CAT 2025 Exam Pattern: IIM Kozhikode Paper Decoded

The template did not revert. After IIM Calcutta broke the 66-question CAT pattern in 2024, the most natural assumption was that the next conducting IIM would pull it back into the 2023 shape. IIM Kozhikode did the opposite. The CAT 2025 exam pattern held the new 68-question structure, kept the mixed DILR set sizes, and reintroduced para jumbles with a twist - as zero-penalty TITA questions. Conducted on 30 November 2025, CAT 2025 is the paper that confirmed the CAT 2024 break was not a one-year experiment. For any CAT 2026 aspirant, this is now the single most direct historical reference paper available.

Why CAT 2025 Matters Most for CAT 2026 Preparation

For any aspirant sitting CAT 2026, CAT 2025 is the closest real-world data point you have. It is the most recent full paper, it was set under the new 68-question template, and the cohort profile is the most similar one you will encounter. If you are only going to deeply study one historical paper, this is the one to pick.

The bigger reason to treat CAT 2025 as your primary historical reference is that it resolves an ambiguity that CAT 2024 alone could not. A single year on a new template is not yet a template - it is a deviation. Three specific patterns emerged in CAT 2025 that collectively turn the 2024 break into the new baseline for CAT 2026 planning:

• Structural persistence. The 68-question, 22-DILR format held without any revision from IIM Kozhikode. A second conducting IIM has now accepted the CAT 2024 shape as the working template.
• Selective restoration. Para jumbles were not permanently gone. IIM Kozhikode brought them back but set them as TITA, which shows how the conducting IIM thinks about question-type flexibility on a year-to-year basis.
• Cohort maturity with slight contraction. Registrations fell from roughly 3.29 lakh in 2024 to 2.95 lakh in 2025, with about 2.58 lakh appearing. Competition at the top remained intense, but the middle-tier drop-off was real.

Put plainly, if CAT 2024 was a question mark about where the paper was going, CAT 2025 is the answer. A CAT 2026 roadmap that is not calibrated to CAT 2025 specifically is calibrated to a paper that no longer exists. Anchor your preparation around the CAT 2025 reference, and align it with a structured preparation roadmap that builds section coverage around this template rather than the 2021-2023 one.

CAT 2025 Exam Pattern: The New Template Confirmed

Before reading the section-by-section analysis, it helps to see the entire CAT 2025 exam pattern at a single glance. The structural frame is identical to CAT 2024, which is the confirming signal. IIM Kozhikode could have reverted any one dimension and chose not to. Here are the four specifics that define the paper at the headline level - and the one composition change that reveals the paper-setter's hand.

• 68 questions total - 24 VARC + 22 DILR + 22 QA, identical to CAT 2024.
• 204 total marks, with +3 correct, -1 wrong MCQ, and zero penalty on TITA. Marking scheme unchanged.
• DILR served as 3 sets of 4 plus 2 sets of 5 questions, same mixed-set format as CAT 2024.
• VARC reintroduced para jumbles, but set them as two TITA questions inside the 8-question VA block.

Section-by-Section Analysis: VARC, DILR, QA in CAT 2025

The real story of CAT 2025 sits inside the sections. Each carries IIM Kozhikode's specific calibration fingerprint, and the three fingerprints together explain why CAT 2025 is a more reliable reference than any single prior year. Below is the per-section read, with weightage, the CAT 2025-specific trend, and the priority implication for CAT 2026 preparation.

Slot Heat Map: CAT 2025 Difficulty Across Three Slots

CAT 2025 ran across three slots on a single test day, with raw-to-scaled score normalisation applied before percentile calculation. Slot choice does not change your final percentile outcome. But the slot-wise pattern is still useful, because it reveals how much intra-paper variance IIM Kozhikode tolerated and what that variance implies for your CAT 2026 mock calibration strategy.

