CAT 2025 Question Paper with Answer Key for Slot 1

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CAT 2025
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CAT 2025 Question Paper Slot 1

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Common Admission Test — Solved Question Paper (Slot 1)

3 Sections • VARC · DI&LR · QA • 68 Questions • MCQ + TITA (Type In The Answer)

Instructions: Each section has its own question numbering. MCQs have four options — choose one. TITA questions have no
options; type the numeric/word answer. Reading-comprehension passages and DI&LR set data appear in shaded boxes above their
questions. The answer key is at the end.
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Section I — Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)
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24 questions
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1.
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The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a
coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the
sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

1. But man, woman or otherwise, there is no denying that the quality of our life and character will be
significantly shaped by the way we handle our anger.

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2. Once the taboos have been broken, women usually experience letting their fists fly as intensely
liberating.
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3. Though this might seem a stereotype, women—unlike men, who are frequently applauded for
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unbridled aggression—are often socialized to keep a lid on their ire.
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4. Many of them are so at odds with their aggressive feelings that, as a coach, I often have to stop them
from pulling their punches and encourage them to extend their arms so their blows might actually reach
their fleshy target.

(TITA — type in your answer)

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2. The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2,
3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.

Sentence: Historically, silver has been, and still is, an important element in the business of ‘show’
visible in private houses, churches, government and diplomacy.

Paragraph: ____(1)____. Timothy Schroder put it succinctly in suggesting that electric light and
eating in the kitchen eroded this need. As he explained to the author, ‘Silver, when illuminated by
flickering candlelight, comes alive and almost dances before the eyes, but when lit by electric light it
becomes flat and dead.’ ____(2)____. Domestic and economic changes may have worked against the
market, but the London silver trade remained buoyant, thanks to the competition of collectors seeking
grand display silver at the top end, and the buyers of ‘collectables’, like spoons and wine labels and
‘novelties’, at the bottom. ____(3)____. Another factor that came into play was the systematic
collection building of certain American museums over the period. Boston, Huntington Art Gallery and
Williamsburg, among others, were largely supplied by London dealers. ____(4)____.

1. Option 2 2. Option 4
3. Option 1 4. Option 3

3. The four sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, and 4) given below, when properly sequenced, would yield a
coherent paragraph. Decide on the proper sequencing of the order of the sentences and key in the
sequence of the four numbers as your answer.

1. It can in fact be integrated into any function (education, medical treatment, production, punishment);
it can increase the effect of this function, by being linked closely with it; it can constitute a mixed
mechanism in which relations of power (and of knowledge) may be precisely adjusted, in the smallest
detail, to the processes that are to be supervised; it can establish a direct proportion between ‘surplus
power’ and ‘surplus production’.

2. It’s a case of ‘it’s easy once you’ve thought of it’ in the political sphere.

3. The panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power
and a function; it is a way of making power relations function in a function, and of making a function
function through these power relations.

4. In short, it arranges things in such a way that the exercise of power is not added on from the outside,
like a rigid, heavy constraint, to the functions it invests, but is so subtly present in them as to increase
their efficiency by itself increasing its own points of contact.

(TITA — type in your answer)

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4. Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can
be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of
that sentence as your answer.

1. Developments both technological and sociocultural have afforded us far greater freedom over death
than we had in the past, and while we are still adapting ourselves to that freedom, we now appreciate
the moral importance of this freedom.

2. But I believe that a type of freedom we can call freedom over death – that is, a freedom in which we
shape the timing and circumstances of how we die – should be central to this conversation.

3. Legalising assisted dying is but a further step in realising this freedom over death.

4. Many people endorse, through their opinions or their choices, our freedom over death encompassing
a right to medical assistance in hastening our deaths.

5. Freedom is a notoriously complex and contested philosophical notion, and I won’t pretend to settle
any of the big controversies it raises.

(TITA — type in your answer)

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READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW.

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Understanding the key properties of complex systems can help us clarify
existing global challenges, from pandemics to poverty . . . A recent study in Nature Physics found
transitions to orderly states such as schooling in fish (all fish swimming in the same direction), can be
caused, paradoxically, by randomness, or ‘noise’ feeding back on itself. That is, a misalignment among
the fish causes further misalignment, eventually inducing a transition to schooling. Most of us wouldn’t
guess that noise can produce predictable behaviour. The result invites us to consider how technology
such as contact-tracing apps, although informing us locally, might negatively impact our collective
movement. If each of us changes our behaviour to avoid the infected, we might generate a collective
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pattern we had aimed to avoid: higher levels of interaction between the infected and susceptible, or high
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levels of interaction among the asymptomatic.
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Complex systems alsoesuffer
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or ‘bell curve’. When a
events are distributed normally, most outcomes are familiar and don’t seem
ag Height is a good example: it’s pretty unusual for a man to be over 7 feet tall; most
particularly striking.
adults are between 5 and 6 feet, and there is no known person over 9 feet tall. But in collective settings
where contagion shapes behaviour – a run on the banks, a scramble to buy toilet paper – the probability
distributions for possible events are often heavy-tailed. There is a much higher probability of extreme
events, such as a stock market crash or a massive surge in infections. These events are still unlikely, but
they occur more frequently and are larger than would be expected under normal distributions.

