CAT Syllabus


The CAT exam is divided into three sections, namely Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA). Each section is timed for 40 minutes, making for a total exam duration of 2 hours.

  • Quantitative part mainly focuses on the basic mathematical concepts and topics of arithmetic, number system, algebra, mensuration, geometry, and modern math. Arithmetic forms the major percentage of questions in this section, followed by algebra.
  • In the VARC section, reading comprehension passages have always dominated making up almost 70% of the total questions. Other important questions are based on Para-jumbles and Para-Summary. A few questions may also be verbal reasoning, sentence completion, fill-in-the-blanks, etc.
  • DI-LR sets primarily delve into caselets, tables, charts, graphs, and the common reasoning topics like arrangements, syllogism, blood relations, etc.