Official CAT 2017 Paper – Questions, Answers, and Detailed Solutions

CAT 2017 Questions and Answers – Forenoon Slot

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension of Forenoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q 1 – 6) Understanding where you are in the world is a basic survival skill, which is why we, like most species come hard-wired with specialized brain areas to create congnitive maps of our surroundings. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 7 – 12) I used a smartphone GPS to find my way through the cobblestoned maze of Geneva’s Old Town, in search of a handmade machine that changed the world more than any other invention. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q13 – 18) This year alone, more than 8,600 stores could close, according to industry estimates, many of them the brand -name anchor outlets that real estate developers once stumbled over themselves to court. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q19- 21) Scientists have long recognized the incredible diversity within a species. But they thought it reflected evolutionary changes that unfolded imperceptibly, over millions of years. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 22 – 24) Do sports mega events like the summer Olympic Games benefit the host city economically? It depends, but the prospects are less than rosy. The trick is converting… (Reading Comprehension)

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Q. 25) To me, a “classic” means precisely the opposite of what my predecessors understood: a work is classical by reason of its resistance to contemporaneity and supposed universality, by reason of its capacity to indicate human particularity and difference in that past epoch. (Summary)

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Q. 26) A translator of literary works needs a secure hold upon the two languages involved, supported by a good measure of familiarity with the two cultures. (Summary)

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Q. 27) For each of the past three years, temperatures have hit peaks not seen since the birth of meteorology, and probably not for more than 110,000 years. (Summary)

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Q. 28) The process of handing down implies not a passive transfer, but some contestation in defining what exactly is to be handed down. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 29) Scientists have for the first time managed to edit genes in a human embryo to repair a genetic mutation, fuelling hopes that such procedures may one day be available outside laboratory conditions. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 30) The study suggests that the disease did not spread with such intensity, but that it may have driven human migrations across Europe and Asia. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 31) This visual turn in social media has merely accentuated this announcing instinct of ours, enabling us with easy-to-create, easy-to-share, easy-to-store and easy-to-consume platforms, gadgets and apps. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 32) People who study children’s language spend a lot of time watching how babies react to the speech they hear around them. (Odd One Out)

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Q. 33) Neuroscientists have just begun studying exercise’s impact within brain cells — on the genes themselves. (Odd One Out)

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Q. 34) The water that made up ancient lakes and perhaps an ocean was lost. (Odd One Out)

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Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning of Forenoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q 35 – 38) Healthy Bites is a fast food joint serving three items: burgers, fries and ice cream. It has two employees Anish and Bani who prepare the items ordered by the clients. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 39 – 42) A study to look at the early teaming of rural kids was carried out in a number of villages spanning three states, chosen from the North East (NE), the West (W) and the South (S). (Data Interpretation)

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Q 43 – 46) Applicants for the doctoral programmes of Ambi Institute of Engineering (AIE) and Bambi Institute of Engineering(BIE) have to appear for a Common Entrance Test (CET). The test has three sections: Physics (P), Chemistry (C), and Maths (M). (Data Interpretation)

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Q 47 – 50) Simple Happiness index (SHI) of a country is computed on the basis of three parameters: social support (S), freedom to life choices (F) and corruption perception (C). (Data Interpretation)

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Q 51 – 54) There are 21 employees working in a division, out of whom 10 are special-skilled employees (SE) and the remaining are regular skilled employees (RE). During the next five months, the division has to complete five projects every month. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 55 – 58) In a square layout of size 5m × 5m, 25 equal sized square platforms of different heights are built. The heights (in metres) of individual platforms are as shown below (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 59 – 62) A new airlines company is planning to start operations in a country. The company has identified ten different cities which they plan to connect through their network to start with. The flight duration between any pair of cities will be less than one hour. To start operations, the company has to decide on a daily schedule. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q63 – 66) Four cars need to travel from Akala (A) to Bakala (B). Two routes are available, one via Mamur (M) and the other via Nanur (N). The roads from A to M, and from N to B, are both short and narrow. In each case, one car takes 6 minutes to cover the distance, and each additional car increases the travel time per car by 3 minutes because of congestion. (Logical Reasoning)

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Quantitative Aptitude of Forenoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q. 67) Arun’s present age in years is 40% of Barun’s. In another few years, Arun’s age will be half of Barun’s. By what percentage will Barun’s age increase during this period? (Algebra – Linear Equations)

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Q. 68) A person can complete a job in 120 days. He works alone on Day 1. On Day 2, he is joined by another person who also can complete the job in exactly 120 days. On Day 3, they are joined by another person of equal efficiency.Like this, everyday a new person with the same efficiency joins the work. How many days are required to complete the job? (Arithmetic – Time and Work)