What’s more, once a rare but hugely significant ‘tail’ event takes place, this raises the probability of

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further tail events. We might call them second-order tail events; they include stock market gyrations
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after a big fall and earthquake aftershocks. The initial probability of second-order tail events is so tiny
e tail event occurs, the rules change, and the
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it’s almost impossible to calculate – but once a first-order
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probability of a second-order tail event increases.
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The dynamics of tail events are complicated by the fact that they result from cascades of other unlikely
events. When COVID-19 first struck, the stock market suffered stunning losses followed by an equally
stunning recovery. Some of these dynamics are potentially attributable to former sports bettors, with no
sports to bet on, entering the market as speculators rather than investors. The arrival of these new
players might have increased inefficiencies and allowed savvy long-term investors to gain an edge over
bettors with different goals. . . .
One reason a first-order tail event can induce further tail events is that it changes the perceived costs of m
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our actions and changes the rules that we play by. This game-change is an example of another key .co
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complex systems concept: nonstationarity. A second, canonical example of nonstationarity is adaptation,
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by the arms race involved in the coevolution of hosts and parasites [in which] each has to
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5. Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
1. The passage explains how noise can create 2. The passage explains how social outcomes
order, then shows why complex systems with generally follow normal distributions. So,
contagion are vulnerable to heavy-tailed extreme events are negligible, and policy
cascades. It also explains why early shocks should stabilise averages rather than learn
change rules through nonstationarity with a from large shocks in fast-changing collective
market illustration during the COVID-19 settings.
disruption.
3. The passage explains how nonstationarity 4. The passage explains how speculative
works in evolutionary biology and rejects entrants always produce inefficiency after
applications in markets or public health health shocks. Therefore, long-term investors
because adaptation is exclusive to parasite- invariably profit when new participants push
host systems and cannot arise in technology- prices away from fundamentals under
mediated social dynamics. pandemic conditions and comparable crises.

6. The passage suggests that contact tracing apps could inadvertently raise risky interactions by altering
local behaviour. Which one of the assumptions below is most necessary for that suggestion to hold?
1. Most users uninstall apps within a week, 2. Urban networks have uniform traffic
which leaves only highly exposed individuals conditions at all hours, which allows perfectly
participating. This neutralises any systematic predictable routing independent of personal
bias in routing decisions and prevents any choices, social signals, or crowd reactions
predictable change in aggregate contact and, therefore, makes interdependence
patterns. negligible in city movement decisions.
3. App alerts always include precise location to 4. Individuals base movement choices partly on
within one metre and deliver real time observed infections and on the behaviour of
updates for all users, which ensures that the others. So, local responses interact, which
data feed is perfectly accurate regardless of turns many small adjustments into large scale
privacy settings, power limits, or network patterns that can frustrate the intended aim of
conditions. risk reduction.

7. All of the following inferences are supported by the passage EXCEPT that:
1. heavy-tailed events make extreme outcomes 2. the text attributes the COVID-19 pandemic
more frequent and larger than bell curve rebound in financial markets solely to
expectations. This complicates forecasting displaced sports bettors and treats their entry
and risk management in collective settings as the overriding cause of the rapid recovery
shaped by contagion and copying behaviour. across assets and time horizons.
3. examples like runs on banks and toilet paper 4. learning can change the rules that actors face.
scrambles illustrate how contagion can So, a rare shock can alter payoffs and raise the
amplify local choices into system-wide odds of subsequent large disturbances within
cascades that surprise participants and lead to the same system, which supports the idea of
patterns they did not intend to create. second-order tail events.

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8. Which one of the following observations would most strengthen the passage’s claim that a first-order
tail event raises the probability of further tail events in complex systems?
1. River discharge records show water levels fit a 2. In epidemic networks, initial super-spreading
normal distribution with thin tails that match episodes are isolated spikes after which
laboratory data, regardless of storms or outbreak sizes match the baseline distribution
floods. from independent contact models across
comparable cities with no rise in the
frequency or size of later extreme clusters.
3. Following large earthquakes, regional seismic 4. After a major equity crash, researchers find
activity returns to baseline within hours with dense clusters of large daily moves for several
no aftershock sequence once data are weeks, with extreme days occurring far more
adjusted for reporting effects, which suggests often than in normal circumstances for assets
independence across events rather than any with customarily low volatility profiles.
elevation in subsequent tail probabilities.

9. Five jumbled sentences (labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), related to a topic, are given below. Four of them can
be put together to form a coherent paragraph. Identify the odd sentence out and key in the number of
that sentence as your answer.

1. The Bayeux tapestry was, therefore, an obvious way to tell people about the downfall of the English
and the rise of the Normans.

2. So if we take expert in Anglo-Saxon culture Gale Owen-Crocker’s idea that the tapestry was originally
hung in a square with certain scenes facing each other, people would have stood in the centre.

