CAT 2025 Result Compared With CAT 2024: Key Changes in Toppers, Participation and Trends

CAT 2025 Result Compared With CAT 2024: Key Changes in Toppers, Participation and Trends

Team Careers360Updated on 25 Dec 2025, 10:44 AM IST

The CAT 2025 results were declared on December 24, 2025, by IIM Kozhikode, bringing clarity to nearly three lakh MBA aspirants across India. As candidates begin analysing their performance and admission prospects, a natural question arises — how does CAT 2025 compare with CAT 2024?

From the number of test takers and toppers to gender, category, and academic background trends, the CAT 2025 result data reveals several notable shifts compared to last year. This article offers a data-backed comparison of CAT 2025 and CAT 2024, helping aspirants understand what truly changed this year.

LiveIIM CAT 2025 Result (OUT) LIVE: CAT cut-offs, MBA admission process explained; five IIMs exit CAP 2026Dec 25, 2025 | 5:09 PM IST

Around 12 candidates who appeared for CAT 2025 on November 30 scored a perfect 100 percentile. Swaraj Pal Kesari is among them.

Read More

Read detailed analysis on CAT Toppers 2025

CAT 2025 vs CAT 2024: Key Overview

ParameterCAT 2024CAT 2025
Registered candidates3.28 Lakh2.95 Lakh
Appeared candidates2.88 Lakh2.58 Lakh
Exam conducting IIMIIM CalcuttaIIM Kozhikode
Result DeclarationDec 19, 2024Dec 24, 2025

Key takeaway: CAT 2025 witnessed a drop in both registrations and appearances, indicating either a more cautious applicant pool or increased diversification towards other MBA exams.

Participation Trend: Fewer Candidates in CAT 2025

One of the biggest changes in CAT 2025 is lower participation.

  • CAT 2024: Around 2.88 lakh candidates appeared

  • CAT 2025: Around 2.58 lakh candidates appeared

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This nearly 30,000-candidate drop suggests:

  • Reduced multiple-attempt behaviour

  • Greater focus on profile-based MBA admissions

  • Rising interest in exams like XAT, GMAT Focus, and NMAT

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Despite fewer test takers, competition at the top percentiles remained intense.

Toppers Comparison: Fewer 100 Percentilers in CAT 2025

CAT 2025 produced 12 candidates with a 100 percentile, which is lower than CAT 2024, where the number was in the higher teens.

CAT 2025 Top Percentile Breakdown:

  • 100 percentile: 12 candidates

  • 99.99 percentile: 26 candidates

  • 99.98 percentile: 26 candidates

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This indicates a slightly tighter score distribution at the very top, reinforcing that even a marginal error had a greater impact on percentile in CAT 2025.

Gender Trends: Marginal Shift, Same Pattern

Gender-wise participation in CAT 2025 remained largely consistent with CAT 2024.

CAT 2025 Appearance Data:

  • Female: 0.97 lakh

  • Male: 1.61 lakh

  • Transgender: 9

While male candidates continue to dominate numerically, female representation at top percentiles showed improvement, including 2 female 100 percentilers in CAT 2025.

This aligns with CAT 2024, where women also demonstrated stronger percentile efficiency relative to participation.

Engineer vs Non-Engineer Performance: A Clear Shift

A key change in CAT 2025 compared to CAT 2024 is the strong showing of non-engineers at the highest percentiles.

  • Among CAT 2025 100 percentilers:

    • Engineers: 3

    • Non-engineers: 9

This continues and strengthens a trend first noticed in CAT 2024, where non-engineers began closing the gap at the top. The CAT exam’s increasing focus on reasoning, comprehension, and decision-making appears to be levelling the field.

Category-Wise Trends: Stable Distribution

The category-wise distribution of candidates in CAT 2025 remains almost identical to CAT 2024.

CAT 2025 Registered Candidates:

  • General: 65.76%

  • NC-OBC: 17.82%

  • SC: 8.78%

  • ST: 2.38%

  • EWS: 5.26%

  • PwD: 0.49%

This stability suggests that cat cutoff trends and reservation dynamics are unlikely to change drastically between CAT 2024 and CAT 2025, especially for IIM admissions.

State-Wise Performance: Wider Spread in CAT 2025

CAT 2025 toppers came from a broader range of states, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Karnataka.

Compared to CAT 2024 — which saw heavier clustering around a few metro states — CAT 2025 reflects a more geographically diverse topper pool, indicating deeper CAT penetration in Tier-2 and Tier-3 regions.

Admission Impact: What This Means for Aspirants

Despite fewer candidates:

  • IIM shortlisting remains highly competitive

  • Profile factors (academics, work experience, diversity) continue to play a decisive role

  • A high percentile alone, as seen in both CAT 2024 and CAT 2025, does not guarantee top IIM calls

Additionally, with 93 non-IIM institutions accepting CAT 2025 scores, aspirants now have broader quality MBA options beyond the IIMs.

Final Takeaway

The comparison between CAT 2025 and CAT 2024 shows evolution, not disruption.

  • Fewer candidates, but similar competition

  • Stronger non-engineer presence at top percentiles

  • Stable category and gender trends

  • More geographically diverse toppers

For MBA aspirants, the message is clear: percentile matters, but profile strength matters more than ever.

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Questions related to CAT

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to CAT ?

Hello,

The results for the CAT 2025 entrance, which is conducted on November 30, 2025, were declared on December 22, 2025. Candidates can download and see their results on the official IIM CAT website. On the website, click on the "CAT 2025 Result/Scorecard" link to download the result by entering the required details.

I hope it will clear your query!!

Hello,

The link to the website where you can check the published result is attached herewith.  The result will be out soon. You can also check the cutoffs on the website of Careers360.

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-result

Thank you.

CAT does not restrict eligibility based on stream. Candidates from commerce, arts, science, engineering or any other background can appear for CAT and apply to MBA programmes offered by IIMs and other top B-schools.

The basic eligibility criteria for CAT are:
You must hold a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognised university with at least 50 percent marks (45 percent for SC, ST and PwD categories). Final-year graduation students are also eligible to apply.

Being a commerce graduate can actually be an advantage in areas such as accounting, finance, economics and business studies, especially during MBA coursework in finance, marketing and operations.

After qualifying CAT, admission depends on multiple factors including CAT percentile, academic background, work experience (if any), performance in GD, WAT and personal interview rounds. Many IIMs and B-schools follow a diverse academic background policy, which means non-engineering candidates, including commerce graduates, often receive additional weightage.

Apart from IIMs, several reputed institutes such as FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IMT Ghaziabad, and many state and private universities also accept CAT scores for MBA admissions.

So, as a commerce graduate, you are fully eligible to appear for CAT and pursue an MBA, provided you meet the minimum academic requirements and perform well in the selection process.

If you want, I can also help you with realistic CAT percentile targets based on your academic profile or suggest suitable MBA colleges.


Hello aspirant,

With a CAT 2025 raw score of 84 and strong sectionals, your expected percentile may fail in the high 98 range , depending on scaling. Your excellent academics and 2 years of work experience strengthen your profile .IIM Lucknow calls are possible but competitive for EWS engineers , while FMS Delhi looks mainly at CAT score and VARC , so you have a reasonable chance there . Final calls depend on cutoffs and composite score.

FOR REFERENCE : https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-cutoff

Hope the details will help you.

THANK YOU

Hello,

For a raw score of 56 in CAT 2025 Slot 3, your expected overall percentile is likely to be in the range of the 90th-95th percentile. The exact percentile can vary slightly on the final normalization process and the process and performance of all test-takers. In this article you'll find more about the CAT result.

I hope it will clear your query!!