CAT's overall structure — VARC, DILR and QA — has stayed consistent for several years, but the question mix within each section shifts from year to year. Rather than reacting to last-minute pattern rumours, build your prep around the section fundamentals that don't change: reading speed and inference in VARC, structured data-reading in DILR, and calculation accuracy in QA.

What to watch for closer to exam day:

Official notification from the conducting IIM for the exact number of questions and sectional time limits.
Any change in the non-MCQ (TITA) question proportion across sections.
Sectional time-limit adjustments, which change how you should pace mocks.

Until the official notification for the year is out, treat any specific number you read online — including on this page — as provisional. MatIQ's mock series is recalibrated the moment the real notification drops, so students on an active batch don't need to track this themselves.

Practical takeaway: don't over-index prep strategy on pattern rumours. Section fundamentals carry across every CAT pattern variant of the last decade.

CAT 2026: What's Changed in the Exam Pattern