3. Art historian Linda Neagley has argued that pre-Renaissance people interacted with art visually,
kinaesthetically (sensory perception through bodily movement) and physically.

4. That would make it an 11th-century immersive space with scenes corresponding and echoing each
other, drawing the viewer’s attention, playing on their senses and understanding of the story they
thought they knew.

5. The Bayeux tapestry would have been hung at eye level to enable this.

(TITA — type in your answer)

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. c10. The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option
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Zombie cells may contribute to age-related chronic inflammation: this finding could help scientists
understand more about the aging process and why the immune system becomes less effective as we get
older. Zombie or “senescent” cells are damaged cells that can no longer divide and grow like normal
cells. Scientists think that these cells can contribute to chronic health problems when they accumulate
in the body. In younger people, the immune system is more effective at clearing senescent cells from the
body through a process called apoptosis, but as we age this process becomes less efficient. As a result,
there is an accumulation of senescent cells in different organs in the body, either through increased
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production or reduced clearance by the immune system. The zombie cells continue to use energy though
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1. Dead cells accelerate chronic inflammation Senescent “zombie” cells are inactive
2.

weakening malfunctioning cells that can be found
aging. throughout the body.
3. A younger person’s immune system is healthy 4. Aging leads to less effective apoptosis, and
and is able to clear the damaged cells, but as therefore zombie cells start to accumulate in
people age, the zombie cells resist apoptosis, the body, causing inflammation, which
and start accumulating in the body. accelerates aging and leads to chronic
diseases.
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. Decide where it best fits among the options 1, 2,
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The given sentence is missing in the paragraph below.
3, or 4 indicated in the paragraph.
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Sentence: “Everything is old-world, traditional techniques from Mexico,” Ava emphasizes.

Paragraph: The sisters embrace the ways their great-grandfather built and repaired instruments.
____(1)____. When crafting a Mexican guitarrón used in mariachi music, they use tacote wood for the
top of the instrument. Once the wood is cut, they carve the neck and heel from a single block using tools
like hand saws, chisels and sandpaper rather than modern power tools — and believe that this
traditional method improves the tone of the instrument. ____(2)____. Their store has a three-year
waitlist for instruments that take months to create. ____(3)____. The family’s artisanship has
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attracted stars like Los Lobos, who own custom guitars made by all three generations of the Delgado
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1.Option 1 2.

3. Option 2 4. Option 4

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12. The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the
essence of the passage.

In the dynamic realm of creativity, artists often find themselves at the crossroads between drawing
inspiration from diverse cultures and inadvertently crossing into the territory of cultural appropriation.
Inspiration is the lifeblood of creativity, driving artists to create works that resonate across borders. The
globalized nature of the modern world invites artists to draw from a vast array of cultural influences.
When approached respectfully, inspiration becomes a bridge, fostering understanding and appreciation
of cultural diversity. However, the line between inspiration and cultural appropriation can be thin and
easily blurred. Cultural appropriation occurs when elements from a particular culture are borrowed
without proper understanding, respect, or acknowledgment. This leads to the commodification of sacred
symbols, the reinforcement of stereotypes, and the erasure of the cultural context from which these
elements originated. It’s essential to recognize that the impact of cultural appropriation extends beyond
the realm of artistic expression, influencing societal perceptions and perpetuating power imbalances.

1. In today’s world of creativity, artists have to 2. Artists in a globalised world must navigate
decide between respectfully acknowledging between drawing inspiration from diverse
works that are inspired by diverse cultures cultures respectfully and cultural
and appropriating elements without respect appropriation that involves borrowing
for their contexts. without proper acknowledgement which has
broader societal impacts including
perpetuating power imbalances.
3. In a globalised world, artists must draw from 4. Artists must navigate the thin line between
diverse cultural influences to create works inspiration and cultural appropriation, where
that appeal to all, and this results in instances respectful inspiration fosters cultural
of both inspiration and cultural understanding whereas appropriation
appropriation. involves borrowing without acknowledgement
leading to commodification and
reinforcement of stereotypes.

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READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW.

Often the well intentioned music lover or the traditionally-minded professional composer asks two basic
questions when faced with the electronic music phenomena: (1) . . . is this type of artistic creation music
at all? and, (2) given that the product is accepted as music of a new type or order, is not such music
“inhuman”? . . . As Lejaren Hiller points out in his book Experimental Music (co-author Leonard M.
Isaacson), two questions which often arise when music is discussed are: (a) the substance of musical
communication and its symbolic and semantic significance, if any, and (b) the particular processes, both
mental and technical, which are involved in creating and responding to musical composition. The ever-
present popular concept of music as a direct, open, emotional expression and as a subjective form of
communication from the composer, is, of course still that of the nineteenth century, when composers
themselves spoke of music in those terms . . . But since the third decade of our century many composers
have preferred more objective definitions of music, epitomized in Stravinsky’s description of it as “a
form of speculation in terms of sound and time”. An acceptance of this more characteristic twentieth-
century view of the art of musical composition will of course immediately bring the layman closer to an
understanding of, and sympathetic response to, electronic music, even if the forms, sounds and
approaches it uses will still be of a foreign nature to him.

