Quantitative Aptitude for CAT 2025: Pattern, Type of Questions, How to Prepare, Sample Questions, Topper Tips

CAT 2024 Exam Pattern was same across all the three slots. Check table below. However, there were minor changes in section wise compositions. Check complete CAT 2024 exam analysis for details. 

Quantitative Ability or Quantitative Aptitude section in CAT exam is the test of mathematics. QA comprises questions on Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math and other topics. CAT Quantitative Aptitude questions will carry a weightage of 33% of total CAT. Within the Quantitative Aptitude section, around 40% questions are based on Arithmetic topics. CAT Quantitative Aptitude is the last section in the CAT exam. 

The Quantitative Ability (QA) section has questions from Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math, and Number Systems. Check break-up of Quantitative Ability sub sections/ areas in CAT 2024 below. 

Once you know about the QA question Pattern in CAT exam, your next step for preparation is to scan the CAT Syllabus for Quantitative Ability section. Please note that CAT exam QA syllabus is not pre-defined by IIMs and is based on latest topics that appeared in past CAT exams.

The Quantitative Ability (QA) section of CAT primarily tests a candidate’s mathematical concepts, problem-solving ability, and speed. A structured approach with concept clarity, regular practice, and time management is key to scoring well in this section. Read an effective strategy for how to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT Exam below.

• Understand the syllabus and prioritize topics: As shared above, the topic-wise breakdown includes arithmetic (percentages, profit & loss, ratios, time & work, time-speed-distance, averages), algebra (quadratic & linear equations, inequalities, logarithms), geometry & mensuration (triangles, circles, polygons), number system (factors, divisibility, remainders, base systems), and modern math (permutation & combination, probability, set theory).
• Build strong conceptual clarity: After understanding the topics covered, start by understanding formulas and basic concepts for each topic. Refer to NCERT Class 9 & 10 books or CAT preparation book like Arun Sharma’s Quantitative Aptitude for CAT.
• Focus on topic-wise practice: Begin with solving easy questions, then gradually move to moderate and difficult ones. Solve sectional topic-wise tests after completing each chapter. Maintain a formula book or notes for quick revision.
• Strengthen calculation speed: Practice mental calculations to save time in the exam. Avoid calculator during mock and practice tests.
• Develop problem-solving approach: Learn different approaches to solving a question, such as the traditional method, approximation, and options elimination. Identify shortcut techniques. Work on reducing time taken per question by improving efficiency.
• Take mock tests and analyze performance. Start with sectional tests, then move on to full-length mocks. Analyze mistakes thoroughly, check where you went wrong, and improve weak areas.
• Use the right study materials and resources: Recommended books include Arun Sharma, Nishit Sinha, and Quantum CAT by Sarvesh Verma. Coaching material from IMS, TIME, Cracku, Rodha and 2IIM are also good. Check more details below. 

“For Quantitative Ability preparation, I worked on knowing my basic concepts and working on solving the questions that I already know would be solved quickly especially on the questions and concepts which became familiar to me. This built up my skills and strengths, improved speed and accuracy” – Kirti Goyal, CAT Topper 99.1%, IIM Kozhikode MBA 2023-25

“First of all, I brushed up all the topics in initial few months. Then appeared in mock tests. My strategy for this section was to keep myself cool and not to get influenced by the performance in other two sections, as this being the last section, there are chances of mishap easy questions if other two sections have not gone well. I was doing one after another from start in sequence. My confidence grew with each questions I could solve and I left a few, which were time consuming” – Soumik Banerjee, CAT Topper 99.95%, IIM Calcutta 2023-25

“For QA preparation, my focus areas were to build a strong foundation in math concepts, Solved a variety of math problems daily, Memorized key formulas and shortcuts, Took full-length mock tests to improve speed and accuracy, Managed time effectively during the QA section, Identified and leveraged strong math areas, Worked on improving weaker Math topics, Enhanced mental calculation skills for quicker solutions” - Akshat Agarwal, CAT Topper 99.44%, IIT Delhi MBA 2023-25

Many other CAT toppers with 99 and 100 percentile have shared that they found Quantitative Aptitude was their weak area but they improved a lot in it with consistent preparation. Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, these CAT toppers spoke about their preparation strategy for Quant section: 

