How many questions should I attempt in CAT for 99 percentile?

No official figure exists, and the percentile depends on the paper and the other candidates. Use your mocks to find the attempts and accuracy at which your percentile band reaches your target, then plan around that pair. At 80% accuracy each MCQ attempt nets 2.2 marks on average, at 90% it nets 2.6.

What is a good accuracy in CAT?

There is no official benchmark. Break-even for an MCQ is 25%, so anything above it adds marks on average. For planning, our mock analysis note uses 75% per section as an example metric. Treat that as a working target, not a rule, and adjust it using your own mock results and the percentile they produce.

Is 20 questions enough in a CAT section?

It depends on your accuracy and on the section. Twenty MCQ attempts at 80% accuracy net 20 × 2.2 = 44 marks. Whether that is enough cannot be said, because the section totals are not published for CAT 2026. Test the number in your mocks and look at the percentile it produces.

Does attempting more questions lower my percentile?

Not by itself. Each extra MCQ with better than a 25% chance of being right adds marks on average. But extra attempts take time from other questions, and if they pull accuracy down, the gain can disappear. More attempts help only while your accuracy holds.

How many questions are there in CAT 2026?

The CAT 2026 bulletin, press release and FAQ we checked do not state a total or per-section question count, and the FAQ says the number of non-MCQs cannot be disclosed. Counts from earlier years may not apply. Check the official CAT site, and do not rely on an article that quotes a figure without a source.

How Many Questions to Attempt in CAT

In short

Under +3/-1 marking, net marks on MCQs = attempts × (4 × accuracy - 1), so an attempt target means nothing without an accuracy attached.
At 80% accuracy each MCQ attempt is worth 2.2 marks on average; at 70% it is worth 1.8. A guess breaks even at 25%.
CAT 2026 has not published its question count in the official pages checked on 6 November 2026, so build your target from your own mock numbers.
Wrong non-MCQ (TITA) answers cost nothing, so attempt every one you have a method for.

How many questions to attempt in CAT depends on how many of them you get right. Under +3 and -1 marking, your net marks on MCQs are attempts × (4 × accuracy - 1), so '45 attempts' means nothing until an accuracy is attached to it.

CAT 2026 is on 29 November 2026, and the official pages checked on 6 November do not state the number of questions. This post therefore does not hand you a number for 90, 95 or 99 percentile. It shows how to work out your own target from your mocks.

Attempts mean nothing without accuracy: the net-score formula

CAT gives 3 marks for a correct MCQ, takes away 1 for a wrong MCQ, and scores skipped questions zero. If you attempt n MCQs with accuracy a (as a fraction), you get 3 × a × n marks for right answers and lose (1 - a) × n for wrong ones.

Net marks = n × (4a - 1)
Accuracy = correct / attempted × 100
Average value of one attempt = 4a - 1 marks

This is why a candidate with fewer attempts and better accuracy can beat one who attempts more. The break-even point is a = 25%, where an attempt is worth 0 on average.

How many questions to attempt in CAT at each accuracy level

The table shows net marks for total MCQ attempts at three accuracy levels. These are arithmetic illustrations, not official targets, and they assume every attempt is an MCQ.

Total attempts	70% accuracy	80% accuracy	90% accuracy
30	54	66	78
40	72	88	104
50	90	110	130

Example. Which is better: 40 attempts at 70% or 30 attempts at 90%?

40 attempts at 70%: 28 correct, 12 wrong. Net = 84 - 12 = 72.
30 attempts at 90%: 27 correct, 3 wrong. Net = 81 - 3 = 78.

Answer: 30 attempts at 90% scores 6 marks more than 40 attempts at 70%.

Going from 40 attempts at 80% (88) to 50 attempts at 70% (90) changes almost nothing. Ten more attempts bought only 2 marks because accuracy fell by ten points. Percentile targets are not in this table because the percentile for a given net score depends on the paper and the test-takers.