A communication problem however will still remain. The principal barrier that electronic music presents
at large, in relation to the communication process, is that composers in this medium are employing a
new language of forms . . . where terms like ‘densities’, ‘indefinite pitch relations’, ‘dynamic
serialization’, ‘permutation’, etc., are substitutes (or remote equivalents) for the traditional concepts of
harmony, melody, rhythm, etc. . . . When the new structural procedures of electronic music are at last
fully understood by the listener the barriers between him and the work he faces will be removed. . . .
The medium of electronic music has of course tempted many kinds of composers to try their hand at it . .
. But the serious-minded composer approaches the world of electronic music with a more sophisticated
and profound concept of creation. Although he knows that he can reproduce and employ melodic,
rhythmic patterns and timbres of a traditional nature, he feels that it is in the exploration of sui generis
languages and forms that the aesthetic magic of the new medium lies. And, conscientiously, he plunges
into this search.

The second objection usually levelled against electronic music is much more innocent in nature. When
people speak—sometimes very vehemently—of the ‘inhuman’ quality of this music they seem to forget
that the composer is the one who fires the machines, collects the sounds, manipulates them, pushes the
buttons, programs the computer, filters the sounds, establishes pitches and scales, splices tape, thinks of
forms, and rounds up the over-all structure of the piece, as well as every detail of it.

13. The goal of the author over the course of this passage is to:
1. defend electronic music from certain common 2. differentiate the modern composer from the
charges. nineteenth century composer.
3. differentiate between electronic music and 4. defend the “serious-minded composer” from
other forms of music. Lejaren Hill and Stravinsky.

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c14. The mention of Stravinsky’s description of music in the first paragraphsedoes
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complicate
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communicated through music.
3. help us determine which sounds are musical 4. respond to and expand upon earlier
and which are not. understandings of music.

15. From the context in which it is placed, the phrase “sui generis” in paragraph 3 suggests which one of the
following?

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1. Unaesthetic 2. Generic
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3. Particular 4. Indescribable
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Unfamiliar forms and terms might get in the None; they are unrelated to one another and
2.
way of our seeing electronic music as music, form parts of different discussions.
but this can be overcome.
3. Its unfamiliar “language of forms” and novel 4. The communication problem is what allows
terms mean that we cannot see electronic us to see electronic music as music because
music as music since it does not employ music must be difficult to understand.
traditional musical concepts.
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READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW.

How can we know what someone else is thinking or feeling, let alone prove it in court? In his 1863 book,
A General View of the Criminal Law of England, James Fitzjames Stephen, among the most celebrated
legal thinkers of his generation, was of the opinion that the assessment of a person’s mental state was an
inference made with “little consciousness.” In a criminal case, jurors, doctors, and lawyers could watch
defendants—scrutinizing clothing, mannerisms, tone of voice—but the best they could hope for were
clues. . . . Rounding these clues up to a judgment about a defendant’s guilt, or a defendant’s life, was an
act of empathy and imagination. . . . The closer the resemblance between defendants and their judges,
the easier it was to overlook the gap that inference filled. Conversely, when a defendant struck officials
as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender, confession, or race, the precariousness of
judgments about mental state was exposed.

In the nineteenth century, physicians who specialized in the study of madness and the care of the insane
held themselves out as experts in the new field of mental science. Often called alienists or mad doctors,
they were the predecessors of modern psychiatrists, neurologists, and psychologists. . . . The opinions of
family and neighbors had once been sufficient to sift the sane from the insane, but a growing belief that
insanity was a subtle condition that required expert, medical diagnosis pushed physicians into the
witness box. . . . Lawyers for both prosecution and defense began to recruit alienists to assess
defendants’ sanity and to testify to it in court.

Irresponsibility and insanity were not identical, however. Criminal responsibility was a legal concept and
not, fundamentally, a medical one. Stephen explained: “The question ‘What are the mental elements of
responsibility?’ is, and must be, a legal question. It cannot be anything else, for the meaning of
responsibility is liability to punishment.” . . . Nonetheless, medical and legal accounts of what it meant to
be mentally sound became entangled and mutually referential throughout the nineteenth century.
Lawyers relied on medical knowledge to inform their opinions and arguments about the sanity of their
clients. Doctors commented on the legal responsibility of their patients. Ultimately, the fields of criminal
law and mental science were both invested in constructing an image of the broken and damaged psyche
that could be contrasted with the whole and healthy one. This shared interest, and the shared space of
the criminal courtroom, made it nearly impossible to consider responsibility without medicine, or
insanity without law. . . .

