CAT Previous Papers With Solution Videos PDF (2022-1990)
Before starting your preparation going through the CAT previous year question papers is immensely needed to understand the nuances and the exam pattern. Analyze the past CAT entrance exam papers PDF to know the topic-wise weightage. Check out the CAT syllabus and also try to solve as many papers as possible. CAT 2022 question papers, CAT 2021 question paper and CAT 2020 question paper are available for all in PDF and test format. You can also order CAT previous papers hardcopy book here.
No sign-up is required to download these papers.
Video solutions are also included for most of the questions.
Download CAT Previous Papers PDF
CAT Topic-wise Previous Questions
Why Cracku for CAT Previous Papers?
Features | Cracku CAT Previous Papers | Others |
Video+Written Solutions | ✔️ | - |
| Option To Attempt As Mock Test | ✔️ | - |
Detailed Analysis | ✔️ | - |
Available in the PDF format | ✔️ | - |
Previous CAT Papers
CAT Topic-Wise Previous Questions
Go through the topic-wise questions from all available past CAT papers conducted by IIMs. All these questions are included with detailed solutions and can be attempted in CAT year-wise questions format.
CAT VARC Previous Year Questions
The most important topic in CAT VARC section is Reading Comprehension, followed by Parajumbles, Odd one Out and Para summary. Direct questions based on grammar and vocabulary didn't appear in CAT from many years.
CAT Vocabulary CAT Reading Comprehension (RC) CAT Para Jumbles CAT Para Completion and Summary Questions CAT Grammar & Sentence Correction CAT Critical Reasoning
CAT DILR Previous Year Questions
CAT exam has moved from traditional calculative intensive DI sets to the more logical ones. Many candidates do feel DILR as the toughest section in their previous CAT attempts. Key in DILR section is solving as many sets as possible.
CAT Data Interpretation Previous Questions
CAT DI Basics CAT DI Charts CAT Data Interpretation CAT DI Data Change Over Period CAT Tables With Missing Values CAT DI Venn Diagrams CAT DI Special Charts CAT DI Maxima & Minima CAT Quant-Based DI CAT DI Connected Sets CAT DI Miscellaneous
CAT Logical Reasoning Topic-Wise Previous Questions
As only 40 mins are available for the entire DILR section, the DILR section can make or break section based on the sets chosen.
CAT LR Arrangement CAT LR Selections With Conditions CAT LR Coins & Weights CAT LR Truth & Lie CAT LR Puzzles CAT LR Scheduling CAT LR Games & Tournaments CAT 2D & 3-D LR CAT Quant-Based LR CAT LR Miscellaneous
CAT Quantitative Aptitude Topic-Wise Previous Year Questions
Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Modern are the most important topics in CAT based on the latest CAT papers.
CAT Linear Equations CAT Inequalities CAT Quadratic Equations CAT Averages, Ratios & Proportions CAT Profit & Loss CAT Number Systems CAT Time, Distance & Work CAT Geometry CAT Progressions & Series CAT Probability Combinatorics CAT Venn Diagrams CAT Data Sufficiency CAT Logarithms, Surds & Indices CAT Functions, Graphs & Statistics CAT Miscellaneous
Score Vs Percentile for CAT 2022 Question Papers
Planning to score 99 percentile CAT? Check out last year's score vs percentile. CAT 2022 was conducted for a total of 198 marks.
| CAT 2022 Overall Percentile | CAT 2022 Overall Scaled Score |
| 100 (Maruti Sir, Co-founder of Cracku) | 145.83 Marks |
| 99.99 | 139 Marks |
| 99 | 83 Marks |
| 95 | 59.76 Marks |
| 90 | 48.4 Marks |
Percentile | CAT 2022 VARC Scaled Scores (Max. marks = 72) | CAT 2022 DILR Scaled Scores (Max. marks = 60) | CAT 2022 Quant Scaled Scores (Max. marks = 66) |
| 100 Percentile | 57 | 48 | 57 |
| 99 Percentile | 39 | 29 | 33 |
| 95 Percentile | 29 | 19 | 22.6 |
| 90 Percentile | 24 | 15 | 17.2 |
100 Percentile in CAT 2022 question paper
11 candidates scored 100 percentile in CAT 2022 exam. Maruti sir is one of them, with a perfect score of 66/66 in the quant section and 145 marks overall.
