CAT PYQs Topic-Wise: Every Past Question by Chapter
Published 30 August 2026 · 4 min read · Common Admission Test
Every CAT paper from 2020 to 2025 is free at percentyl.in/pyq, 18 full papers and 1,230 questions with worked solutions, attemptable in the browser with no sign in. Below is the same material sorted the way you should study it, by chapter, with how many questions each chapter has produced in the last five years.
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Every CAT paper from 2020 to 2025 is free at percentyl.in/pyq, 18 full papers and 1,230 questions with worked solutions, attemptable in the browser with no sign in. Below is the same material sorted the way you should study it, by chapter, with how many questions each chapter has produced in the last five years.
Papers are organised by year because that is how they were sat. Preparation runs by chapter. This index is the bridge between the two.
Quant: what the last five years asked
Across CAT 2021 to CAT 2025, all slots, 324 Quant questions break down like this.
Area | Questions in 5 years | Share of Quant |
|---|---|---|
125 | 39% | |
109 | 34% | |
47 | 15% | |
27 | 8% | |
16 | 5% |
Arithmetic and Algebra together are 234 of 324 questions. A candidate who owns those two areas and ignores Modern Maths entirely is giving up 5 percent of the section to protect 73 percent of it.
The eight chapters worth drilling first
Chapter | Questions in 5 years |
|---|---|
Equations and Polynomials | 34 |
Progressions and Series | 28 |
Ratio and Proportion | 22 |
Logarithms and Exponents | 20 |
Averages | 19 |
Lines and Angles | 19 |
Time, Speed and Distance | 18 |
Profit and Loss | 17 |
Those eight carried 177 questions between them. Chapter wise timed tests on exactly these sit at percentyl.in/mock-tests/topic-tests.
DILR: the set types that keep coming back
Set type | Sets in 5 years |
|---|---|
Analytical Reasoning | 16 |
Logic based Data Interpretation | 14 |
Bar and Line charts | 9 |
Data Tabulation | 6 |
Puzzles | 6 |
DILR rewards recognition more than any other section. If you have seen 16 analytical reasoning sets, the seventeenth is a variation rather than a surprise. Practise by type at percentyl.in/practice.
VARC: verbal ability by question type
Question type | Questions in 5 years |
|---|---|
Para Summary | 39 |
Para Jumbles | 30 |
Para Completion | 27 |
Odd One Out | 24 |
Reading comprehension passages cluster by theme rather than by type. Science and technology appeared 14 times, environment 10 times, social science and history 8 times. Reading widely in those three areas is worth more than any vocabulary list. A fresh passage a day sits at percentyl.in/daily-challenge/rc.
How to work through past questions by chapter
- Pick one chapter. Do every past question in it back to back, untimed, before moving on. Pattern recognition needs volume in one place.
- Mark each question as solved, solved slowly or not solved. Ignore the ones you solved. The other two lists are your syllabus.
- Redo the not solved list 48 hours later, not the same day. Same day repeats test memory rather than method.
- Only after a chapter is clean, take the timed chapter test. Speed is the last layer, not the first.
- Return to full papers once four or five chapters are done. Sitting a whole paper before the chapters are clean tells you what you already know.
One chapter a week from now until the exam covers roughly fourteen chapters, which is most of what matters.
Where each piece of this lives, free
- Full past papers, 2020 to 2025. percentyl.in/pyq, 18 papers, worked solutions, no sign in needed.
- Chapter wise timed tests. percentyl.in/mock-tests/topic-tests. Quant is live, DILR and VARC are in development.
- Chapter wise practice sets. percentyl.in/practice, sorted by section and topic.
- A daily RC passage. percentyl.in/daily-challenge/rc.
- Solution PDFs from elsewhere. 2IIM publishes free past paper solutions with no sign up, worth having as a second explanation when one solution does not land.
Start with the chapter you are worst at rather than the one you enjoy. The eight chapter table above tells you which ones are worth the pain. Open percentyl.in/pyq, pick Arithmetic, then do every arithmetic question CAT has asked since 2020 before you sit another mock.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are CAT previous year questions available topic wise?
CAT releases papers by year and slot, not by topic. The chapter counts in this post come from sorting CAT 2021 to 2025 across all slots. Percentyl hosts the full papers free at percentyl.in/pyq and chapter wise practice at percentyl.in/practice.
How many years of CAT papers should I solve?
Five years is the useful window. The 2 hour format arrived in 2020, the paper settled at 66 questions from 2021 to 2023, then became 68 in 2024 when DILR went from 20 questions to 22. Older papers are still good practice but differ in structure.
Which CAT Quant chapters have the most questions?
Arithmetic leads with 125 questions across CAT 2021 to 2025, followed by Algebra with 109. At chapter level, Equations and Polynomials produced 34 questions and Progressions and Series 28.
Should I solve PYQs before or after mocks?
Chapter wise past questions come first, full past papers later. Sitting a whole paper before your chapters are clean mostly measures what you already knew rather than building anything new.
Are CAT past papers enough to prepare?
They are the best material available but not sufficient on their own, because 1,230 questions across five years is a few weeks of work. Use them to calibrate difficulty, then use chapter practice for volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are CAT previous year questions available topic wise?
CAT releases papers by year and slot, not by topic. The chapter counts in this post come from sorting CAT 2021 to 2025 across all slots. Percentyl hosts the full papers free at percentyl.in/pyq and chapter wise practice at percentyl.in/practice.
How many years of CAT papers should I solve?
Five years is the useful window. The 2 hour format arrived in 2020, the paper settled at 66 questions from 2021 to 2023, then became 68 in 2024 when DILR went from 20 questions to 22. Older papers are still good practice but differ in structure.
Which CAT Quant chapters have the most questions?
Arithmetic leads with 125 questions across CAT 2021 to 2025, followed by Algebra with 109. At chapter level, Equations and Polynomials produced 34 questions and Progressions and Series 28.
Should I solve PYQs before or after mocks?
Chapter wise past questions come first, full past papers later. Sitting a whole paper before your chapters are clean mostly measures what you already knew rather than building anything new.
Are CAT past papers enough to prepare?
They are the best material available but not sufficient on their own, because 1,230 questions across five years is a few weeks of work. Use them to calibrate difficulty, then use chapter practice for volume.