CAT Answer Key PDFs (2024-2018): Download with Solutions

Q: From where can I download CAT result?

CAT result is announced at the iimcat.ac.in website. Candidates who appear for the test can download their scorecards from the official website by using their login credentials. The CAT result download link is made live about 20 days after the exam. Candidates can download their scorecards by using their login credentials. Given below is the process to follow for downloading the CAT result. Visit the official website of CAT exam Click on CAT scorecard download Enter your CAT ID and password Click on the scorecard tab Download the CAT result PDF Process to check the CAT result on smart phone: Open a web browser on the mobile phone Type the url of CAT exam: iimcat.ac.in Click on CAT scorecard tab Enter your CAT application number and password Click on the scorecard tab to open the document

Q: How to challenge CAT answer key?

The CAT examination body allows candidates to challenge the official answer key. In case a candidate feels any answer shared by the examination body is incorrect, they can challenge it by filling an objection form which is released on the same day as release of the CAT answer key and candidate response sheet. The candidates can fill the objection form by using their CAT login ID and password. The steps are given below: 1. Visit the official website of CAT exam 2. Click on 'Login' 3. Enter CAT login ID and password to sign in 4. Go to 'Objection' tab 5. Click on plus sign to add an objection 6. Check the question number from the PDF of the question paper 7. Enter relevant details 8. Upload supporting document 9. Pay objection fee through credit/debit card or net banking The objection fee is INR 1,200 per objection. Candidates can raise any number of objections. The CAT answer key objection fee will be refunded to only those candidates whose objections will be accepted. Objections that have been submitted once cannot be edited.

Q: How to download CAT response sheet and answer key?

CAT answer key is released in online mode only. The link to download it is made live at the CAT exam website within a week of the exam. Candidates who have appeared for the test can download it by using their CAT login ID and password. To download CAT answer key and response sheet candidates have to follow the below-mentioned steps: 1. Visit the official website of CAT exam (iimcat. ac.in) 2. Click on the 'login' tab 3. Enter CAT login ID and password 4. Click on sign in to go to student dashboard 5. Look for response sheet/answer key tab 6. Click on the link to open the answer key 7. Download the PDF and save it The CAT answer key will be available for download from December 5-8, 2023 only. In case a candidate fails to download their answer key within the deadline, they will not be able to access it later under any circumstances. Thus, candidates must download their scorecards.

Q: Which CAT slot has the toughest question paper?

There is no pattern to which CAT question paper can be the toughest. The CAT question paper of every slot has unique questions. The examination body strives to maintain the same difficulty level of the paper across all slots but it may happen that a question can be more difficult from another. It is seen that, to keep the uniqueness of the question paper intact, the examination authority also changes the topic wise weightage a little bit across the exam slots. In most of the previous years, it is seen that the morning slot of the CAT exam is tougher than the rest two. However, candidates must not worry about the difficulty level of the slots as, the scores of all the candidates are normalised on a common scale to root out the possibility of advantage or disadvantage to any student due to difference in difficulty level. To know how the CAT scores are normalised, read this article: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/understanding-cat-normalization-process-blogId-9386.

Q: What is the difference between CAT preliminary answer key and final answer key?

The preliminary answer key is the one released after the exam and the final answer is the one released after all the objections raised by candidates have been examined and accepted. The final CAT answer key is released along with the result. It is the final CAT answer key on the basis of which the CAT result is prepared. Which means, score of a candidate is based on the calculation of number of correct, incorrect and unanswered questions after all the objections have been examined. The preliminary CAT answer key is released with candidate's response sheet and there is option to challenge it. However, the final answer key is released only as question ID and correct answer option and there is no provision of challenging it. In CAT 2022, objection on two DILR questions raised by candidates was accepted and the question was dropped from final score calculation as it was found to be erroneous.

Q: What are the qualifying CAT cutoffs for all the IIMs?