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Q. 69) An elevator has a weight limit of 630 kg. It is carrying a group of people of whom the heaviest weighs 57 kg and the lightest weighs 53 kg. What is the maximum possible number of people in the group? (Algebra – Maxima Minima)

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Q. 70) A man leaves his home and walks at a speed of 12 km per hour, reaching the railway station 10 minutes after the train had departed. If instead he had walked at a speed of 15 km per hour, he would have reached the station 10 minutes before the train’s departure. The distance (in km) from his home to the railway station is (Arithmetic – Time Speed and Distance)

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Q. 71) Ravi invests 50% of his monthly savings in fixed deposits. Thirty percent of the rest of hi√√s savings is invested in stocks and the rest goes into Ravi’s savings bank account. (Arithmetic – Percentages)

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Q. 72) If a seller gives a discount of 15% on retail price, she still makes a profit of 2%. Which of the following ensures that she makes a profit of 20%? (Arithmetic – Profit and Loss)

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Q. 73) A man travels by a motor boat down a river to his office and back. With the speed of the river unchanged, if he doubles the speed of his motor boat, then his total travel time gets reduced by 75%. The ratio of the original speed of the motor boat to the speed of the river is (Arithmetic – Time Speed and Distance)

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Q. 74) Suppose, C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5 are five companies. The profits made by C1, C2, and C3 are in the ratio 9 : 10 : 8 while the profits made by C2, C4, and C5 are in the ratio 18 : 19 : 20. (Arithmetic – Ratios)

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Q. 75) The number of girls appearing for an admission test is twice the number of boys. If 30% of the girls and 45% of the boys get admission, the percentage of candidates who do not get admission is (Arithmetic – Percentages)

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Q. 76) A stall sells popcorn and chips in packets of three sizes: large, super, and jumbo. The numbers of large, super, and jumbo packets in its stock are in the ratio 7 : 17 : 16 for popcorn and 6 : 15 : 14 for chips. (Arithmetic – Ratios)

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Q. 77) In a market, the price of medium quality mangoes is half that of good mangoes. A shopkeeper buys 80 kg good mangoes and 40 kg medium quality mangoes from the market (Arithmetic – Profit and Loss)

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Q. 78) If Fatima sells 60 identical toys at a 40% discount on the printed price, then she makes 20% profit. Ten of these toys are destroyed in fire. (Arithmetic – Profit and Loss)

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Q. 79) If a and b are integers of opposite signs such that (a + 3)^2 : b^2 = 9 : 1 and (a – 1)^2 : (b – 1)^2 = 4 : 1, then the ratio a^2 : b^2 is (Algebra – Simple Equations)

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Q. 80) A class consists of 20 boys and 30 girls. In the mid-semester examination, the average score of the girls was 5 higher than that of the boys. (Arithmetic – Averages)

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Q. 81) The area of the closed region bounded by the equation | x | + | y | = 2 in the two-dimensional plane is (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 82) From a triangle ABC with sides of lengths 40 ft, 25 ft and 35 ft, a triangular portion GBC is cut off where G is the centroid of ABC. The area, in sq ft, of the remaining portion of triangle ABC is (Geometry – Triangles)

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Q. 83) Let ABC be a right-angled isosceles triangle with hypotenuse BC. Let BQC be a semi-circle, away from A, with diameter BC. Let BPC be an arc of a circle centered at A and lying between BC and BQC. (Geometry – Circles)

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Q. 84) A solid metallic cube is melted to form five solid cubes whose volumes are in the ratio 1 : 1 : 8: 27: 27. The percentage by which the sum of the surface areas of these five cubes exceeds the surface area of the original cube is nearest to (Geometry – Mensuration)

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Q. 85) A ball of diameter 4 cm is kept on top of a hollow cylinder standing vertically. The height of the cylinder is 3 cm, while its volume is 9 π cm^3 . Then the vertical distance, in cm, of the topmost point of the ball from the base of the cylinder is (Geometry – Mensuration)

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Q. 86) Let ABC be a right-angled triangle with BC as the hypotenuse. Lengths of AB and AC are 15 km and 20 km, respectively. The minimum possible time, in minutes, required to reach the hypotenuse from A at a speed of 30 km per hour is (Geometry – Triangles)

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Q. 87) Suppose, log(base3)x = log(base12)y = a, where x, y are positive numbers. If G is the geometric mean of x and y, and log(base6)G is equal to (Algebra – Logarithms)

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Q. 88) If x + 1 = x^2 and x > 0, then 2x^4 is (Algebra – Quadratic Equation)

