CAT Result Date 2026 and What Comes Next

The CAT 2026 result is expected in early January 2027 and will be published on the official CAT site, iimcat.ac.in. As of October 22, 2026, the exact date has not been announced. In the last cycle, the CAT 2025 result came out on December 24, 2025, about three and a half weeks after the exam, so a late-December release for CAT 2026 is also possible.

CAT 2026 itself is on Sunday, November 29, 2026, conducted by IIM Indore. This page covers the result: when it comes, what the last result looked like, how to read a percentile, and the dates that follow it. For the full interview season after the result, see the CAT interview timeline.

CAT result dates: this cycle and the last

The CAT 2026 dates here come from the IIFT MBA 2027-29 brochure, which lists the exam date, and from Careers360's CAT 2026 schedule. The CAT 2025 dates are from Careers360's report on the CAT 2025 toppers.

Before the result: response sheet and answer key

In past cycles, the conducting IIM released each candidate's response sheet and a provisional answer key a few days after the exam, with a short window to raise objections, and the final result followed after that. The dates for CAT 2026 have not been announced.

The response sheet lets you work out your raw score before the result. Under the CAT 2025 marking scheme, a correct answer earned 3 marks, a wrong answer to a multiple-choice question cost 1 mark, and a wrong answer to a TITA (type-in-the-answer) question cost nothing. Check whether CAT 2026 uses the same scheme when the instructions come out.

What the CAT 2025 result looked like

These are the last cycle's figures, as reported by Careers360. They show the size of the field your percentile is measured against.

For comparison, CAT 2024 had 14 candidates at 100 percentile, 13 of them engineers, and about 2.93 lakh candidates appeared, an attendance of 89 percent.

What a CAT percentile means

A CAT percentile is a rank. It tells you what percentage of test-takers scored below you, after the scores from the three sessions have been made comparable. A raw score is the marks you earned from your answers. A percentile is your position among everyone else who took the test.

Because the three sessions use different question papers, CAT does not compare raw scores directly across sessions. The scores are first adjusted so that a candidate in a harder session is not penalised, and the percentile is calculated on the adjusted scores. This is why two people with the same raw marks in different sessions can end up with different percentiles.

Using the CAT 2025 figure of about 2.58 lakh test-takers, here is roughly how many candidates sat at or above each percentile:

These counts are simple arithmetic on the test-taker figure. They are not an official list.

Your scorecard shows an overall percentile and a percentile for each of the three sections. Many aspirants mix these up, along with raw marks and composite score, so it helps to keep them apart:

• Overall percentile is your rank on the total score.
• Sectional percentile is your rank in VARC, DILR or QA alone. Many IIMs set a minimum for each section as well as for the total.
• Composite score is not on the CAT scorecard at all. Each IIM calculates its own, combining your CAT percentile with things such as your academic record and work experience.

IIM Ahmedabad's admission policy for 2027-29 shows how this works. For shortlisting, it calculates a raw composite score as 0.35 times a normalised application rating plus 0.65 times your normalised CAT 2026 total percentile. Its minimum CAT 2026 cut-offs for non-PwD candidates, overall and in each section, are listed below.

These are minimums to be considered. Clearing them does not mean a shortlist, because the composite score then decides who is called. The figures are from the IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29 admission policy, dated September 11, 2026.

After the result: calls, converts and dates

Aspirants on r/CATpreparation often use "call" and "convert" as if they meant the same thing. A call is an interview shortlist from a B-school, which invites you to its WAT-PI round. A convert is the final admission offer you get after that round. A high percentile helps you get calls. The WAT-PI round, your academics and your work experience decide converts, in proportions each IIM sets for itself.

At IIM Ahmedabad, for example, the final composite score is 0.50 times the normalised PI score, plus 0.10 times the normalised AWT score, plus 0.40 times the normalised composite score from the shortlisting stage.

These are the dates around and after the CAT 2026 result, as of October 22, 2026:

The other IIMs have not announced their 2027 shortlist, WAT-PI or result dates, and the Common Admission Process (CAP) for 2027 has not been announced either. Some websites publish an IIM-by-IIM table of 2027 dates. Those dates are estimates based on earlier years. Only IIM Ahmedabad has published its own timeline, and it calls its dates tentative. No NMAT 2026 result date has been announced. The IIM interview timeline for the 2027 cycle and the CAT interview timeline list the dates published so far.

Using a call predictor after the result

The IIM call predictor takes your CAT percentile along with your academics, work experience and category, and estimates your chances at each college. It is useful for deciding which applications to fill and which interview rounds to start preparing for first.

A call predictor, including ours, works from its own cut-off estimates and the few minimums that IIMs publish, such as IIM Ahmedabad's. It cannot know the exact formula and cut-off each IIM will use in 2027, so treat its output as an estimate. This matters because aspirants often read a predictor's figure as a statement about their own chances. When an IIM publishes its own policy, as IIM Ahmedabad has, that document is the one to rely on.

The weeks after the result

Once shortlists come out, many aspirants worry about how parts of their profile will come across at the PI: a gap year, low marks in 10th or 12th, or a short work history. Before the interview, write down how you would answer each of them, then say the answer out loud a few times.

This page is published by Rehearsal. In the Rehearsal app you record yourself answering out loud, and the app keeps what you said along with the notes, PDFs and screenshots you save, so you can come back to them. After the result, you can record your answers to the questions you expect, such as why you want an MBA or how you would explain a gap year, and listen to them again before your WAT-PI round. Our IIM interview experience guide describes how IIM panels questioned candidates in the last cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: When will the CAT 2026 result be declared?

The CAT 2026 result is expected in early January 2027, on iimcat.ac.in. The exact date has not been announced as of October 22, 2026, and because the CAT 2025 result came on December 24, 2025, a late-December release is also possible.

Q2: When was the CAT 2025 result declared?

The CAT 2025 result was declared on December 24, 2025. The exam had been held on November 30, 2025, and IIM Kozhikode conducted it.

Q3: Where can I check my CAT result?

The CAT result is published on the official CAT site, iimcat.ac.in, where you log in to see and download your scorecard.

Q4: How many candidates got 100 percentile in CAT 2025?

Twelve candidates scored 100 percentile in CAT 2025, as reported by Careers360: 10 men and 2 women, of whom 9 were non-engineers and 3 were engineers.

Q5: Do IIMs send interview calls on the day of the CAT result?

Usually not. IIM shortlists usually come out in January, after the result, and each IIM shortlists on its own schedule. IIM Ahmedabad says it will publish its shortlist tentatively by the second week of January 2027, and the other IIMs have not announced their 2027 dates.

Q6: What is the difference between a call and a convert?

A call is an interview shortlist from a B-school that invites you to its WAT-PI round, and a convert is the final admission offer that comes after that round.

Q7: What does 99 percentile in CAT mean?

A 99 percentile means 99 percent of test-takers scored below you. With about 2.58 lakh candidates taking CAT 2025, that works out to roughly 2,580 candidates at or above the 99th percentile.