How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year? Appearing vs Qualified Trends (2020–2025)

How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year? Appearing vs Qualified Trends (2020–2025)

Team Careers360Updated on 03 Dec 2025, 04:05 PM IST

How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year? This is a common question which every MBA aspirant must have. Well, to answer this question, the CAT exam authorities have never released any official numbers answering this question. However, one can get a rough idea of this question by looking at the CAT results, which will be out in the second or third week of December 2025. This year, the CAT exam was taken by 2.58 lakh students. Going by last year's data, 3,29,000 candidates had registered for the CAT exam, out of which only 2,93,000 candidates had appeared.

This Story also Contains

  1. How Many Candidates Take CAT Exam Every Year?
  2. How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year?
  3. Total Marks required to clear the CAT Exam
How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year? Appearing vs Qualified Trends (2020–2025)
How Many Students Clear CAT Exam

CAT (Common Admission Test) is one of the most reputed and anticipated MBA entrance exams in India. The CAT exam is conducted every year for MBA aspirants to get admission to the prestigious IIMs and other top rated B schools in the country. As you continue reading this article, you will find the past years' total number of candidates who took the CAT exam, the past year's toppers, along with more details.

How Many Candidates Take CAT Exam Every Year?

To understand how many students clear the CAT exam every year, we must begin by looking at the number of how many candidates who take the CAT exam every year. Every year, 2.5 - 3+ lakh students register for the CAT exam, out of which only 80-89% of students end up participating in the CAT exam.

As you will look at the below table, you will get to see that the total number of students appearing for the CAT exam has risen significantly. Here is the table listing the total number of candidates who registered and took the CAT exam in the past 5 years.

YearNo. of Students Registered for CATNo. of Students Appeared for CAT
20252,95,0002,58,000
20243,29,0002,93,000
20232,23,0002,88,000
20222,55,5012,22,184
20212,29,9691,91,660
20202,27,8351,90,144
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Also See: How Many Students Took CAT Exam?

How Many Students Clear CAT Exam Every Year?

Over the years, it has been seen that only 10,000-30,000 students have qualified for the CAT exam in the past years. As mentioned, the exact number as to how many students who clear the CAT exam has never officially been released by the CAT exam conducting authorities.

While the exact number is not there, one must note that you need 99-100% to get admission to the top IIMs in India. Take a look at the following table, which mentions the number of toppers in each percentile.

Year

Percentile

No. of Students Qualified

2024

100%

14 (13 Males;1 Female)

99.99%

29 (27 Males;2 Females)

99.98%

30 (29 Males;1 Female)

2023

100%

14 (All Males)

99.99%

29 (28 Males;1 Female)

99.98%

29 ( All Males)

2022

100%

11 (All Males)

99.99%

22 (21 Males; 1 Female)

99.98%

22 (19 Males; 3 Females)

2021

100%

9 (All Males)

99.99%

19 (All Males)

99.98%

19 (18 Males; 1 Female)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How many students get into IIM every year?
A:

Every year, it is estimated that approximately 5,500 students get admitted into 21 IIMs, with the total number of seats across all IIMs being slightly higher. 

Q: How many students give the CAT every year?
A:

The CAT exam is given by over 2 lakh candidates every year. The number of students giving the CAT exam varies from 2.5 to 2.9 lakh every year.

Q: What is the success rate of CAT?
A:

The success rate for the CAT exam based on previous year records is around 2%. The success rate for IIMs through CAT is even lesser than that.

Q: What is the pass percentage of the CAT exam?
A:

The pass percentage of the CAT exam is decided by the individual college. CAT exam also has sectional pass percentage for all three sections. The CAT pass percentage ranges from 60 to 80 for the overall CAT exam.

Q: What is the CAT cutoff for IIM?
A:

The CAT cutoff for IIM is between 99 to 100 percentile. This is the CAT percentile at which the final selection of a candidate generally happens. The qualifying CAT percentile for CAT ranges from 70 to 80 depending on the particular IIM. At this percentile a candidate becomes eligible to apply to the particular IIM for its selection process.

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Questions related to CAT

On Question asked by student community

Have a question related to CAT ?

A CAT percentile of 99.64 is an excellent score and definitely places you in a strong position for top IIM calls, including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta. However, admission to these institutes is not based on CAT score alone. Each of these IIMs follows a holistic selection process

HELLO,

With a 74 percentile in CAT ,EWS category and 8/8/7 academics , you are in good spot for many non IIM colleges like :-

1.BIMTECH

2.AIM DELHI

3.AMITY GROUP

4.IMT

5.IMT NAGPUR

6.SDM IMD

7.Great Lakes (GLIM) Institute of Management

8.Alliance University

9.IBS Business School

10. Institute of Management,

Hello there,

Yes, you should surely give a try. Your score and being Non-Engineer gives you an edge. The previous trends shows that cutoff typically hovers around 75-84 for EWS category. Therefore you must give a try.

NIBM  gives proper weightage to academics as well, therefore your 8\8\8 would work

HELLO,

With an overall 98.54 percentile ( QA/DILR 97.55, VARC 94.89) and strong academics 9/9/0, you have a good profile. As a B.Tech candidate you can expect calls from :-

  • IIM Shillong
  • IIM Udaipur
  • IIM Trichy
  • IIM Ranchi
  • IIM Raipur
  • IIM Kashipur
  • IIM Nagpur
  • IIM Indore is Boderline

Hope this

Hello there,

The IIMs you should expect are listed below:

  • A 90-100% chance: IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Shillong, IIM Mumbai, and all CAP IIMs( Udaipur, Trichy, Ranchi, etc.).
  • A 50-70% CHANCE: IIM Calcutta and SPJIMR.
  • A very competitive chance, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore

Your biotech background