the table below to know the XAT 2026 GK expected topics and questions to prepare for.
| Section |
Expected Topics |
Expected Question Type |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Polity & Constitution |
|
Q. Which Article of the Constitution deals with the protection of the environment? |
| Climate, Environment & Summits |
|
Q. Which international summit launched the Loss & Damage Fund? |
| Indian Economy & Business Awareness |
|
Q. Which price index is used by RBI to target inflation? Q. Which of the following is NOT a primary sector activity? Q. ONDC in India aims to digitalise which industry? |
| Space, Defence & Science & Tech |
|
Q. Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed at which lunar site? Q. Vikram-S was launched by which Indian private company? Q. INS Arihant is classified as what type of vessel? |
| Geopolitics |
|
1Q. Which country joined BRICS in 2024? Q. Which factor was NOT responsible for the Sri Lankan economic crisis? Q. Where was the 2023 G20 Summit hosted? |
| Sports and Culture |
|
Q. Who won the Golden Boot at FIFA? Q. Which Indian movie won an Oscar? Q. BTS belongs to which country? |
25 Nov '25 - 29 Jan '26
7 Feb '26 - 8 Feb '26
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30 Jan '26 - 28 Feb '26
As per the latest XAT exam pattern, the question paper has only 2 parts. Part 1 consists of VALR, DM and QA DI questions. Part 2 consists of GK questions. Essay Writing is not a part of the online test. The total time duration is 180 minutes or 3 hours. Part 1 is of 170 minutes and Part 2 is of 10 minutes. Earlier, the XAT exam included essay writing for which extra time was given. The XAT exam used to be of 210 minutes or 3.5 hours.
There are no non-MCQs in XAT. All the questions are in MCQ format with four options to choose the correct answer from. There are neither Type in the Answer and nor subjective answer type questions. Earlier, there used to be essay writing which required candidates to type a short essay on screen.
There is no change in the XAT exam pattern 2026. The structure of XAT 2026 question paper will be same as XAT 2025 question paper. There will be no essay writing this year. Candidates will get 180 minutes to solve about 95 questions in MCQ format.
To prepare well for XAT GK section, candidates must:
Also Read:
| XAT Preparation Articles |
|---|
| XAT Preparation Plan for Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation |
Candidates preparing for XAT 2026 can download the previous year question paper PDFs in the table below. With the help of XAT question papers candidates can determine the level of difficulty of question paper and prepare accordingly.
Read More:
Shruti Garg is a graduate in English and Education with over 7 years of experience in content writing/editing and education journalism. At Shiksha.com, Shruti covers UG and PG entrance exams like MBA entrance exams,
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Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 6 days ago
XLRI selects candidates for its MBA full time programme through XAT score. Those who qualify the exam and meet the minimum cut off, are shortlisted for Essay Writing and Personal Interview. Final selection is made on the basis of candidate's XAT score, academic score, work experience and performance
A
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a week ago
GIBS is pretty flexible when it comes to entrance exams. They accept almost all the common management tests — CAT, XAT, MAT, CMAT, ATMA, State CET, and even GMAT. In my batch itself, we had students who came through different exams, not just CAT.
Honestly, that's one thing I liked about GIBS — they d
M
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 3 weeks ago
XAT 2026 result will not be sent in email. However, XLRI will send an email to candidates informing them about the availability of scorecard and how to download it. Candidates must keep a check on their email account for result notification.
P
Contributor-Level 6
Answered 3 weeks ago
XAT 2026 result date has not been announced by XLRI. However, since the scorecards are released by the third week of January every year, the XAT result 2026 can also be expected to be released by January 17 or 20, 2026.
N
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a month ago
The Bangalore University MBA Cutoff 2025 has been announced for admission to the MBA/PGDM programme via the Karnataka PGCET, CAT, NMAT, XAT, and other accepted exams. According to the Bangalore University Karnataka PGCET Cutoff 2025, students needed to obtain a rank of 3375 for admission to ABBS Ba
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
Every question of XAT carries 1 mark and a score of 38 to 42 usually covert into 99 percentile, so candidates should aim for the same number of correct attempts in the exam. XAT has negative marking so they should not attempt any question, if they are not sure of, otherwise it will affect the overal
N
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a month ago
The CCSU MBA Cutoff 2025 has been released for admission to the MBA programme via the XAT, MAT and CAT entrance examinations. The CCSU XAT Cutoff 2025 was 50 for the Gender-Neutral Candidates under the All India quota. In the case of CCSU MAT Cutoff 2025, the qualfying cutoff percentile was 75 for t
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
Yes, if you have secured an 82nd percentile in XAT, you can get the scholarships for pursuing an MBA course at FOSSTIMA Business School. The concessions on fees that the school provides are:
A
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
Hi.
Yes, PIBM (Pune Institute of Business Management) does conduct its own entrance exam in addition to accepting scores from national and state-level exams. Here's how it works:
Yes, PIBM has its own internal aptitude test called PMAT (PIBM Management Aptitude Test).
PMAT
h
Scholar-Level 17
Answered a month ago
No. Scores in CAT/XAT/GMAT is not mandatory for admission into BITS Pilani MBA in Business Analytics. However, those who have appeared for these entrance exams will get their score considered in the selection criteria. Appearing for BAAT exam is mandatory for MBA Business Analytics admission.
D
Contributor-Level 6
As per the latest XAT exam pattern, there will be 95 questions in XAT 2025 in MCQ format.
There will be no essay writing this year. It will be conducted during the selection process.
It is not mandatory to solve all the questions. Candidates should solve only those questions which they can solve correctly as there is negative marking in XAT. During the exam preparation, focus on the chapters from which majority of the questions are added. This will help them in achieving the sectional and overall cut offs are required.