Qualifying CAT cut off percentiles of Iims for Written Ability Test (What) and Personal Interview PI are listed below. Candidates who MET the qualifying CAT cut off, were eligible for What-PI round. These qualifying CAT cut offs are for General Category. The cut offs for Reserved category students are lower: IIM Ahmedabad: 95 percentile IIM Bangalore: 85 percentile IIM Calcutta: 85 percentile IIM Lucknow: 90 percentile IIM Kozhikode: 85 percentile IIM Indore: 90 percentile IIM Udaipur: 93 percentile IIM Shillong: 75 percentile IIM Trichy: 93 percentile IIM Visakhapatnam: 80 percentile IIM Rohtak: 95 percentile 1IIM Nagpur: 85 percentile IIM Jammu: 93 percentile IIM Ranchi: 90 percentile IIM Sirmaur: 92 percentile IIM Bodhgaya: 93 percentile IIM Sambalpur: 93 percentile IIM Kashipur: 94 percentile IIM Raipur: 93 percentile IIM Amritsar: 90 percentile For complete details of IIM selection and admission process read this article: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-shortlist-selection-admission-criteria-blogId-18787 .

Q: Are CAT cut offs announced along with the CAT result?

CAT cut-offs are not announced along with the CAT result. The cut-offs are also not released publicly. They are known after a few days of the result announcement when the IIMs and other colleges start their shortlisting process. The IIMs will open the shortlist window based on the CAT cut-offs two to three days after the result announcement. The CAT percentile of candidates shortlisted for the Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interview (PI) can be considered the cut-off for that IIM. For example, if a candidate with a CAT percentile of 99 belonging to the General category is selected for the WAT/GD-PI of IIM Calcutta, then the CAT cut-off for IIM Calcutta is 99 percentile. Only those candidates who make it to the WAT/GD-PI round of IIMs will get to know the cut-offs.

Q: What is the benefit of CAT answer key and response sheet?

The main benefit of CAT answer key and response sheet is that through this document, candidates can analyse their performance in the exam. The CAT answer key contains, candidate's response as well as correct answer to every question. This can help them in calculating how much marks they will score out of the total marks. They can use that information to see how much percentile will they score, even before the result has been declared. They can use the estimated CAT score and percentile to take further decisions regarding MBA Admission such as which colleges to shortlist or which other MBA entrance exams to appear for. Taking these decisions is crucial as many colleges close their application window before the CAT result declaration. Candidates can calculate their CAT score with the help of answer key in the following way: For every correct answer in CAT three marks are awarded, which means if the candidate has got 50 answers correct, the score will be 50x3 i. e. 150 marks. For each incorrect answer, one mark is deducted. So, if a candidate has marked 10 questions incorrectly, then -10 marks will be awarded. So, the score of the candidate out of 198 (total marks in CAT will be: 150 - 10, I. e. 140. For CAT score and percentile click here: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-percentile-predictor .

Q: What is the marking scheme of CAT?

CAT has a total of 68 question. Each section carries 3 marks for correct attempt and -1 marks for incorrect attempt. There is no deduction of marks for unanswered questions. Therefore, the total marks of CAT is 204.

13.4K Students Q&A

Admit Card - 5 Nov '25 - 30 Nov '25

Updated on Sep 16, 2025 22:23 IST

By Vipra Shrivastava, Senior Manager - Content

CAT 2025 answer key will be released in the first week of December 2025. The CAT exam will be held on November 30, 2025 so one can expect the provisional answer key to be released by December 2 or 3, 2025. The CAT response sheet and answer key will be available through login at the exam website.

The CAT exam authority will seek objections from test takers against the official CAT answer key 2026 through an online form submission process. Upon examination of all the objections received, the provisional answer key will be revised basis which CAT 2025 result will be prepared. Read here all about CAT response sheet and answer key 2025.

Table of content

How to Download CAT Answer Key 2025?
CAT 2025 Exam Dates & Schedule
Information Mentioned on CAT Answer Key (Official)
CAT 2025 Answer Key: How to raise objection?
How to Calculate CAT score with Answer Key?
FAQs on CAT Answer Key 2025

How to Download CAT Answer Key 2025?

Candidates will be able to check and download the CAT 2025 answer key by using their CAT login ID and password. To download CAT answer key or response sheet 2025, candidates will have to follow the below-mentioned steps:

Visit the official website of CAT 2025 (iimcat.ac.in)
Click on the 'login' tab
Enter CAT login ID and password
CAT 2025 answer key will appear on the screen
Take a printout of the CAT answer key or CAT response sheet

CAT 2024 Answer Key Download - Previous Years' PDFs

Download previous years' CAT question papers and answer keys below:

CAT_2024_Answer_Key_Question_Paper_ Slot_3	CAT_2023_Answer Key _Question_Paper_Slot_3
CAT_2023_Answer Key_Question_Paper_-_Slot_1	CAT_2022_Answer Key_Question_Paper_Slot_3
CAT_2022_Answer Key_ Question_Paper_Slot_1	CAT_2020_Answer key_Question_Paper
CAT_2021_Answer Key_ Question_Paper	CAT_2018_Answer Key_Question_Paper
CAT_2019_Answer Key_Question_Paper

Commonly asked questions

Q: What are the qualifying CAT cutoffs for all the IIMs?