Every post-exam analysis from TIME, IMS, 2IIM, Career Launcher, and Tarkashastra converged on the same read of the day. The slot with the hardest combined DILR and QA pairing was Slot 3, which pulled down average attempts for that slot even after normalisation. Three practical takeaways follow from this slot pattern:

• Single-slot mock series underestimates variance. If your mock provider only simulates one slot difficulty, your calibration is too narrow.
• A hard QA slot is the common stressor. CAT 2023 Slot 3, CAT 2024 Slot 3, and CAT 2025 Slot 3 all carried the toughest QA of their respective days. Plan a high-difficulty QA dry run in your mock cycle.
• DILR volatility is still the biggest swing factor. The gap between easiest and hardest DILR slots in CAT 2025 was large enough to noticeably affect attempt counts and time budgets.

CAT 2025 Cohort Data: Smaller Pool, Sharper Top

The cohort story of CAT 2025 is a modest contraction in size paired with continued intensity at the top. Registrations slipped from 3.29 lakh to roughly 2.95 lakh, and the appearance rate fell from 89 percent to about 87.46 percent. Both moved in the same direction, which suggests the decline is genuine and not a reporting artefact. For CAT 2026 aspirants, this is the first post-pandemic year where the headline cohort size actually moved down.

The result count told a related story. Twelve candidates scored a 100 percentile in CAT 2025, compared to 14 in CAT 2024. Twenty-six candidates reached 99.99 percentile. The most striking detail is that nine of the twelve 100-percentilers came from non-engineering backgrounds, reinforcing the pattern that the top of the distribution is now meaningfully more diverse. The headline cutoff bands, compiled from post-exam reads by TIME, IMS, 2IIM, Career Launcher, and Tarkashastra, are worth recording as a reference for any CAT 2026 target-setting exercise:

• 99 percentile overall: 85-90 raw marks across slots, median near 87.
• 99.5 percentile: 94-100 raw marks.
• 99.9 percentile: 110-118 raw marks.
• 100 percentile: 12 candidates confirmed.

The working takeaway for CAT 2026 aspirants is not the specific cutoff number, which will shift again depending on paper difficulty. It is that the top-of-the-distribution competition is now more diverse and accuracy-led. Non-engineering candidates dominate the 100-percentile list, which aligns with the non-engineer preparation advantage that a careful, reading-heavy strategy produces under the new template.

IIM Kozhikode's Paper-Setting Signature

Every conducting IIM leaves a fingerprint on the paper it sets. IIM Ahmedabad in 2021 introduced the original template. IIM Bangalore in 2022 validated it. IIM Lucknow in 2023 locked it. IIM Calcutta in 2024 broke it. IIM Kozhikode in 2025 did something subtler and more revealing - it confirmed the break and then made one tactical tweak that showed how the paper-setter thinks about flexibility.

Read together, these three choices point in the same direction. IIM Kozhikode wanted a paper where disciplined candidates who know when to attempt and when to skip could outperform volume-based strategies. The structural confirmation penalises any candidate who planned around a reversion to the 2023 template. The TITA restoration quietly rewards careful VA attempts. The accuracy tilt makes sloppy aggressive attempts expensive.

Five-Year Pivot: 2021 to 2025 in One Frame

The most useful way to see CAT 2025 is next to every year that came before it under the current template era. The table below captures every dimension a CAT 2026 aspirant should internalise, with the 2025 column highlighted in green so the confirmations and the single tactical change stand out at a glance.

Two things jump out when you read the table end-to-end. The first is how durable the 2021 template turned out to be - it held across three conducting IIMs for three consecutive years before the 2024 break. The second is how quickly the new template has consolidated - two conducting IIMs have now accepted the 68-question shape, and every structural row in the 2024 and 2025 columns is identical except for the deliberate VARC composition tweak. That level of consistency makes CAT 2025 an unusually reliable planning anchor for CAT 2026.

Five Lessons for CAT 2026 from CAT 2025

Translating CAT 2025 into concrete preparation adjustments is the whole point of studying it. The five lessons below are specific, structural, and should already be reflected in any honest CAT 2026 roadmap for April-through-November practice. None of them ask you to redesign your plan - they are calibrations that a good plan should already allow for.

