CAT 2016 Question Paper was rated difficult compared to the previous year. The paper included three sections: namely, Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning, and Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension. These sections consisted of 34, 32, and 34 questions respectively. Candidates who attempted 72+ questions with 95% accuracy were able to get 99.5+ percentile.

Students preparing for CAT 2025 can download CAT 2016 Question Paper with Answer Key PDFs from below:

Also Check: CAT Question Paper With Solution Pdf

CAT 2016 Question Paper with Solution PDF – DILR Slot 1

CAT 2016 Question Paper With Answer Key – DILR Slot 1

Download PDF

Check Solutions


Comprehension: Recently, the answers of a test held nationwide were leaked to a group of unscrupulous people. The investigative agency has arrested the mastermind and nine other people A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I in this matter. Interrogating them, the following facts have been obtained regarding their operation. Initially the mastermind obtains the correct answer-key. All the others create their answer-key from one or two people who already
Read More possess the same. These people are called his/her “sources”. If the person has two sources, then he/she compares the answer keys obtained from both sources. If the key to a question from both sources is identical, it is copied, otherwise it is left blank. If the person has only one source, he/she copies the source’s answers into his/her copy. Finally, each person compulsorily replaces one of the answers (not a blank one) with a wrong answer in his/her answer key. The paper contained 200 questions; so the investigative agency has ruled out the possibility of two or more of them introducing wrong answers to the same question. The investigative agency has a copy of the correct answer key and has tabulated the following data. These data represent question numbers.
Question 1:

Which one among the following must have two sources?

  • (A) A
  • (B) B
  • (C) C
  • (D) D

Question 2:

How many people (excluding the mastermind) needed to make answer keys before C could make his answer key?

  • (A) 2
  • (B) 3
  • (C) 4
  • (D) 5

Question 3:

Both G and H were sources to

  • (A) F
  • (B) B
  • (C) I
  • (D) None of the nine

Question 4:

Which of the following statements is true?

  • (A) C introduced the wrong answer to question 27
  • (B) E introduced the wrong answer to question 46
  • (C) F introduced the wrong answer to question 54
  • (D) H introduced the wrong answer to question 46

Question 5:

How many regions produce medium qualities of Crop 1 or Crop 2 or Crop 3 or Crop 4 or all of them?


Question 6:

Which of the following statements is true?

  • (A) All medium quality Crop 2 producing regions are also high quality Crop 2 producing regions
  • (B) All high quality Crop 2 producing regions are also medium quality Crop 2 producing regions
  • (C) There are quality free Crop 3 producing regions, which also produce Crop 2 but not Crop 2
  • (D) There are quality free Crop 4 producing Crop 3, and high quality Crop 2

Question 7:

How many low quality Crop 3 producing regions are either high quality Crop 3 producing regions or medium quality Crop 3 producing regions?


Question 8:

How many high quality Crop 4 producing regions are there?


Question 9:

Three of the following four pairs of countries have identical levels of dissimilarity. Which pair is the odd one out?

  • (A) Malaysia & China
  • (B) China & Thailand
  • (C) Japan & Japan
  • (D) Japan & Malaysia

Question 10:

Which amongst the following countries is most dissimilar to India?

  • (A) China
  • (B) Japan
  • (C) Malaysia
  • (D) Thailand

Question 11:

Which of the following countries is least dissimilar to India?


Question 12:

Which of the following pairs of countries are most dissimilar?

  • (A) China & Japan
  • (B) India & China
  • (C) Malaysia & Japan
  • (D) Thailand & Japan

Question 13:

How many Naya mixer-grinders were disposed off by the end of 2000?


Question 14:

How many Naya mixer-grinders were purchased in 1999?


Question 15:

How many Purana mixer-grinders were purchased in 1999?


Question 16:

How many Purana mixer-grinders were disposed off in 2000?


Question 17:

Which one of the following statements is true about matches played in the first two rounds?

  • (A) Germany beat Pakistan by 2 goals to 1
  • (B) Argentina beat Pakistan by 2 goals to 0
  • (C) Germany beat Pakistan by 2 goals to 1
  • (D) Argentina beat Pakistan by 2 goals to 1

Question 18:

Which one of the following statements is true about matches played in the first two rounds?

  • (A) Spain beat Germany by 2 goals to 0
  • (B) Spain beat New Zealand by 2 goals to 0
  • (C) Spain beat South Africa by 2 goals to 0
  • (D) Spain beat New Zealand by 2 goals to 1

Question 19:

If Pakistan qualified as one of the two teams from Pool A, which was the other team that qualified?

  • (A) Argentina
  • (B) Germany
  • (C) Spain
  • (D) Cannot be determined

Question 20:

Which team finished at the top of the pool after five rounds of matches?

  • (A) Argentina
  • (B) Germany
  • (C) Spain
  • (D) Cannot be determined

Question 21:

What is the minimum average return Venkat would have earned during the year?

  • (A) 30%
  • (B) 31.25%
  • (C) 32.5%
  • (D) Cannot be determined

Question 22:

If Venkat earned a 35% return on average during the year, then which of these statements would necessarily be true?

I. Company A belonged either to Auto or to Steel Industry.
II. Company B did not announce extraordinarily good results.
III. Company D did not announce extraordinarily good results.
IV. Company C announced extraordinarily good results.

  • (A) I and II only
  • (B) II and III only
  • (C) I and IV only
  • (D) II and IV only

Question 23:

If Venkat earned a 38.75% return on average during the year, then which of these statement(s) would necessarily be true?