100 Percentile in CAT 2021 question paper
9 candidates scored 100 percentile in CAT 2021 exam. Maruti sir is one of them, with an impeccable 99.99%ile in both Quant and VARC sections and 161 marks (after scaling) overall.
Download CAT Previous Year Papers PDF
All the question papers are solved, and a comprehensive solution has been provided for all the CAT subjects, i.e., Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). Many of the latest papers have video solutions as well, like CAT 2017 question paper, CAT 2018 question paper, 2019 question paper, CAT 2020 question paper, CAT 2021 question paper and CAT 2022 question paper PDFs (slot-1, slot-2, slot-3). If you are looking for a hard copy, you can order CAT previous papers book here.
CAT Previous Year' RC Sources
Listed below are the RCs that appeared in CAT 2022 papers in various slots along with the sources and the answers.
CAT 2022 Question Paper Slot-1 RC Sources
| Title | Source | Type | |
| RC 1 | Stoicism | Viquepedia | Philosophy |
| RC 2 | Copy concepts of Chinese | Aeon Essays | Informative |
| RC 3 | Stories concering the Undead | atmostfear-entertainment | History/Informative |
| RC 4 | Technology and Democracy | O'reilly Articles | Techonology |
CAT 2022 Question Paper Slot-2 RC Sources
| Title | Source | Type | |
| RC 1 | scroll.in | Scientific RC | |
| RC 2 | Technical-Social Dualism | Scientific American | Techonology/Informative |
| RC 3 | Philosophy Of Social Sciences | From the sage handbook | Philosophical RC |
| RC 4 | Music Making | Book (A Million Years of Music: The Emergence of Human Modernity) | Society/Culture |
CAT 2022 Question Paper Slot-3 RC Sources
| Title | Source | Type | |
| RC 1 | Interpretations of Indian past | History/Informative | |
| RC 2 | Sociology of Crime | iresearchnet.com | Society/Culture |
| RC 3 | Nature | Nextnature | Scientific/Informative |
| RC 4 | Automation impact on Humans | Wall street journal | Automation/Techonology |
Steps to download CAT previous year papers
- Visit the "Cracku CAT papers" page
- Scroll down to find the year for which papers you are looking for
- Select the slot and click on the "PDF" button
- Open the downloaded PDF and try to solve the questions
- If you are not able to understand text solutions, click on the "Video Solution" button below the question
CAT 2022 Question Paper Analysis
The section-wise difficulty level of all the 3 CAT slots is given below
| Section | CAT 2022 Slot-1 Paper | CAT 2022 Slot-2 Paper | CAT 2022 Slot-3 Paper |
| VARC | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| DILR | Medium-Hard. One-Two Doable Sets | Medium. Two Doable Sets | Bit Tricky. One Doable Set |
| Quant | Medium | Medium | Medium-Difficult compared to other slots |
Previous CAT Papers Topic-wise Weightage
CAT 2022 VARC Paper Topic-wise Weightage
The number of VARC questions asked per topic in CAT 2022 slot-1, slot-2 & slot-3 papers.
| Topic | Slot-1 | Slot-2 | Slot-3 |
| Reading Comprehension (RC) | 16 (4 sets with 4 questions each) | 16 (4 sets with 4 questions each) | 16 (4 sets with 4 questions each) |
| Para Jumbles (PJ) | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Para Completion | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Para Summary | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Odd One Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CAT 2022 DILR Paper Topic-wise Weightage
The number of data interpretation & logical reasoning questions asked per topic in CAT 2022 slot-1, slot-2 & slot-3 papers are given below.
| Topic | Slot-1 | Slot-2 | Slot-3 |
| Set-1 | Games and Tournaments | Quant based DI | Special Charts |
| Set-2 | Venn Diagram/Quant based DI | Routes and Networks | Table with missing values |
| Set-3 | Quant based LR | Special Charts | Quant based DI |
| Set-4 | Puzzles | Venn Diagram/Quant based DI | Table with missing values/Games and Tournaments |
CAT 2022 Quant Paper Topic-wise Weightage
The number of quantitative aptitude questions asked per topic in CAT 2022 slot-1, slot-2 & slot-3 papers.