• Anchor on CAT 2025, not CAT 2023. Your primary reference paper should be CAT 2025, with CAT 2024 as a supporting mock. CAT 2021-2023 remain useful for breadth but are no longer the most realistic simulation.
• Practise TITA para jumbles. They are back. Because they carry zero penalty, the correct approach is structured attempts with high-confidence elimination, not avoidance.
• Work both four-question and five-question DILR sets. The mixed format is now two years old. Your selection framework must handle both set sizes without recalibration delay.
• Treat QA as harder than arithmetic drills. CAT 2025 QA rewarded algebra, geometry, and careful reading. Do not over-index on arithmetic speed at the expense of the rest of the Quant syllabus.
• Calibrate percentile targets to the CAT 2025 cohort. 2.58 lakh appeared, 87.46 percent attendance, and a 85-90 mark 99 cutoff define the realistic competition. Use the CAT score predictor against these bands before setting a target.

Pro tip · If you are building your CAT 2026 mock calendar now, plan one CAT 2025 full-length benchmark mock every four weeks until October. That frequency gives you enough repetition to see real change without letting the paper become over-familiar. Pair it with the CAT 2026 trend analysis to align weightage predictions.

Takeaway · Three Confirmations for CAT 2026

What CAT 2025 Settled

✓

The 68-question template is the new baseline. Two conducting IIMs have now held it without revision. Build your CAT 2026 mock calibration around 68 questions and 204 marks, not the older 66 and 198.

✓

Question types can return in new forms. Para jumbles came back as TITA. Do not assume any question type is permanently gone from VARC - keep the full rotation in your practice.

✓

Accuracy beats volume at the top. A tougher QA and mixed DILR set sizes rewarded careful selection. The 85-90 mark 99 cutoff will not come from spraying attempts - it will come from disciplined attempt choice.

Most CAT aspirants do not have a syllabus problem. They have a calibration problem. The paper keeps evolving, and their plan does not evolve with it. CAT 2025 is the cleanest recent proof that a plan built rigidly on 2022 or 2023 assumptions will quietly underprepare you for test day. Clarity first. Then effort.

Your Next Step

If you are in the foundation phase of CAT 2026 preparation, take the CAT 2025 paper as a full-length benchmark mock before your regular mock series begins, ideally within the next two weeks. Use the per-slot breakdown in this article as your post-mock analysis template and record the attempt delta between Slot 1 and Slot 3 carefully.

If you are already in the mock-driven phase, redo CAT 2025 Slot 1 and Slot 3 two weeks apart and compare your attempt pattern across the two slots in detail. The gap in accuracy, attempts, and section-wise time reveals your real weak section far more honestly than any generic mock will.

If you are a repeater rebuilding your plan from scratch, use the five-year pivot table above as the calibration frame for your revised roadmap. Then check your predicted CAT score range against the CAT 2025 cutoff bands before setting a November target percentile.

Build a CAT 2026 Plan Calibrated to the Latest Paper

CAT 2025 is now your closest historical match for what CAT 2026 will look like. Get a personalised CAT 2026 study plan that mirrors the current template, your starting level, and your target percentile.

Mirror CAT 2025 in My CAT 2026 Prep

Common Questions About the CAT 2025 Exam Pattern

What was the CAT 2025 exam pattern?

The CAT 2025 exam pattern kept 68 questions across three sections in 120 minutes, with 40 minutes per section. The split remained 24 VARC + 22 DILR + 22 QA, totalling 204 marks. Marking stayed standard at +3 for correct responses, -1 for wrong MCQ responses, and zero penalty for TITA questions. This was the second consecutive year on the new template that IIM Calcutta introduced in CAT 2024, confirming that the 68-question structure is now the working baseline rather than a one-year deviation. IIM Kozhikode also reintroduced para jumbles inside VARC, but set them as TITA questions this time, giving candidates zero-penalty attempts on the most pattern-heavy VA question type.