CAT Topper Rachit Saran, MDI Gurgaon (99.04 % in CAT 2017) on how he cracked Quantitative Aptitude in CAT
In an interview with MBAUniverse.com, CAT Topper Rachit Saran explained how he cracked Quant section. He said “I was scoring really low in Quant. I realized that the problem was not with my concepts; it was with my immature stubbornness to solve every question that came my way. Also, I wanted to solve all of them using the traditional methods.  I tried to cast this behaviour out by reminding myself that my entire goal here is to get the answer in least amount of time and nothing else. So, I learnt some unconventional techniques and started being selective with the questions. Of course, the choices here would skew towards my strengths.”

“The entire strategy here circled around selecting the right questions. Once I was done with my conceptual basics, I picked up my first couple of mocks and analysed them to see whether I was wasting time on the tough nuts. I devised my strategy in a way that allowed me to go through all the questions on the test, while solving only those that I was confident about.”

CAT Topper Rohan Joshi (99.63 % in CAT 2017) on how he cracked Quantitative Aptitude section
Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, CAT Topper Rohan Joshi (99.63 % in CAT 2017) explained how he cracked Quant section, “I started with solving basic questions and slowly moved on to higher difficulty levels as my preparation advanced.”

CAT Topper Somesh Lohani, FMS Delhi (99.99 % in CAT 2016) on how he cracked Quantitative Aptitude section
Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, CAT topper Somesh Lohani, FMS MBA 2017-19 batch pass out said, “For quant, first thing to do is clearing your basics. There are multiple books available in the market such as by Arun Sharma, Nishit Sinha, etc. Also videos on youtube such as Dinesh Miglani collection on youtube are really helpful and will help in clearing the basics concepts. Once I had my basic concepts cleared, it was all about solving as many questions as possible from different books, online materials and mock tests.”

CAT Topper Gyayak Jain, IIM Ahmedabad (100% in CAT 2016) on how he cracked Quantitative Aptitude section
In an interview with MBAUniverse.com, CAT topper with 100 percentile and IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2017-19 batch pass out, Gyayak Jain said, “I used TIME study modules to get me acquainted with various formulas and tricks of solving various types of problems. The practice for it was done in mock tests. Also, I had no guilt in leaving questions which I was uncomfortable with or was unsure about. I did not waste time in re-solving a question more than once if I am not getting any of the options.”

The best books and study material for CAT Quantitative Aptitude section are as follows:

• How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma: This is a comprehensive book covering all QA topics with detailed explanations, solved examples, and three levels of difficulty-based practice questions.
• Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT by Sarvesh K. Verma: This book focuses on conceptual clarity with detailed step-by-step solutions and shortcut techniques for solving problems quickly.
• Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by R.S. Aggarwal: This is good book for basic concepts for starting your CAT preperation.
• TIME, IMS, and Career Launcher Study Material: Coaching institutes provide structured QA modules with topic-wise exercises, mock tests, and concept-building exercises.
• CAT Previous Year Papers & Mock Test Series: Solving past CAT QA questions helps in understanding the exam pattern, difficulty level, and commonly tested concepts. TIME, IMS, Career Launcher, MBAUniverse.com also provide Mock Tests. Take free CAT Mock Test and CAT Previous Years Papers on MBAUniverse.com.
• YouTube Channels for QA Preparation: Channels like Rodha, 2IIM CAT, Cracku offer free video lessons for QA topics.

Also read CAT Preparation Books by Arun Sharma.