Q: Are CAT cut offs announced along with the CAT result?

CAT 2025 Exam Dates & Schedule

Take a look at the table below for the complete schedule of CAT 2025 exam

Dates	Upcoming Exam Dates
Dec ' 25	CAT 2025 answer key challenge TENTATIVE
Dec ' 25	CAT 2025 result announcement TENTATIVE

Information Mentioned on CAT Answer Key (Official)

The CAT 2025 answer key/response sheet will contain section wise questions and its status – your answer, right answer and unanswered questions. The following information will be mentioned on the CAT answer key 2025:

Name of the candidate
CAT registration number
CAT 2025 exam centre
Test date
Test time
Question
Question type
Question ID
Status (attempted/not attempted)
Right option/answer
Candidate's response

Also Read: CAT score vs CAT percentile-Know the difference

A snapshot of CAT answer key:

Also Read:

CAT 2024 response sheet and answer key PDF

CAT 2024 question paper PDF download slot 1,2,3

CAT 2024 Slot 1 answer key PDF question paper analysis

CAT 2024 Slot 2 Answer Key PDF question paper analysis

CAT 2024 Slot 3 answer key PDF question paper analysis

Download:

Download CAT question papers PDFs

Free CAT mock tests for practice

Commonly asked questions

CAT 2025 Answer Key: How to raise objection?

CAT answer key objection form is to be filled using their CAT login ID and password. Objection fee of INR 1,200 per question had to be paid online. Following are the steps to fill the CAT answer key objection form:

Visit the official website of CAT 2025
Click on 'Login'
Enter CAT login ID and password
Go to Objection tab
Click on ‘+’ sign to add an objection
Check the question number from the PDF of the question paper on the official website
Enter relevant details
Upload supporting document
Pay objection fee, i.e. INR 1,200 per objection through credit/debit card or net banking

Raising Objection to CAT Answer Key: Points to Remember

Candidates must raise objection only if they are 100 percent sure of the error
The fee will be refunded to only those candidates whose objection have been accepted
The objection form will not get submitted without the payment of fees
The objection fee will be refunded in 5 working days
Objections that have been submitted once cannot be edited
There is no limit to raising objections against the official CAT answer keys
CAT result is nnounced only after the CAT answer key objection process is over and the objections have been evaluated
No objection will be entertained after the release of final CAT answer key and result
There will be no re-checking of CAT question paper or candidate responses under any circumstance

Commonly asked questions

Q: What is the benefit of CAT answer key and response sheet?

Q: What is the marking scheme of CAT?

How to Calculate CAT score with Answer Key?

To calculate the score with the help of the CAT response sheet and answer key, candidates have to add and subtract marks per question as per the official status - correct, incorrect or unanswered.

CAT Marking Scheme

Given below is the table indicating the latest marking scheme of the CAT exam:

Type of Questions	Correct Answer	Incorrect Answer
MCQ	+3	-1
Non-MCQ	+3	0

Note: There will be no deduction of marks for unanswered questions and for incorrect attempt in non-MCQs.

How to Calculate CAT score?

Based on the marking scheme mentioned above, one can calculate their raw CAT score by observing the following:

If a candidate has made 50 correct attempts then the score will be 50x3 = 150 marks.
If a candidate has marked 10 questions incorrectly, then there will be deduction of 10 marks.
Subtract total marks deducted from total marks scored to get CAT raw score, which is 150 - 10 = 140.
So, the candidate's raw score will be 140/198. This raw score is however not used for result preparation.

CAT Percentile Calculation

The raw CAT scores are normalised to ensure candidates from all three exam slots are assessed on the same level.
The normalised CAT score is then used for percentile calculation.
The CAT result is declared in percentile and B-schools select candidates on the basis of percentile, not score.
Once you know the raw score you can use Shiksha's CAT percentile predictor to know your expected CAT percentile

CAT Percentile predictor prepared by Shiksha.com helps students to get their predicted CAT percentile on the basis of their expected exam score. So, predict your CAT score by clicking the link below:

CAT Percentile Predictor