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Q. 89) The value of log (base 0.008) √5 + log (base√3) 81 – 7 is equal to (Algebra – Logarithms)

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Q. 90) If 9^(2x – 1) – 81^(x-1) = 1944, then x is (Algebra – Polynomials)

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Q. 91) The number of solutions (x, y, z) to the equation x – y – z = 25, where x, y, and z are positive integers such that x ≤ 40, y ≤ 12, and z ≤ 12 is (Algebra – Inequalities)

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Q. 92) For how many integers n, will the inequality (n – 5) (n – 10) – 3(n – 2) ≤ 0 be satisfied? (Algebra – Inequalities)

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Q. 93) If f1(x) = x^2 + 11x + n and f2(x) = x, then the largest positive integer n for which the equation f1(x) = f2(x) has two distinct real roots, is (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 94) If a, b, c, and d are integers such that a + b + c + d = 30, then the minimum possible value of (a – b)^2 + (a – c)^2 + (a – d)^2 is (Algebra – Maxima Minima)

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Q. 95) Let AB, CD, EF, GH, and JK be five diameters of a circle with center at O. In how many ways can three points be chosen out of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, and O so as to form a triangle? (Modern Maths – Permutation and Combination)

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Q. 96) The shortest distance of the point (½, 1) from the curve y = |x -1| + |x + 1| is (Geometry – Coordinate)

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Q. 97) If the square of the 7th term of an arithmetic progression with positive common difference equals the product of the 3rd and 17th terms, then the ratio of the first term to the common difference is (Modern Maths – Progressions)

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Q. 98) In how many ways can 7 identical erasers be distributed among 4 kids in such a way that each kid gets at least one eraser but nobody gets more than 3 erasers? (Modern Maths – Permutation and Combination)

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Q. 99) If f(x) = (5x+2)/(3x-5) and g(x) = x^2 – 2x – 1, then the value of g(f(f(3))) is (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 100) Let a1, a2,……..a3n be an arithmetic progression with a1 = 3 and a2 = 7. If a1 + a2 + ….+a3n = 1830, then what is the smallest positive integer m such that m (a1 + a2 + …. + an ) > 1830? (Modern Maths – Progressions)

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CAT 2017 Questions and Answer – Afternoon Slot

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension of Afternoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q 1-6) Creativity is at once our most precious resource and our most inexhaustible one. As anyone who has ever spent any time with children knows, every single human being is born creative; (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 7-12) During the frigid season…it’s often necessary to nestle under a blanket to try to stay warm. The temperature difference between the blanket and the air outside is so palpable that we often have trouble leaving our warm refuge. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 13-18) The end of the age of the internal combustion engine is in sight. There are small signs everywhere: the shift to hybrid vehicles is already under way among manufacturers. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 19 – 21) Typewriters are the epitome of a technology that has been comprehensively rendered obsolete by the digital age. The ink comes off the ribbon, they weigh a ton, and second thoughts are a disaster. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q 22 – 24) Despite their fierce reputation. Vikings may not have always been the plunderers and pillagers popular culture imagines them to be. In fact, they got their start trading in northern European markets, researchers suggest. (Reading Comprehension)

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Q. 25) North American walnut sphinx moth caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) look like easy meals for birds, but they have a trick up their sleeves—they produce whistles that sound like bird alarm calls, scaring potential predators away. (Summary)

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Q. 26) Both Socrates and Bacon were very good at asking useful questions. In fact, Socrates is largely credited with corning up with a way of asking questions, ‘the Socratic method/ which itself is at the core of the ‘scientific method, ‘popularised by Bacon. (Summary)

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Q. 27) A fundamental property of language is that it is slippery and messy and more liquid than solid, a gelatinous mass that changes shape to fit. As Wittgenstein would remind us, “usage has no sharp boundary.” (Summary)

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Q. 28) The implications of retelling of Indian stories, hence, takes on new meaning in a modern India. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 29) Before plants can take life from atmosphere, nitrogen must undergo transformations similar to ones that food undergoes in our digestive machinery. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 30) This has huge implications for the health care system as it operates today, where depleted resources and time lead to patients rotating in and out of doctor’s offices, oftentimes receiving minimal care or concern (what is commonly referred to as “bed side manner”) from doctors. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 31) Johnson treated English very practically, as a living language, with many different shades of meaning and adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law – according to precedent. (Parajumbles)

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Q. 32) Although we are born with the gift of language, research shows that we are surprisingly unskilled when it comes to communicating with others. (Odd One Out)

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Q. 33) Over the past fortnight, one of its finest champions managed to pull off a similar impression. (Odd One Out)