Physicians and lawyers shared more than just concern for the mind. Class, race, and gender bound these
middle-class, white, professional men together, as did family ties, patriotism, Protestantism, business
ventures, the alumni networks of elite schools and universities, and structures of political patronage. But
for all their affinities, men of medicine and law were divided by contests over the borders of criminal
responsibility, as much within each profession as between them. Alienists steadily pushed the
boundaries of their field, developing increasingly complex and capacious definitions of insanity.
Eccentricity and aggression came to be classified as symptoms of mental disease, at least by some.

17. According to the passage, who or what was an “alienist”?
1. Physicians and lawyers who were responsible 2. Physicians and lawyers who were responsible
for examining accounts of extraterrestrials or for the condition of immigrants or ‘aliens’ in
‘aliens’ in the nineteenth century. the nineteenth century.
3. Professionals who pushed the boundaries of 4. Physicians who specialised in the study of
their fields till they became unrecognisable in madness and the care of the insane in the
the nineteenth century. nineteenth century.

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18. “Conversely, when a defendant struck officials as unlike themselves, whether by dint of disease, gender,
confession, or race, the precariousness of judgments about mental state was exposed.” Which one of the
following best describes the use of the word “confession” in this sentence?
1. The defendants struck out at the officials and 2. Referring to the practice of ‘confession’ in
then confessed to the act. some faiths, here it is a metaphor for the
religion of the defendant.
3. Referring to the defendant’s confession of his 4. Referring to the gender, race or disease
or her crime as false, because ‘dint’ is an claimed as a defence by the defendant, here it
archaic form of ‘didn’t’ or ‘did not’. is a synonym for ‘professing’ a gender, race, or
disease.

19. The last paragraph of the passage refers to “middle-class, white, professional men”. Which one of the
following qualities best describes the connection among them?
1. Eccentricity and aggression. 2. The opinions of family and neighbours.
3. Empathy and imagination. 4. The borders of criminal responsibility.

20. Study the following sets of concepts and identify the set that is conceptually closest to the concerns and
arguments of the passage.
1. Empathy, Prosecution, Knowledge, Business. 2. Judgement, Belief, Accounts, Patronage.
3. Assessment, Empathy, Prosecution, 4. Judgement, Insanity, Punishment,
Patriotism. Responsibility.

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READ THE PASSAGE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW.

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Studies showing that income inequality plays a positive role in economic
three arguments. The first argument focuses on investment indivisibilities wherein large sunk costs are
required when implementing new fundamental innovations. Without stock markets and financial
institutions to mobilize large sums of money, a high concentration of wealth is needed for individuals to
undertake new industrial activities accompanied by high sunk costs . . . [One study] shows the relation
between economic growth and income inequality for 45 countries during 1966-1995. [It was found] that
the increase in income inequality has a significant positive relationship with economic growth in the
short and medium term. Using system GMM, [another study estimated] the relation between income
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inequality and economic growth for 106 countries during 1965–2005 period. The results show that
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income inequality has a positive impact on economic growth in the short run, but the two are negatively
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compensationsgwithout taking into account the economic performance achieved by individual agents
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will fail to elicit optimum effort from the agents. Thus, certain income inequalities contribute to growth
by enhancing worker motivation . . . and by giving motivation to innovators and entrepreneurs . . .
Finally, [another study] point[s] out that the concentration of wealth or stock ownership in relation to
corporate governance contributes to growth. If stock ownership is distributed and owned by a large
number of shareholders, it is not easy to make quick decisions due to the conflicting interests among
shareholders, and this may also cause a free-rider problem in terms of monitoring and supervising
managers and workers. . . .
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Various studies have examined the relationships between income inequality and economic growth, and
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most of these assert that a negative correlation exists between the two. . . . Analyzing 159 countries for
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1980–2012, they conclude that there exists a negative
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a 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP decreases by
growth; when the income share of the richest
0.08%, whereas when the income share of the poorest 20% of population increases by 1%, the GDP
increases by 0.38%. Some studies find that inequality has a negative impact on growth due to poor
human capital accumulation and low fertility rates . . . while [others] point out that inequality creates
political instability, resulting in lower investment. . . . [Some economists] argue that widening income
inequality has a negative impact on economic growth because it negatively affects social consensus or
social capital formation. One important research topic is the correlation between democratization and
income redistribution. [Some scholars] explain that social pressure for income redistribution rises as
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income inequality increases in a democratic society. In other words, when democratization extends
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suffrage to a wider class of people, the increased political power of low- and middle-income voters
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21. Which one of the options below best summarises the passage?
1. The passage confines its discussion to 2. The passage outlines investment, incentive,
financing gaps and corporate control while and governance channels through which
undercutting cross country evidence and income inequality may support economic
overlooking the significance of concerns growth and reports short-term gains while
regarding human capital accumulation, noting long-term drawbacks.
fertility rates, and income redistribution
under democratisation.
3. The passage claims that evaluating the effect 4. The passage argues that income inequality
of income inequality on economic growth accelerates economic growth while also
without considering both short- and long- emphasising the significance of concerns
term consequences is misguided. regarding human capital accumulation,
fertility rates, and political instability.

