XAT 2026 Question Paper with Solutions OUT: Memory-Based Questions, Exam Analysis & Answer Key

XAT 2026 Exam Pattern

The candidates must be familiar with the XAT 2026 exam pattern.

• It comprises four sections: Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Verbal and Logical Ability, and General Knowledge.
• The total duration prescribed for the XAT 2026 exam was 180 minutes (3 hours).
• An additional 20 minutes was allotted to the PwD candidates for every hour.

The complete XAT 2026 exam pattern is provided in the table given below.

XAT 2026 Sectionwise Topicwise Breakdown

This section gives you a clear snapshot of how questions were distributed across different sections and topics in XAT 2026. It helps you understand which areas carried more weight so you can plan your preparation smartly.

VA & LR

Decision Making

QA & DI

GK

XAT 2026 – Section-Wise Exam Analysis

The XAT 2026 paper followed the traditional XAT pattern, testing conceptual clarity, contextual reasoning, and practical judgement rather than speed. The detailed section-wise review below will help candidates reflect on their performance and understand the relative difficulty across sections.

1. Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning (VALR)

This section was heavily reading-oriented, placing strong emphasis on comprehension depth, tone recognition, and inference. Rather than memory-based grammar, the focus remained on understanding meaning, flow, and logic within text.

Question Types Observed

• Context-based fill-in-the-blanks

• Image-based verbal reasoning

• Para-jumbles / sentence rearrangement

• Poem-based comprehension

• Correct vs incorrect statement identification

Reading Comprehension Themes

• Immigrant life and identity in America

• Online trolling and social behaviour

• Nuclear fission and scientific interpretation

Options were often subtle and inference-driven, requiring careful reading rather than reliance on surface meaning. Overall difficulty ranged from moderate to slightly challenging, especially for those not used to dense reading material.

A disciplined reading approach clearly helped in this section.

2. Decision Making (DM)

The Decision Making section continued to reflect real-world management situations, requiring a balance of ethics, practicality, and logical judgment. There were no formula-based problems; instead, candidates had to weigh outcomes, fairness, and stakeholder impact.

Case Themes Included

• Academic and MBA-related institutional decisions

• Coaching and training-related dilemmas

• Placement-linked challenges and choices

Key characteristics:

• Multiple options appeared logical

• Emotional judgment traps were common

• Candidates needed to differentiate between ethically correct and operationally sound choices

The difficulty level can be described as moderate, with subtle differences between answer options requiring calm and structured thinking.

3. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (QA-DI)

This section presented a balanced mix of Arithmetic, Geometry, and logical DI, with a conceptual rather than purely computational orientation.

Topics Observed

• Mixed DI sets involving business logic and geometry

• Ratios and proportions

• Circles and geometry-based reasoning

• Trigonometry

• Speed, time and distance

• Prime numbers and number systems

• Boats and streams

• Triangle-based problems

• Water and tank situations

• Functions-based reasoning

• Direction-based logical reasoning questions

• Employee-based DF-type questions

• Probability questions

Arithmetic formed a significant chunk of the section, while DI required interpretation skill and accuracy rather than brute-force calculation.

Overall, the section was moderate in difficulty, but strong conceptual clarity and basics definitely helped students perform better.

4. General Knowledge (GK)

GK included a blend of static and contemporary questions, with a wide and unpredictable spread of themes.

Topics Reported

• Women of the Match – Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025

• Meteor-related science awareness

• Famous Shehnai musician

• Indian classical and folk dance forms

• Advertising icon Piyush Pandey

• A lithium museum reference

• Question related to Dharmendra Deol

• Satellite launched by India on behalf of the US

• Wimbledon runner-up reference

The section showed a mix of traditional static knowledge and current context, rewarding students who keep up regular reading habits. Candidates with strong general awareness found it manageable.