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Q. 34) Those geometric symbols and aerodynamic swooshes are more than just skin deep. (Odd One Out)

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Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning of Afternoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q 35 – 38) Funky Pizzaria was required to supply pizzas to three different parties. The total number of pizzas it had to deliver was 800, 70% of which were to be delivered to Party 3 and the rest equally divided between Party 1 and Party 2. (Data Interpretation)

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Q 39 – 42) There were seven elective courses – El to E7 – running in a specific term in a college. Each of the 300 students enrolled had chosen just one elective from among these seven. However, before the start of the term, E7 was withdrawn as the instructor concerned had left the college. (Data Interpretation)

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Q 43 – 46) An old woman had the following assets:(a) Rs. 70 lakh in bank deposits(b) 1 house worth Rs. 50 lakh (Data Interpretation)

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Q 47 – 50) At a management school, the oldest 10 dorms, numbered 1 to 10, need to be repaired urgently, The following diagram represents the estimated repair costs (in Rs. Crores) for the 10 dorms. For any dorm, the estimated repair cost (in Rs. Crores) is an integer. (Data Interpretation)

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Q 51 – 54) A tea taster was assigned to rate teas from six different locations – Munnar, Wayanad, Ooty, Darjeeling, Assam and Himachal. These teas were placed in six cups, numbered 1 to 6, not necessarily in the same order. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 55 – 58) In an 8 X 8 chessboard a queen placed anywhere can attack another piece if the piece is present in the same row, or in the same column or in any diagonal position in any possible 4 directions, provided there is no other piece in between in the path from the queen to that piece. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 59 – 62) Eight friends: Ajit, Byomkesh, Gargi, Jayanta, Kikira, Manik, Prodosh and Tapesh are going to Delhi from Kolkata by a flight operated by Cheap Air. In the flight, sitting is arranged in 30 rows, numbered 1 to 30, each consisting of 6 seats, marked by letters A to F from left to right, respectively. (Logical Reasoning)

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Q 63 – 66) A high security research lab requires the researchers to set a pass key sequence based on the scan of the five fingers of their left hands. When an employee first joins the lab, her fingers are scanned in an order of her choice, and then when she wants to re-enter the facility, she has to scan the five fingers in the same sequence. (Logical Reasoning)

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Quantitative Aptitude of Afternoon Slot – CAT 2017

Q. 67) The numbers 1, 2,…,9 are arranged in a 3 X 3 square grid in such a way that each number occurs once and the entries along each column, each row, and each of the two diagonals add up to the same value. (Number Systems)

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Q. 68) In a 10 km race. A, B,and C, each running at uniform speed, get the gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively. If A beats B by 1 km and B beats C by 1 km, then by how many metres does A beat C? (Arithmetic – Time Speed and Distance)

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Q. 69) Bottle 1 contains a mixture of milk and water in 7 : 2 ratio and Bottle 2 contains a mixture of milk and water in 9 : 4 ratio. In what ratio of volumes should the liquids in Bottle 1 and Bottle 2 be combined to obtain a mixture of milk and water in 3 : 1 ratio? (Arithmetic – Mixtures)

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Q. 70) Arun drove from home to his hostel at 60 miles per hour. While returning home he drove halfway along the same route at a speed of 25 miles per hour and then took a bypass road which increased his driving distance by 5 miles, but allowed him to drive at 50 miles per hour along this bypass road. (Arithmetic – Time Speed and Distance)

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Q. 71) Out of the shirts produced in a factory, 15% are defective, while 20% of the rest are sold in the domestic market. If the remaining 8840 shirts are left for export, then the number of shirts produced in the factory is (Arithmetic – Percentages)

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Q. 72) The average height of 22 toddlers increases by 2 inches when two of them leave this group. If the average height of these two toddlers is one-third the average height of the original 22 (Arithmetic – Averages)

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Q. 73) The manufacturer of a table sells it to a wholesale dealer at a profit of 10%. The wholesale dealer sells the table to a retailer at a profit of 30%. (Arithmetic – Profit and Loss)

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Q. 74) A tank has an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe. If the outlet pipe is closed then the inlet pipe fills the empty tank in 8 hours. If the outlet pipe is open then the inlet pipe fills the empty tank in 10 hours. (Arithmetic – Pipes and Cisterns)

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Q. 75) Mayank buys some candies for Rs 15 a dozen and an equal number of different candies for Rs 12 a dozen. He sells all for Rs 16.50 a dozen and makes a profit of Rs 150. How many dozens of candies did he buy altogether? (Arithmetic – Profit and Loss)

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Q. 76) In a village, the production of food grains increased by 40% and the per capita production of food grains increased by 27% during a certain period. (Arithmetic – Percentages)

