CAT 2026 Notification Released at iimcat.ac.in; Registration from August 3, Exam on November 29

Why Does CAT 2026 Notification Matter?

The CAT 2026 notification is a crucial event for 3 Lakh+ MBA aspirants who are currently preparing for the CAT 2026 exam. With the release of the CAT 2026 notification, the candidates will get the CAT calendar for 2026, where they’ll know which CAT-related events will take place on which dates. The CAT notification 2026 will contain information related to crucial events like the CAT exam date 2026, CAT admit card release date 2026, etc. Based on this information, the candidates will be able to plan their further CAT preparation properly and prepare effectively for the CAT 2026 exam.

CAT 2026 Exam Highlights

Details Revealed in CAT Exam 2026 Notification

The CAT exam notification 2026 will reveal the following crucial details which the CAT 2026 aspirants should observe and note down for future reference.

• CAT exam date 2026

• CAT conducting IIM

• CAT format and pattern

• CAT application fees

• CAT admit Card release date

• CAT exam 2026 eligibility and reservations

CAT 2026 Important Dates

Given below are the important dates and events that the candidates should know about so that they don’t miss any event or deadline.

CAT 2026 Eligibility Criteria

CAT follows certain eligibility criteria for the CAT aspirants. Candidates who wish to appear for the CAT exam 2026 must check out the CAT eligibility criteria and make sure that they are qualified to appear for the CAT 2026 exam.

• The candidate must hold a bachelor’s degree from a recognised university with a minimum of 50% aggregate marks (45% for the SC/ST/PwD category candidates)

• Candidates who are studying in the final year of the graduation course can also apply, given that the minimum aggregate marks requirement is followed.

CAT Application Fees 2026

The CAT exam fees keep changing every year, and we see a different figure this time too. Given below are the previous year CAT application fees trends followed over the past 5 years.

Which IIM Will Conduct CAT 2026?

As per the previous year trends of IIMs that have conducted CAT, IIM Indore can be seen conducting the CAT 2026 exam. Students can check the data given below, which represents the IIMs that conducted the CAT exam in the previous years. This will give them a clear idea about which IIM could conduct the CAT 2026 exam.

What Can Be Expected From CAT 2026?

Based on the previous CAT exams conducted by IIM Indore, the experts of team Careers360 have predicted the overall exam difficulty to range from easy to moderate. However, the sectional-wise difficulty level can be different based on the sections. Students can refer to the sectional-wise analysis of the pattern followed by IIM Indore while setting up the CAT exam. Based on this, we can predict the section-wise level of difficulty of CAT 2026.

CAT 2026 Section-Wise Difficulty Level Analysis (Expected)

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)

The difficulty level of the VARC section set by IIM Indore is usually easy to moderate, where RCs can be easy to crack but the TITA (Type in the Answer) questions can be quite ambiguous. For targeting 99 percentile in VARC, candidates need to target around 14 correct questions.

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)

For CAT 2026, we can expect the DILR section to be moderate to difficult as IIM Indore mostly leans towards calculation-heavy DI sets and multi-step reasoning. To be on the safer side, candidates need to target 2 DILR sets with 100% accuracy.

Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

The difficulty level of the QA section can vary from moderate to difficult, as IIM Indore is known to set the QA section comparatively tougher than the other 2 sections. With high weightage given to arithmetic, algebra and geometry are given almost equal weightage by IIM Indore. Attempting simple arithmetic questions with 3-4 correct answers from algebra, geometry, and modern math can make up a good score in QA.

Based on the CAT 2026 predicted difficulty, candidates should still prepare well for the exam as the easy to moderate difficulty of the exam can increase the CAT cutoff percentile and hence affect the further MBA admission process. CAT 2026 aspirants should focus on completing the syllabus on time and attempt CAT mocks for smooth CAT preparation.

Previous Year Trends of CAT Notification Release

The table below mentions the previous year's CAT notification release date along with this year's CAT 2026 notification release date for the candidates who are going to appear for the CAT 2026 exam on November 29, 2026.

Programmes Offered at IIMs With Fees

Around 2.5-3 lakh candidates appear for the CAT exam every year to secure a seat in the top IIMs in India. Candidates who wish to appear for the CAT exam 2026 may check out the list of top IIMs along with the programs they offer and their respective MBA fees to know which IIMs they can apply for.