22. The passage refers to “democratization”. Choose the one option below that comes closest to the opposite
of this process.
1. The coalition imposed term limits and 2. Corporate donations were capped and parties
strengthened judicial review in order to received public funding which was portrayed
further entrench autocratic rule. as establishing an oligarchy.
3. After the emergency decree, the regime 4. Municipalities adopted participatory
shifted toward authoritarianism as suffrage budgeting and recall elections which a press
narrowed and opposition parties were release called totalitarianism.
deregistered.

23. The primary function of the three-part case for a positive income inequality–economic growth link in
the first half of the passage is to show that:
1. inequality can aid short-term growth in 2. mature stock markets make wealth
settings with high sunk costs, incentive concentration unnecessary, yet they might
alignment, and concentrated ownership. still be harmful to investment.
3. dispersed ownership speeds corporate 4. inequality boosts growth in every period and
decision-making and removes free rider type of economy, regardless of finance or
problems. governance conditions.

24. According to the incentive or moral hazard argument, which one of the designs below is most consistent
with the claim that some inequality can raise growth?
1. A regime that concentrates stock ownership in 2. Rents protected by market power that enlarge
relation to corporate governance. top incomes without linking pay to results.
3. Wages are determined by tenure rather than 4. Pay rewards on verifiable performance for
output to ensure equity. highly productive workers.

Section II — Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DI & LR)

For more Question Papers, Sample Papers, Notes & Syllabus visit Page 14 of 23

22 questions

QUESTION NUMBERS 1 TO 5

At InnovateX, six employees, Asha, Bunty, Chintu, Dolly, Eklavya, and Falguni, were split into two
groups of three each: Elite led by Manager Kuku, and Novice led by Manager Lalu.
At the end of each quarter, Kuku and Lalu handed out ratings to all members in their respective groups.
In each group, each employee received a distinct integer rating from 1 to 3.

The score for an employee at the end of a quarter is defined as their cumulative rating from the
beginning of the year. At the end of each quarter the employee in Novice with the highest score was
promoted to Elite, and the employee in Elite with the minimum score was demoted to Novice. If there
was a tie in scores, the employee with a higher rating in the latest quarter was ranked higher.

Asha, Bunty, and Chintu were in Elite at the beginning of Quarter 1. All of them were in Novice at the
beginning of Quarter 4.
Dolly and Falguni were the only employees who got the same rating across all the quarters.
The following is known about ratings given by Lalu:
Bunty received a rating of 1 in Quarter 2.
Asha and Dolly received ratings of 1 and 2, respectively, in Quarter 3.

1. What was Eklavya's score at the end of Quarter 2?
(TITA — type in your answer)

2. How many employees changed groups more than once up to the beginning of Quarter 4?
(TITA — type in your answer)

3. What was Bunty's score at the end of Quarter 3?
(TITA — type in your answer)

4. For how many employees can the scores at the end of Quarter 3 be determined with certainty?
(TITA — type in your answer)

5. Which of the following statements is/are NECESSARILY true?
I. Asha received a rating of 2 in Quarter 1.
II. Asha received a rating of 1 in Quarter 2.
1. Both I and II 2. Neither I nor II
3. Only I 4. Only II

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QUESTION NUMBERS 6 TO 9

Alia, Badal, Clive, Dilshan, and Ehsaan played a game in which eachgasks a unique question to all the
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others and they respond by tapping their feet, either once or twice or thrice. One tap means "Yes", two
taps mean "No", and three taps mean "Maybe".

A total of 40 taps were heard across the five questions. Each question received at least one "Yes", one
"No", and one "Maybe."

The following information is known.

Alia tapped a total of 6 times and received 9 taps to her question. She responded "Yes" to the
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questions asked by both Clive and Dilshan.
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Dilshan and Ehsaan tapped a total of 11 and 9 times respectively. Dilshan responded "No" to Badal.
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Badal, Dilshan, and Ehsaan received equal number of taps to their respective questions.
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No one responded "Yes" more than twice.
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g to Alia's question matched the answer that Alia gave to that person's question. This
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No one's answer
was also true for Ehsaan.
Clive tapped more times in total than Badal.

6. How many taps did Clive receive for his question?
(TITA — type in your answer)

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7. Which two people tapped an equal number of times in total?
c. o Clive and Ehsaan
1. Alia and Badal
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3. Dilshan and Clive
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8. What was Clive's response to Ehsaan's question?
1. No 2. Maybe
3. Cannot be determined 4. Yes

9. How many "Yes" responses were received across all the questions?

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QUESTION NUMBERS 10 TO 13

A round table has seven chairs around it. The chairs are numbered 1 through 7 in a clockwise direction.
Four friends, Aslam, Bashir, Chhavi, and Davies, sit on four of the chairs. In the starting position, Aslam
and Chhavi are sitting next to each other, while for Bashir as well as Davies, there are empty chairs on
either side of the chairs that are sitting on.

The friends take turns moving either clockwise or counterclockwise from their chair. The friend who has
to move in a turn occupies the first empty chair in whichever direction (s)he chooses to move. Aslam
moves first (Turn 1), followed by Bashir, Chhavi, and Davies (Turns 2, 3, and 4, respectively). Then
Aslam moves again followed by Bashir, and Chhavi (Turns 5, 6, and 7, respectively).