Who conducted CAT 2025 and when?

CAT 2025 was conducted by IIM Kozhikode on 30 November 2025, a Sunday, across three slots. Approximately 2.95 lakh candidates registered and around 2.58 lakh actually appeared for the exam, giving an attendance rate close to 87.46 percent. This was IIM Kozhikode's first time conducting CAT since 2019, and the institute's calibration decisions defined how the new 68-question template would be interpreted in practice. The result was declared on 24 December 2025, with 12 candidates scoring a 100 percentile and 26 candidates at 99.99 percentile.

What changed in CAT 2025 compared to CAT 2024?

The structural headline numbers stayed identical to CAT 2024. CAT 2025 kept 68 questions, 120 minutes, 24 VARC + 22 DILR + 22 QA, the same 3 sets of 4 plus 2 sets of 5 DILR format, and the same +3 / -1 / 0 marking scheme. The composition change was inside VARC. IIM Kozhikode brought para jumbles back into the verbal ability segment but set them as TITA rather than MCQ questions, which is a meaningful shift because TITA questions carry zero penalty for wrong answers. The VA eight-question block in CAT 2025 mixed two para jumbles, two sentence completions, two para summaries, and two odd-sentence questions. Overall difficulty was rated slightly tougher than CAT 2024, especially in DILR and QA.

What was the CAT 2025 cutoff for 99 percentile?

Based on post-exam CAT 2025 analysis published by TIME, IMS, 2IIM, Career Launcher, and Tarkashastra, the 99 percentile overall CAT 2025 cutoff was roughly 85-90 raw marks across slots, with a median estimate near 87 raw marks. Sectional 99 percentile cutoffs were approximately VARC 40-45 raw marks, DILR 26-30 raw marks, and QA 34-40 raw marks. The 99.9 percentile sat near 110-118 raw marks, and 12 candidates officially scored a 100 percentile in CAT 2025. Cutoffs rose slightly in VARC because IIM Kozhikode made it more approachable, and fell slightly in QA because QA was tougher than CAT 2024.

How difficult was CAT 2025 overall?

CAT 2025 was rated slightly tougher than CAT 2024 overall. VARC held at moderate, with RC passages covering AI and ChatGPT, astronomy, general science, and a tougher literature passage. DILR was moderate across slots, with Slot 2 the easiest and Slot 3 the most challenging. QA was rated moderate to tough, marginally harder than CAT 2024 QA. Slot-wise, Slot 1 was moderate with a tricky VARC, Slot 2 was roughly at par with Slot 1 but slightly tougher in QA, and Slot 3 was the most challenging of the day, particularly in QA and DILR. Good attempts in VARC were estimated at 15 to 18 questions per slot.

Why does CAT 2025 matter for CAT 2026 preparation?

CAT 2025 matters for CAT 2026 preparation for three reasons. First, it confirmed that the CAT 2024 break was not a one-year experiment and the 68-question, 22-DILR structure is now the working template. Second, the reintroduction of para jumbles as TITA questions reveals that no question type is permanently gone from the paper, which means CAT 2026 aspirants should keep every VA format in their practice rotation. Third, the cohort size of 2.58 lakh appeared candidates and 87.46 percent attendance shows a slight cohort contraction from CAT 2024, but the competition density at the top remains intense with 12 hundred-percentilers and 26 candidates at 99.99. The correct CAT 2025 takeaway is to treat it as the most direct historical match for what CAT 2026 is likely to look like.

Optima Learn Editorial Team

CAT preparation · Research-led editorial

Optima Learn builds clarity-led CAT preparation systems. Our editorial team reads every CAT paper, compares it against prior years, and translates each year's calibration into concrete adjustments for CAT 2026 aspirants. Cited CAT 2025 analysis draws on post-exam reads from TIME, IMS, 2IIM, Career Launcher, and Tarkashastra, alongside our own paper dissection.

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