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CAT 2026

CAT 2026 exam date & registration — what to actually do right now

Registration is open and closes 15 September at 5:00 PM. Here's where the cycle stands, and what to do with the time that's left.

CAT 2026 is on 29 November, conducted by IIM Indore across 170+ centres. Registration is open now and closes on 15 September at 5:00 PM — confirm on iimcat.ac.in, since the IIMs have extended the window in some past cycles. The general-category fee is ₹2,700, with lower fees for reserved categories — confirm your exact figure on iimcat.ac.in. No syllabus or pattern changes this year — same 68-question, 3-section, 2-hour format as 2025.

Open now
Registration status
15 Sep
Registration closes
29 Nov
Exam day

If you haven't registered yet

Do this before the window closes

  1. Register early rather than on the final day — gateways get congested near the deadline, and a failed payment close to cut-off is hard to recover from
  2. Have documents ready: category certificate if you're claiming one, academic records, and photo/signature at the exact specs the portal requires
  3. Pick test cities carefully — popular centres fill up, and a correction window isn't guaranteed to exist
  4. Decide your target percentile range against realistic college tiers — see CAT percentile vs college: what score gets you where

If you've already registered

You have roughly three months to exam day — a workable window if prep moves through fundamentals, then timed sectionals, then full mocks with genuine review, in that order. See how to prepare for CAT 2026 for the month-by-month version. What's worth avoiding is letting the registration deadline pull your college shortlist into the same rush; that decision has no deadline attached to it.

No pattern changes — don't let anyone tell you otherwise

VARC (24 questions), DILR (22), and QA (22) stay the same as 2025's format, sectional time limits unchanged at 40 minutes each. Be skeptical of any prep content claiming a major structural change this year — verify against the official notification at iimcat.ac.in.

Planning your prep timeline?

Talk to a verified alumnus who's actually been through this exact cycle.

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