Overall Difficulty

• VARC: Moderate, reading-intensive with inference-based options

• Decision Making: Moderate, with close judgment-based answer choices

• QA-DI: Moderate, concept-heavy and application-focused

• GK: Mixed difficulty, unpredictable in spread but manageable with awareness

XAT 2026 Memory-Based Questions

We have provided below a few memory-based questions from XAT 2026 held on 4th of January so as to help students understand the difficulty level of the question paper and evaluate their performance accordingly. This will also help the future aspirants to prepare better for XAT.

Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation (QA-DI)

1. Two trains running at constant speed between Jamshedpur and Kolkata take 3 hr and 4 hr respectively. The train from Jamshedpur halves its speed after running for an hour. How much total time do the trains take to meet?

Answer: 2 hours

2. A battle commander arranged his soldiers in three concentric circles. Inner radius is 70 m and outer radius is 140 m. How many total soldiers are required if any two soldiers along each circle are away by 1 m?

Answer: 1978 soldiers (approximately)

3. An archer is standing at a point A. His target is the top of a tree, which is 56 m high, and its base is at point C. The angle of elevation right now is 45°. The archer now moves backwards along line AC so that the angle decreases to 30°. What is the distance moved by the archer if his height is 6 m?

Answer: 36.6 m (approximately)

4. Two equal circles of radius 5 cm are touching each other at point P. A common tangent to the circles touches them at points Q and R. A square is drawn inside triangle PQR so that one of its sides is resting on this common tangent and the other two vertices are touching the two circles. What is the area of the square?

Answer: 25 cm²

5. The 120 students of a business school can choose either one, two or none among the specialisations — Marketing, Finance and Operations. 60, 50 and 30 students opt for the three specializations respectively. Any student who is specialized in either Marketing or Finance is eligible to apply for Consulting jobs. If a total of 45 students are not eligible for Consulting jobs, then what is the minimum possible number of students who specialise in both Marketing and Finance?

Answer: 35 students

6. Brijbhushan is a microfinancier who lends to farmers at the rate of Rs 10 per square metre and charges 10% annual interest. Five farmers — Aditya, Bhushan, Chuttan, Damodar and Govind — have rectangular lands, with minimum and maximum area of 1000 m² and 10000 m². Damodar’s land has a perimeter of 250 m and length : breadth = 4 : 1. The area of Aditya is 3 × the area of Govind, while the area of Aditya is also the average of the area of Damodar and Govind. The breadth of the lands of each of Aditya, Bhushan and Damodar is the same, while the length of Bhushan is the sum of the lengths of Aditya and Damodar.

A. What is the interest owed by Chuttan to Brijbhushan at the end of the year?
B. What is the maximum possible value of the total loan amount given by Brijbhushan to the five farmers?
C. If the width of Aditya’s land is 25 m, then what is the minimum possible length of the land with Bhushan?
D. If the width of Aditya’s land is 25 m, then what is the minimum possible length of the land with Bhushan?

Answer:
A. Interest (₹) = Area of Chuttan’s land (m²)
B. ₹1,85,000
C. 160 m
D. 160 m

7. A function is defined from R² to R as f(0, x, y) = y + 1 and f(x + 1, y) = f(x, f(x, y)) + x. What is the value of f(2, 2)? The options are 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Answer: 7

8. An artificial swimming pool is circular, and water is flowing in the clockwise direction at a speed of 3 km/hr. Two swimmers, Ayub and Rana, start from diametrically opposite points in the anticlockwise and clockwise direction respectively. They first meet at a point such that Ayub has covered 60 m by that time. Their second meeting point is such that Rana has covered another 180 m after the first meeting point. If the speed of Rana is 3 km/hr in still water, then what is the time taken by Ayub to cover one full circle in the clockwise direction?

Answer: 1 minute 48 seconds (108 seconds)

9. An examination is taken by three kinds of students: Diligent (10%), Lazy (30%) and Confused (60%). Diligent students are 10 × as likely to pass the exam as Lazy students. If 40% of the students who passed the exam are Confused, then what is the maximum possible probability of a Confused student passing the exam?