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Q. 77) If a, b, c are three positive integers such that a and b are in the ratio 3 : 4 while b and c are in the ratio 2:1, then which one of the following is a possible value of (a + b + c)? (Number Systems)

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Q. 78) A motorbike leaves point A at 1 pm and moves towards point B at a uniform speed. A car leaves point B at 2 pm and moves towards point A at a uniform speed which is double that of the motorbike. (Arithmetic – Time Speed and Distance)

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Q. 79) Amal can complete a job in 10 days and Bimal can complete it in 8 days. Amal, Bimal and Kamal together complete the job in 4 days (Arithmetic – Time and Work)

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Q. 80) Consider three mixtures – the first having water and liquid A in the ratio 1 : 2, the second having water and liquid B in the ratio 1 : 3 (Arithmetic – Mixtures)

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Q. 81) Let ABCDEF be a regular hexagon with each side of length 1 cm. The area (in sq cm) of a square with AC as one side is (Geometry – Polygons)

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Q. 82) The base of a vertical pillar with uniform cross section is a trapezium whose parallel sides are of lengths 10 cm and 20 cm (Geometry – Mensuration)

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Q. 83) The points (2, 5) and (6, 3) are two end points of a diagonal of a rectangle. If the other diagonal has the equation y = 3x + c, then c is (Geometry – Coordinate)

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Q. 84) ABCD is a quadrilateral inscribed in a circle with centre O. If ∠COD = 120 degrees and ∠BAC = 30 degrees, then the value of ∠BCD (in degrees) is (Geometry – Circles)

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Q. 85) If three sides of a rectangular park have a total length 400 ft, then the area of the park is maximum when the length (in ft) of its longer side is (Algebra – Maxima Minima)

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Q. 86) Let P be an interior point of a right-angled isosceles triangle ABC with hypotenuse AB. If the perpendicular distance of P from each of AB, BC, and CA is 4 (√2 – l) cm, then the area, in sq cm, of the triangle ABC is (Geometry – Triangles)

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Q. 87) If the product of three consecutive positive integers is 15600 then the sum of the squares of these integers is (Number Systems)

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Q. 88) If x is a real number such that log(base 3)5 = log(base 5)(2 + x), then which of the following is true? (Algebra – Logarithms)

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Q. 89) Let f(x) = x^2 and g(x) = 2^x, for all real x. Then the value of f(f(g(x)) + g(f(x))) at x = 1 is (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 90)The minimum possible value of the sum of the squares of the roots of the equation x^2 + (a + 3)x – (a + 5) = 0 is (Algebra – Quadratic Equations)

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Q. 91) If 9^(x-1/2) – 2^(2x-2) = 4^x – 3^(2x-3) , then x is (Algebra)

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Q. 92) If log (2^a × 3^b × 5^c) is the arithmetic mean of log (2^2 × 3^3 × 5), log (2^6 × 3 × 5^7), and log(2 × 3^2 × 5^4), then a equals (Algebra – Logarithms)

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Q. 93) Let a1, a2, a3, a4, a5 be a sequence of five consecutive odd numbers. Consider a new sequence of five consecutive even numbers ending with 2a3. If the sum of the numbers in the new sequence is 450, then a5 is (Modern Maths – Progressions)

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Q. 94) How many different pairs (a, b) of positive integers are there such that a ≤ b and 1/a + 1/b = 1/9 (Algebra – Number of integer solutions)

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Q. 95) In how many ways can 8 identical pens be distributed among Amal, Bimal, and Kamal so that Amal gets at least 1 pen, Bimal gets at least 2 pens, and Kamal gets at least 3 pens? (Modern Maths – Permutation and Combination)

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Q. 96) How many four digit numbers, which are divisible by 6, can be formed using the digits 0, 2, 3, 4, 6, such that no digit is used more than once and 0 does not occur in the left-most position? (Modern Maths – Permutation and Combination)

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Q. 97) If f(ab) = f(a)f(b) for all positive integers a and b, then the largest possible value of f(1) is (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 98) Let f(x) = 2x-5 and g(x) = 7-2x. Then |f(x) + g(x)| = |f(x)| + |g(x)| if and only if (Algebra – Functions)

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Q. 99) An infinite geometric progression a1, a2, a3,… has the property that an = 3(a(n+ l) + a(n+2) +….) for every n ≥ 1. If the sum a1 + a2 + a3 +……. = 32, then a5 is (Modern Maths – Progressions)

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Q. 100) If a1 = 1/(2*5), a2 = 1/(5*8), a3 = 1/(8*11),……, then a1 + a2 +……..+ a100 is (Modern Maths – Progressions)

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