Why published 'good attempts' lists disagree

Many lists give attempts without the accuracy they assume, so two lists for the same percentile can describe different candidates.
Some are totals for the paper and some are per section, and the two get mixed.
They come from different years, when the paper's difficulty and the section question counts differed.
Some are recollections of toppers. A topper who attempted a lot with high accuracy is not a template for a candidate at 65% accuracy.

Treat any list as one data point. The only list that matches your exam is the one you build from your own mocks.

Section-wise targets, and why DILR counts in sets not questions

CAT 2026 has three sections of exactly 40 minutes each, and you cannot switch between them. Time left in one section cannot be spent in another, so each section needs its own attempt and accuracy target.

In VARC and QA the unit is the question. In DILR the unit is the set. You pay a fixed cost, reading and understanding the layout, before the first question in a set can be answered, so abandoning a set after paying that cost wastes the time already spent. Choose sets carefully and spend the first few minutes ranking them. The DILR playbook covers selection.

Example. A section target from mock averages: VARC 16 attempts at 75%, QA 12 attempts at 75%. What is the net in each? (Illustrative numbers.)

Value per attempt = 4 × 0.75 - 1 = 2.
VARC: 16 × 2 = 32.
QA: 12 × 2 = 24.

Answer: VARC 32 and QA 24. Add DILR on the same basis to get your paper net.

How to measure your own accuracy from three mocks

Take three full mocks under CAT conditions, with 40 minutes per section and no switching. The free CAT Compass mock is a starting baseline.
For each mock and each section, note attempted, correct and wrong.
Add the three mocks together before dividing: accuracy = total correct / total attempted.
Work out the net for each mock and the average.

Example. Three mocks: 38 attempted and 27 correct; 42 attempted and 31 correct; 40 attempted and 28 correct. What is the accuracy and the net?

Correct = 27 + 31 + 28 = 86. Attempted = 38 + 42 + 40 = 120. Accuracy = 86 / 120 = 71.7%.
Nets: 81 - 11 = 70; 93 - 11 = 82; 84 - 12 = 72. Average = 224 / 3 = about 74.7.
At 40 attempts, 5 points more accuracy adds 40 × 4 × 0.05 = 8 marks. Four more attempts at 71.7% add 4 × 1.87 = about 7.5.

Answer: Accuracy of 71.7% and a net of about 75. Five points of accuracy and four extra attempts are worth roughly the same, so fix accuracy first if it is below your sections' targets.

Review each mock as described in the mock analysis guide so that the numbers lead to specific fixes.

Break-even accuracy for a guess under -1 marking

The expected marks from one MCQ attempt are 4p - 1, where p is your chance of being right. At p = 25% that is 0, at one in three it is +0.33, and at one in two it is +1.

Marks also cost time. A 3-minute question with a 50% chance returns +1, or 0.33 marks a minute. A 1.5-minute question at 90% returns +2.6, or about 1.7 a minute. Guess only after you can remove at least one option, and prefer the quick question when you have a choice.

Where TITA questions fit into the attempts count

Non-MCQ (TITA) questions score +3 when correct and nothing when wrong or skipped. Count them separately: wrong TITA answers never reduce your net, so attempt every TITA where you have any workable method.

The official FAQ says the number of non-MCQs in each section cannot be disclosed. So the share of TITA in your paper will not be known until the day, and your attempt target should not depend on it. Net = 3 × (correct MCQ + correct TITA) - wrong MCQ.

How to adjust when one section is tougher on the day

Percentile is relative. If a section feels hard to everyone, the usual attempt numbers fall for everyone, and holding your accuracy matters more than hitting your mock attempts.

Spend the first few minutes picking questions or sets, not solving.
Set a time ceiling per question and keep to it, as in your mocks.
If the first few questions of a section fail you, skip on rather than push your accuracy down.
Do not carry leftover time or worry into the next section. Each is timed at 40 minutes.

How Many Questions to Attempt in CAT for 90, 95, 99 Percentile