The following information is known.
The four friends occupy adjacent chairs only at the end of Turn 2 and Turn 6.
Davies occupies Chair 2 after Turn 1 and Chair 4 after Turn 5, and Chhavi occupies Chair 7 after Turn
2.

10. What is the number of the chair initially occupied by Bashir?
(TITA — type in your answer)

11. Who sits on the chair numbered 4 at the end of Turn 3?
1. Bashir 2. Chhavi
3. Davies 4. No one

12. Which of the chairs are occupied at the end of Turn 6?
1. Chairs numbered 4, 5, 6, and 7 2. Chairs numbered 2, 3, 4, and 5
3. Chairs numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 4. Chairs numbered 1, 2, 6, and 7

13. Which of the following BEST describes the friends sitting on chairs adjacent to the one occupied by
Bashir at the end of Turn 7?
1. Aslam and Chhavi 2. Chhavi only
3. Davies only 4. Chhavi and Davies

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QUESTION NUMBERS 14 TO 17

Five countries engage in trade with each other. Each country levies import tariffs on the other countries.
The import tariff levied by Country X on Country Y is calculated by multiplying the corresponding tariff
percentage with the total imports of Country X from Country Y.

The radar chart below depicts different import tariff percentages charged by each of the five countries on
the others. For example, US (the blue line in the chart) charges 20%, 40%, 30%, and 30% import tariff
percentages on imports from France, India, Japan, and UK, respectively. The bar chart depicts the
import tariffs levied by each county on other countries. For example, US charged import tariff of 3
billion USD on UK.

Radar chart (import tariff percentage) and bar chart (import tariff in Billion USD) charged by each country on other countries.

Assume that imports from one country to another equals the exports from the latter to the former.

The trade surplus of Country X with Country Y is defined as follows.

Trade surplus = Exports from Country X to Country Y – Imports to Country X from Country Y.
A negative trade surplus is called trade deficit.

14. How much is Japan's export to India worth?
1. 7.0 Billion USD 2. 1.75 Billion USD
3. 16.0 Billion USD 4. 8.5 Billion USD

15. Which among the following is the highest?
1. Exports by Japan to UK 2. Exports by France to Japan
3. Imports by France from India 4. Imports by US from France

16. What is the trade surplus/trade deficit of India with UK?
1. Deficit of 15.0 Billion USD 2. Surplus of 15.0 Billion USD
3. Surplus of 10.0 Billion USD 4. Deficit of 10.0 Billion USD

17. Among France and UK, who has/have trade surplus(es) with US?
1. Both France and UK 2. Only UK
3. Neither France nor UK 4. Only France

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QUESTION NUMBERS 18 TO 22

A train travels from Station A to Station E, passing through stationsgB, C, and D, in that order. The train
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has a seating capacity of 200. A ticket may be booked from any station to any other station ahead on the
route, but not to any earlier station.

A ticket from one station to another reserves one seat on every intermediate segment of the route. For
example, a ticket from B to E reserves a seat in the intermediate segments B – C, C – D, and D – E.

The occupancy factor for a segment is the total number of seats reserved in the segment as a percentage
of the seating capacity. The total number of seats reserved for any segment cannot exceed 200.
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The following information is known.
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Segment C – D had an.occupancy factor of 95%. Only segment B – C had a higher occupancy factor. em
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agof tickets booked from A to C was equal to that booked from A to E, and it was higher
Among the seats reserved on segment D – E, exactly four-sevenths were from stations before C.
The number
than that from B to E.
No tickets were booked from A to B, from B to D and from D to E.
The number of tickets booked for any segment was a multiple of 10.

18. What was the occupancy factor for segment D – E?
1. 84%
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2.35%
o 77%
3. 70%
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laA to Station E?
19.
(TITA — type in your answer) a g
How many tickets were booked from Station

20. How many tickets were booked from Station C?
(TITA — type in your answer)

21. What is the difference between the number of tickets booked to Station C and the number of tickets
booked to Station D?
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(TITA — type in your answer)

e m
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Section III — Quantitative Ability (QA)

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22 questions

1. In a class, there were more than 10 boys and a certain number of girls. After 40% of the girls and 60% of
the boys left the class, the remaining number of girls was 8 more than the remaining number of boys.
Then, the minimum possible number of students initially in the class was
(TITA — type in your answer)

2. The number of distinct integers for which , is
1. 2. infinite
3. 4.

3. Shruti travels a distance of 224 km in four parts for a total travel time of 3 hours. Her speeds in these
four parts follow an arithmetic progression, and the corresponding time taken to cover these four parts
follow another arithmetic progression. If she travels at a speed of 960 meters per minute for 30 minutes
to cover the first part, then the distance, in meters, she travels in the fourth part is
1. 2.

3. 4.

