XAT is an All India Entrance Exam for admission in the MBA / PGDM course of top management institutes. Every year, XAT paper pattern is designed by the XLRI Jamshedpur. The XAT 2026 exam pattern has been revised this year. The Essay Writing Section has been eliminated from the question paper and is included in the GD-PI round. Also, in the Section of General Knowledge (GK), the total number of questions has now been reduced to 20 instead of 25.
The time duration for the XAT exam has been reduced from 210 minutes to 180 minutes. XAT exam pattern 2026 will have 2 sections in the question paper. The 1st section will have time duration of 170 minutes and the 2nd section will have time duration of 10 minutes. PwD candidates will get additional 20 minutes for each section.
Each student appearing for the exam must go through the detailed exam pattern before starting the preparation. They can read this article to get details about the XAT paper pattern 2026 such as number of questions, total marks, exam duration, marking system, and more.
XAT exam is conducted to evaluate aspirants’ various skills like decision making, quantitative, verbal & reading, and others. The following table contains the key points of the XAT exam pattern 2026:
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Particular
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Details
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Medium
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English
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Mode
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Online
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Number of Sections
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4
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XAT Exam Time Duration
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180 Minutes (3 hours):
- Part 1 - 170 Minutes (VA & LR, DM, QA & DI)
- Part 2 – 10 Minutes (GK)
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Total Number of Questions
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95
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Type of Questions
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MCQs
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Number of Answer Choices
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5 (for each answer)
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XAT Exam Total Marks
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95
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Section Wise details of XAT Exam 2026
XLRI Jamshedpur has divided the XAT question paper pattern in two parts which further has 4 sections. The first part comprises three sections which includes Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning (VA & LR), Decision Making (DM), Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation (QA & DI). Furthermore, the second part of the paper has only one section i.e., General Knowledge (GK).
The following table explains the section-wise details of the XAT exam pattern 2026 like time allotment, number of questions, etc.
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Section
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Number of Questions
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Marks
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Duration (in Minutes)
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VA & LR
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26
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26
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170
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|
DM
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21
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21
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QA & DI
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28
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28
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GK
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20
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20
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10
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Total
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95
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95
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180
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*Candidates who fit under the XAT eligibility criteria should check the exam pattern after completing their XAT Registration.
Before appearing for the exam, candidates should check out the XAT 2026 marking scheme. The details related to the marking criteria are as follows:
- +1 mark for each correct answer.
- Negative marking of -0.25 marks for an incorrect answer.
- No negative marking for GK section.
- -0.10 marks are deducted for more than 8 unattempted questions.
* Candidates are advised to have complete knowledge about the XAT Syllabus of each section before going through the exam pattern and starting to prepare for the exam.