| Key Topics | Sub-topics | Slot-1 | Slot-2 | Slot-3 |
| Arithmetic | Averages, Ratio and Proportion | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Profit, Loss and Interest | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Time, Distance, Speed and Work | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Geometry | Geometry/Mensuration | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Algebra | Quadrilaterals, Polynomial Equations | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Progressions and Series | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Linear Equations and Inequalities | 2 | 2 | 3 | |
| Modern Math | Logarithms, Surds and Indices | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Functions and Graphs | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Probability and Combinatorics (Permutations & Combinations) | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Number Systems | Number Systems | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Venn Diagrams | Venn Diagrams | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Major changes in CAT previous papers
| No major changes in the exam pattern | 2022 |
| Further reduction in the number of questions to 66 from 76 | 2021 |
| No. of exam slots changed to three from two. The total number of questions was decreased to 76 (from 100). | 2020 |
| An on-screen calculator is introduced | 2015 |
Sectional-time limit introduced. QA&DI, LR &VA were the two sections. | 2011 |
| The CAT exam went online | 2009 |
Year-wise CAT papers - IIM Conducted
| CAT Paper | Conducted By |
| CAT 2023 Question Paper | IIM Lucknow (expected) |
| CAT 2022 Question Paper | IIM Bangalore |
| CAT 2021 Question Paper | IIM Ahmedabad |
| CAT 2020 Question Paper | IIM Indore |
| CAT 2019 Question Paper | IIM Kozhikode |
| CAT 2018 Question Paper | IIM Calcutta |
| CAT 2017 Question Paper | IIM Lucknow |
| CAT 2016 Question Paper | IIM Bangalore |
| CAT 2015 Question Paper | IIM Ahmedabad |
| CAT 2014 Question Paper | IIM Indore |
How To Utilize CAT previous papers
They are great reference to understand the kind of questions that can appear in the exam. CAT don't have defined syllabus, so going through the old quesion papers can give the candidates the topics tests and the difficulity level.
- Take them as topic wise tests
- Attempt them as sectional tests
- Take full-length previous year mocks
- Watch video solutions for difficult questions
- Analyse mistakes and improve Concept & Practice Gaps
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it enough to solve previous CAT papers?
Solving the CAT previous papers is very important. It will give you an idea about the format of the exam and the type of questions asked. However, one should also know the concepts and also should take CAT mock tests for better practice and develop a test-taking strategy. CAT is known to throw surprises every year, and taking mocks additionally will help you tackle any astonishment in the final exam.
How to download CAT previous year question papers?
To download CAT previous papers in PDF format, click on the PDF button beside the CAT paper. And open the file in chrome or PDF reader.
Do questions repeat in the CAT?
No, the same questions don't repeat in the CAT, but the concepts tested can be similar to previous ones for a section like a quant. Also, though the exam is held in multiple slots, the questions are different across the slots.
Does CAT release previous year papers?
Yes, the IIMs/CAT convenor releases CAT papers for each slot every year. Our experts added video and text solutions to them and provided them here to download the 2022-2017 CAT papers PDF.
Where can I get CAT previous year's papers?
Cracku's website contains all the past papers from 1990 to 2022, with detailed video and text solutions. You can download them in PDF format. Also, note that CAT Question Papers 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 are not released by the IIMs. So, the ones available in other websites are just pattern based.
How many papers does CAT have?
The CAT exam has only one paper, but the exam is conducted in multiple slots (so each slot has a separate CAT question paper). Each candidate will be allotted one slot. CAT 2022, 2021 & 2020 are held in 3 slots. Before 2020, the exam was in 2 slots. The score obtained will be scaled across the slots.
Can I take CAT Previous Papers as an actual test?
Yes, Cracku provides the option of taking them as an actual test format either as full length mock or sectional test. Click on the 'Take test' option and start your test.
Is CAT easy to crack / Is CAT very difficult?
The difficulty level of CAT varies for each student. Cracking CAT is not a very tough job if one is well-versed in the basics of the topics tested (VARC, LRDI, and Quants). Starting your preparation early, having a proper study plan, and the right material makes CAT preparation doable. Download the PDF of the detailed topic-wise CAT study plan here.
Can a dull/average student crack CAT?
We have seen many students with average academics excel in CAT with the Cracku courses. You can find the interview of the student who had 10 backlogs in graduation but was still able to score 99.51% in CAT through Cracku courses. Even a below-average student can crack CAT with dedication, the right approach and Cracku's study material.