Sample Quantitative Aptitude based questions, studying from Quantitative Aptitude for CAT Best Book, Attempting Quantitative Aptitude CAT Previous Year Questions are the best tool to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude in CAT. Improving on QA Questions and Answers is important because if you do well in the Quantitative Aptitude for CAT, you will score high in the exam. Below are shared some of the sample QA Problems followed by questions and answers based on latest CAT exam question papers. Check below the CAT Quantitative Aptitude Questions and Answers

Q 1: Are positive real numbers such that logx (x2 + 12) = 4 and 3 logy x = 1, then x + y equals
Ans Options
1. 10
2. 10
3. 11
4. 68
Q 2: If x and y are real numbers such that x2 + (x - 2y - 1)2 = -4y(x + y), then the value x - 2y is
Ans Options
1. -1
2. 1
3. 0
4. 2
Q 3: Let n be the least positive integer such that 168 is a factor of 1134n. If m is the least positive integer such that 1134n is a factor of 168m, then m + n  equals
Ans Options
1. 9
2. 24
3. 15
4. 12 
Q4: The equation x3 + (2r + 1)x2 + (4r - 1) x + 2 = 0 has - 2 as one of the roots. If the other two roots are real, then the minimum possible non-negative integer value of r is
Case Sensitivity: No
Answer Type: Equal
Possible Answer: -- 
Q.5: Gita sells two objects A and B at the same price such that she makes a profit of 20%on object A and a loss of 10% on object B. If she increases the selling price such that objects A and B are still sold at an equal price and a profit of 10% is made on object B, then the profit made on object A will be nearest to
Ans Options
1. 47%
2. 49%
3. 42%
4. 45%
Q.6: The minor angle between the hours hand and minutes hand of a clock was observed at 8:48 am. The minimum duration, in minutes, after 8.48 am when this angle increases by 50% is
Ans Options
1. 36/11
2. 2
3. 24/11
4. 4
Q.7: Brishti went on an 8-hour trip in a car, before the trip the car had traveled a total of x km till then, where x is a whole number and is palindromic, At the end of his trip the car had travelled a total of 26862 km. If Bristi never drove at more than 110 km/h, then the greatest possible average speed at which she drove during the trip, in km/h, was
Ans Options
1. 80
2. 100
3. 90
4. 110
Q.8: The salaries of three friends Sita, Gita and Mita are initially in the ratio 5 : 6 : 7,respectively. In the first year, they get salary hikes of 20%, 25% and 20%, respectively. In the second year, Sita and Mita get salary hikes of 40% and 25%, respectively, and the salary of Gita becomes equal to the mean salary of the three friends. The salary hike of Gita in the second year is
Ans Options
1. 28%
2. 26%
3. 25%
4. 30%
Q.9: A quadrilateral ABCD is inscribed in a circle such that AB : CD = 2 : 1 and BC : AD = 5 :4. If AC and BD intersect at the point E, then AE : CE equals
Ans Options
1. 5:8
2. 8:5
3. 2:1
4. 1:2
Q.10: Circle x2 + y2 + 4x - 6y - 3 = 0 and L be locus of the point of intersection of a pair of tangents the angle between the two tangents equal to 600. Then, the point at which L touches the line x = 6 is
Ans Options
1. (6, 8)
2. (6, 4)
3. (6, 6)
4. (6, 3)
Q.11: Anil invests Rs. 22000 for 6 years in a certain scheme with 4% interest per annum, compounded half-yearly. Sunil invests in the same scheme for 5 years, and then reinvests the entire amount received at the end of 5 years for one year at 10%simple interest. If the amounts received by both at the end of 6 years are same, then the initial investment made by Sunil, in rupees, is.
Case Sensitivity: No
Answer Type: Equal
Possible Answer: ---
Q.12: The amount of job that Amal, Sunil and Kamal can individually do in a day, are in harmonic progression. Kamal takes twice as much time as Amal to do the same amount of job. If Amal and Sunil work for 4 days and 9 days, respectively, Kamal needs to work for 16 days to finish the remaining job. Then the number of days Sunil will take to finish the job working alone, is
Case Sensitivity: No
Answer Type: Equal
Possible Answer: --
 

In conclusion, Quantitative Aptitude (QA) is one of the three sections in the CAT exam. Quantitative Aptitude for CAT assesses a candidate's mathematical skills, problem-solving ability, and numerical aptitude. The questions in Quantitative Aptitude for CAT 2025 section will test the conceptual clarity, logical application, and time management skills. CAT Quantitative Aptitude section covers topics from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, number systems, and modern mathematics. Read CAT Quantitative Ability pattern, syllabus, type of questions, how to prepare and more details in the above article. Also check link for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT pdf download.