I. Company C belonged either to Auto or to Steel Industry.
II. Company A announced extraordinarily good results.
III. Company B did not announce extraordinarily good results.
IV. Company D announced extraordinarily good results.

  • (A) I and II only
  • (B) II and III only
  • (C) I and III only
  • (D) III and IV only

Question 24:

If Company C belonged to the Cement or the IT industry and did announce extraordinarily good results, then which of these statement(s) would necessarily be true?

I. Venkat earned not more than 36.25% return on average.
II. Venkat earned 33.75% return on average.
III. If Venkat earned extraordinarily good results.
IV. If Venkat earned 33.75% return on average, Company A belonged either to Auto or to Steel Industry.

  • (A) I only
  • (B) II and IV only
  • (C) I and III only
  • (D) III and IV only

Question 25:

What percentage of members from among those who voted for New York in round 1, voted for Beijing in round 2?

  • (A) 33.33
  • (B) 50
  • (C) 66067
  • (D) 75

Question 26:

What is the number of votes cast for Paris in round 1?

  • (A) 16
  • (B) 18
  • (C) 22
  • (D) 24

Question 27:

What percentage of members from among those who voted for Beijing in round 2 and were eligible to vote in round 3, voted for London?

  • (A) 33.33
  • (B) 38.10
  • (C) 50
  • (D) 66067

Question 28:

Which of the following statements must be true? a. IOC member from New York must have voted for Paris in round 2. b. IOC member from Beijing voted for London in round 3.

  • (A) Only a
  • (B) Only b
  • (C) Both a and b
  • (D) Neither a nor b

Question 29:

What percentage of members from among those who voted for Beijing in round 1 and were eligible to vote in round 3, voted for London?

  • (A) 33.33
  • (B) 50
  • (C) 66.67
  • (D) 75

Question 30:

What is the number of votes cast for Paris in round 1?

  • (A) 16
  • (B) 18
  • (C) 22
  • (D) 24

Question 31:

What percentage of members from among those who voted for Beijing in round 1 and were eligible to vote in round 3, voted for London?

  • (A) 33.33
  • (B) 38.33
  • (C) 50
  • (D) 60.67

Question 32:

Which of the following statements must be true? a. IOC member from New York must have voted for Paris in round 2. b. IOC member from Beijing voted for London in round 3.

  • (A) Only a
  • (B) Only b
  • (C) Both a and b
  • (D) Neither a nor b


CAT 2016 Question Paper Analysis

CAT 2016 was conducted by IIM Bangalore on December 4, 2016. CAT 2015 exam pattern and CAT 2016 exam pattern were similar except for the weighted TITA questions.

CAT 2016 VARC Question Paper Analysis

The VARC section of CAT 2016 Question Paper was rated easy to moderate level. CAT 2016 Question Paper had 25 Non-MCQ questions and there was no negative marking for Non-MCQ questions.

The second slot of CAT 2016 was conducted from 2:30 PM and 5:30 PM. A good attempt of 66+ questions with 100% accuracy should suffice a good percentile.

Slot 1

  • The question paper had reading comprehensions from areas like Environmental Studies, Economics, etc.
  • The VARC section was lengthy but easier than other sections.
  • Most of the questions of the VARC section came from the verbal logic part.

Slot 2

  • One passage from the Reading Comprehension section was difficult and other passages were majorly factual.
  • The easiest part of the question paper was the summary and the para jumble questions.
  • There were inference-based questions in RC.

Students should follow the below table for a better understanding of question distribution

Topic Number of Questions
Reading Comprehension 24
Para-jumble 4
Summary 3
Para-jumble (Odd sentence out) 2

CAT 2016 DILR Question Paper Analysis

Candidates should have practiced enough to do well in this section. They should have read the instructions before starting answering the questions.

Slot 1

  • 1 set in this section was moderately difficult while 4 sets of this section were very easy.
  • Most of the Data Interpretation questions were calculation-related.
  • The slot 1 DILR question paper of CAT 2016 had no questions from the DS part.

Slot 2

  • The question paper had three difficult DI sets but the other one was easier.
  • This question paper had more than 17 doable questions.

Students should follow the below table for a better understanding of question distribution

Topic Number of Questions Doable
Pass percentage - Moderate 4 2-3
Movies - Easy 4 4
Train - Difficult 4 1-2
Veg/Non-veg - Moderate/Difficult 4 1-2
Marks - Easy 4 4
Folders - Easy 4 4
T-shirt - Easy 4 3
Venn Diagram (Laptop/Smartphone/Tablet) - Moderate 4 3

CAT 2016 QA Question Paper Analysis

The options in this section were very helpful to get the answer. Candidates should have known time management to get a good percentile in this section.

Slot 1

  • CAT 2016 Question Paper had 7-8 MCQ questions from the QA section and the rest were Non-MCQs.
  • The questions were easy and doable with the help of formulas.
  • The question paper had around 10 questions from the Algebra part.

Slot 2

  • The slot 2 QA section of CAT 2016 Question Paper was dominated by the questions from Geometry and Arithmetic.
  • There were only 7 TITA questions in slot 2.
  • A good attempt of 18-20 questions with 90% accuracy should suffice a good percentile.

Students should follow the below table for a better understanding of question distribution

Topic Number of Questions Doable
Number System 4 3
Algebra 10-11 8-10
Arithmetic 10 7-9
Geometry and Mensuration 7-8 4-5
Modern Math 2 1

CAT Question Papers of Previous Years

Other MBA Exam Question Papers