The CAT 2026 provisional answer key is expected on iimcat.ac.in in December 2026, a few days after the 29 November exam. IIM Indore will release it with each candidate’s response sheet and the question papers, and open a short window to challenge answers before the result.
CAT Answer Key 2026
How to get the CAT 2026 answer key and response sheet, challenge an answer and calculate your score.
Is CAT Answer Key 2026 out?
Not yet. The date for CAT Answer Key 2026 has not been announced.
- CAT 2026 exam
- 29 November 2026
- Answer key
- To be announced
- Answer key challenge window
- To be announced
How to Download the CAT 2026 Answer Key and Response Sheet
You see the CAT 2026 answer key and your own response sheet after logging in on iimcat.ac.in.
- Go to iimcat.ac.in once the answer key is announced.
- Log in with your CAT 2026 user ID and password.
- Open the response sheet and answer key link.
- Download your response sheet and the question paper with answers for your session.
- Match each of your recorded answers with the key.
How to Challenge the CAT 2026 Answer Key
If you think an answer in the provisional key is wrong, you can challenge it online during the objection window and pay a fee for each question.
- Log in to your CAT 2026 account during the objection window.
- Select the question and session you want to challenge.
- Explain your objection and attach supporting documents.
- Pay the challenge fee online and submit.
For CAT 2025, the window ran from 8 to 10 December 2025 and the fee was ₹1,500 per question, refunded if the challenge was accepted. The CAT 2026 fee and dates will be announced with the key. The final answer key is used to prepare the CAT 2026 result.
How to Calculate Your CAT 2026 Score
You can work out your raw score from the answer key using the CAT marking scheme.
| Question type | Correct | Wrong | Not attempted |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCQ | +3 | -1 | 0 |
| Non-MCQ (type in the answer) | +3 | 0 | 0 |
Raw score = 3 x (correct answers) – 1 x (wrong MCQ answers). With 68 questions, as in CAT 2025, the maximum is 204. Your final score is a scaled score, because the IIMs normalise marks across the three sessions, so your percentile cannot be read directly from the raw score.
Where can I get CAT question papers with answers?
The IIMs release the session-wise question papers with the answer key. Our CAT previous year question papers page has papers with answer keys from 2017 to 2025 for practice.