CAT previous year papers

By Amrit Sharma

Are CAT previous year papers officially available?

Not as public downloads. We found no question paper or question-wise answer key for any year from 2019 to 2025 on iimcat.ac.in or on the TCS iON servers it uses. Papers, keys and response sheets were shown only inside each candidate's login during the objection window.

The IIMs treat the papers as protected. The official mock disclaimers say no part of them "may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means". The CAT 2021 disclaimers say reproducing CAT content breaks the Copyright Act, 1957 and the non-disclosure agreement candidates accept at the test. That is why we link to official sources and do not host IIM papers ourselves.

The papers you find on coaching websites are reproductions put together from candidates' memory or from response sheets. Some label them memory-based. None is an official IIM release, and their questions and keys can differ from the real paper.

The official CAT mock test

The closest thing to an official past paper is the free mock test on TCS iON, the platform the real exam runs on. The official disclaimer says it contains "selected questions from previous years' Common Admission Test (CAT) papers", with 120 minutes in all and 40 per section. Separate links exist for PwBD candidates. Open it from the official mock link list or go straight to the mock test.

Official answer key notices by year

We found no official answer key notice for CAT 2022 or for 2020 and earlier. For CAT 2026 (29 Nov 2026), the bulletin, press releases and FAQ give no dates for the key or objections yet; results are expected in the first week of January 2027.

How to use past papers with our mocks

Past questions show the level and style of the exam. Mocks show whether you can hold that level for 120 minutes. Use both, in this order:

1. Take the official mock once, early. Use it to learn the screen, the palette and the timer, and to see real CAT questions. Note your score, but do not read much into it: it is one paper.
2. Take a full mock under exam rules. Our free CAT mock follows the same section order, timing and marking. Put the score into the percentile predictor.
3. Practise by section and topic. Work through the topics in the CAT syllabus, timed in 40-minute blocks. Compare your mistakes with the question types that actually appeared, listed on the VARC, DILR and Quant pages.
4. Analyse every mock. Log each wrong or skipped question as a concept gap, a slip, a poor choice or a time problem, then redo it.
5. Save the official mock for a second sitting near the exam if you want a last check on the real interface.

Published books of solved past papers exist; see the best books for CAT. They are compilations by private publishers, not IIM releases.

Take free CAT mock 1 (full length)

Last checked 9 Nov 2026. Found an error? Tell us and it goes on the errata page.