Answer: 2/9 (≈ 22.2%)

10. Two digits of the number 735x6y4 are unknown. It is known that this number is divisible by 44. Consider the following two pieces of information:

1. x and y are both even

2. 2x = y

Which combination of the information is minimally sufficient?

Answer: Both statements together are minimally sufficient

11. There are three rectangular tanks. The first has length, breadth and height each equal to m metres. The second has length, breadth and height each equal to n metres. The third has length, breadth and height equal to m metres, n metres and 1 metre respectively. It is known that m and n are integers. Initially, the first tank is full of water. Then the second and third tanks are completely filled using the water from the first tank. The first tank still has 85,000 litres of water. What is the value of m? It is known that 1 m³ = 1000 litres.

Answer: 7

12. During Durga Pooja, six wooden sticks are used to create a structure to be used in a Pandal. First, an isosceles triangle is created using three sticks. Let this triangle be PAB with PA = PB. Then a square ABCD is completed using the common base AB. To strengthen this structure, the equal sides are also joined to points E and F on CD such that CE = EF = FD. What is the total length of sticks used to create 20 such structures if AB = 0.5 metres?

Answer: 71.6 metres

General Knowledge

1. Who won the Women of the Match WC 2025?
Answer: Shafali Verma

2. Which meteor passed very closely to Earth in 2025?
Answer: 3I/ATLAS

3. Which path-breaking Indian advertising professional is known for creating iconic campaigns such as Cadbury Dairy Milk – “Kuch Khaas Hai” and Asian Paints – “Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai”?
Answer: Piyush Pandey

4. Where is India’s first Lithium Cell located?
Answer: Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

5. What was the Oxford Word of the Year 2025?
Answer: Rage bait

6. Which satellite was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation on behalf of NASA, and which Indian launch vehicle was used for the mission?
Answer: NISAR, launched using GSLV-F16

7. Who finished as the runner-up in the Wimbledon Championships singles final, and against which player did they lose the title match?

Answer: Carlos Alcaraz, lost to Jannik Sinner

XAT 2026 Memory-Based Questions and Exam Analysis PDF Download

The section below provides access to the XAT 2026 Memory-Based Questions and Exam Analysis PDF, compiled from student responses and expert review. It includes section-wise question recall, difficulty level insights, and exam trends to help aspirants understand the paper pattern and evaluate their preparation.

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XAT Mock Test

In this section, aspirants who are appearing for future sessions can attempt our XAT Mock test designed by the experts to boost their overall preparation and confidence.

Attempt Now - XAT Mock Test

XAT Preparation Tips for Future Aspirants

The section below shares practical XAT preparation tips to help future aspirants with their XAT study plan approach the right way. It highlights how to prepare for Verbal Ability, Decision Making, Quantitative Ability, GK, and time management so that candidates can improve accuracy, build strong concepts, and perform confidently in the exam.

Focus on Reading Comprehension and Logical Understanding

XAT Verbal is strongly reading-based. Build a habit of reading editorials and analytical articles, and practice Most Asked RC Passages in XAT where options are close. Work on critical reasoning and para-jumbles to improve interpretation skills.

Develop a Structured Approach to Decision Making

Practice past XAT DM sets and learn to balance ethics, fairness, and practicality. Avoid extreme or emotional choices and focus on decisions that are logical and responsible.

Strengthen Quantitative Basics Instead of Shortcuts

Revise core Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, and Number Systems. XAT Quant often needs conceptual clarity and step-wise reasoning rather than quick tricks.

Practice Smart Time Management During the Exam

Do not get stuck on tough questions. Attempt easier ones first, maintain accuracy, and move on when needed. Question selection matters more than high attempts.

Prepare for GK Through Consistent Awareness

Read news regularly instead of last-minute cramming. Focus on business, economy, sports, awards, personalities, and major national-international events.

Take Mock Tests and Learn From Them

Attempt mocks in real-exam conditions and analyse mistakes. Improve accuracy, judgement, critical reasoning and decision-making patterns with every test.