4. The coordinates of vertices , and of a parallelogram are , and
, respectively. If the diagonal intersects the -axis at , then the value of is
1. 2.

3. 4.

5. In a circle with center and radius cm, and are two parallel chords separated by one of
the diameters. If , and the ratio of the perpendicular distance of and from is
, then the area, in sq. cm, of the quadrilateral is
1. 2.

3. 4.

6. Stocks , and are priced at rupees 120, 90 and 150 per share, respectively. A trader holds a
portfolio consisting of 10 shares of stock , and 20 shares of stocks and put together. If the total
value of her portfolio is rupees 3300, then the number of shares of stock that she holds, is
(TITA — type in your answer)

7. For any natural number , let . The smallest natural number for which
, is
1. 2.

3. 4.

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8. In the set of consecutive odd numbers , there is a number such that the sum of all the
elements less than is equal to the sum of all the elements greater than . Then, equals
1. 2.

3. 4.

9. Kamala divided her investment of Rs. 1,00,000 between stocks, bonds, and gold. Her investment in
bonds was 25% of her investment in gold. With annual returns of 10%, 6%, 8% on stocks, bonds, and
gold, respectively, she gained a total amount of Rs. 8,200 in one year. The amount, in rupees, that she
gained from the bonds, was
(TITA — type in your answer)

10. If and , where , and are real numbers, the value of
is
1. 2.

3. 4.

11. A cafeteria offers 5 types of sandwiches. Moreover, for each type of sandwich, a customer can choose
one of 4 breads and opt for either small or large sized sandwich. Optionally, the customer may also add
up to 2 out of 6 available sauces. The number of different ways in which an order can be placed for a
sandwich, is
1. 2.

3. 4.

12. A value of for which the minimum value of is greater than the maximum value
of , is
1. 2.

3. 4.

13. Let and , where is the greatest integer not exceeding . If set represents all
feasible values of , then a possible subset of is
1. 2.

3. 4.

14. The number of distinct pairs of integers satisfying the inequalities and is
(TITA — type in your answer)

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. c15. At a certain simple rate of interest, a given sum amounts to Rs. 13,920seinm3 years, and to Rs. 18,960 in 6
m years and 6 months. If the same given sum had been invested for 2la
se g years at the same rate as before but
a earned, in rupees, would have been
with interest compounded every 6 months, then the total interest
nearest to
1. 2.

3. 4.

16. A container holds 200 litres of a solution of acid and water, having 30% acid by volume. Atul replaces
20% of this solution with water, then replaces 10% of the resulting solution with acid, and finally
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replaces 15% of the solution thus obtained, with water. The percentage of acid by volume in the final
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solution obtained after these three replacements, is nearest to
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3.
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17. The number of non-negative integer values of for which the quadratic equation has
only integer roots, is
(TITA — type in your answer)

18. A shopkeeper offers a discount of 22% on the marked price of each chair, and gives 13 chairs to a

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customer for the discounted price of 12 chairs to earn a profit of 26% on the transaction. If the cost price

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of each chair is Rs. 100, then the marked price, in rupees, of each chair is
(TITA — type in your answer)
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19. a and distinct such that none of the digits is a perfect
In a 3-digit number , the digits are non-zero
square, and only one of the digits is a prime number. Then, the number of factors of the minimum
possible value of is
(TITA — type in your answer)

20. If the length of a side of a rhombus is 36 cm and the area of the rhombus is 396 sq. cm, then the
absolute value of the difference between the lengths, in cm, of the diagonals of the rhombus is
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21.m The ratio of the number of students in the morning shift and afternoon shift
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s e 21 students moved from the morning shift to the afternoon shift, this ratio
l a of a school was
g became . Next, some
. After

l a a
ag new students joined the morning and afternoon shifts in the ratio
of students in the morning shift and the afternoon shift became
and then the ratio of the number
. The number of new students who
joined is
1. 2.

3. 4.

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22. Arun, Varun and Tarun, if working alone, can complete a task in 24, 21, and 15 days, respectively. They
charge Rs. 2,160, Rs. 2,400, and Rs. 2,160 per day, respectively, even if they are employed for a partial
day. On any given day, any of the workers may or may not be employed to work. If the task needs to be
completed in 10 days or less, then the minimum possible amount, in rupees, required to be paid for the
entire task is
1. 2.

3. 4.

Answer Key

Section I — Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

Q.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ans 3421 4 2143 4 1 4 2 4 1 4

Q.No 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Ans 1 2 1 3 3 1 4 2 4 4

Q.No 21 22 23 24

Ans 2 3 1 4

Section II — Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

Q.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ans 4 0 5 4 4 7 1 1 6 4

Q.No 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Ans 4 1 3 1 4 1 4 3 50 80

Q.No 21 22

Ans 40 60

Section III — Quantitative Ability

Q.No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Ans 55 1 4 1 2 15 3 4 900 2

Q.No 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Ans 1 4 1 16 2 1 3 175 6 60

Q.No 21 22

Ans 1 4

MCQ answers are the correct option number (1–4). TITA answers are the numeric/sequence value.

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