Updated on
By Atul Harsha, Content Manager
XAT does not hide its old question papers.
XLRI Jamshedpur conducts XAT, the Xavier Aptitude Test. It puts real master question papers on its own website, xatonline.in. You do not need to sign up, and no other website sits between you and the file. The archive goes back to 2018. That is seven years of papers.
Below, you can check exactly which years are available and which are missing. You will also learn how to use these papers well. Read this before your XAT 2027 exam on January 3, 2027. The XAT 2027 exam pattern 2027 page will help too.
Official XAT papers are easy to find. XLRI Jamshedpur runs XAT for XAMI member institutes. It posts each year's master question paper on xatonline.in.
We checked this archive on 12 September 2026. It covers XAT 2018 through XAT 2024, seven papers in total. The number of questions changes every year. The 2018 paper had 84 questions. 2022 and 2023 had 102 questions each. 2023 also added three essay questions.
The 2024 paper had 98 questions. These numbers are not estimates. We got each one by opening the actual PDFs XLRI has posted.
7
years of official papers
2018-2024, xatonline.in
84-102
questions per paper
range across confirmed years
75+
years XAT has run
per XLRI, xatonline.in
3 Jan 2027
XAT 2027 exam date
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM, xatonline.in
The archive does not include a worked answer key. XLRI gives you the real questions, not a marked solution set. The next two sections explain this gap in detail.
| XAT Exam Features | XAT Exam Details |
|---|---|
| Conducting Body | Xavier School of Management (XLRI Jamshedpur) |
| Exam Level | National |
| Exam Frequency | Once a year (January) |
| Exam Mode | Computer based |
| Exam Duration | 3 hours 30 minutes |
| Total Marks | 100 marks |
| Question Types | MCQs |
| Marking Scheme | +1 for correct answer, -0.25 for wrong answer |
| Languages | English |
| Exam Purpose | Admission to MBA and PGDM programmes |
| Current status | XAT Registration & Payment ongoing |
| Next event | XAT Exam — 3 Jan 2027 |
| Official Website | xatonline.in |
Every link below goes straight to xatonline.in. None of these are re-uploaded copies on some other server.
We opened four of the seven papers directly: 2018, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Each one is the real XLRI master paper. Each cover page prints its own shift label.
📄2024XAT 2024 Question Paper98 questions. Cover page reads: XAT 2024, 07 January 2024, Shift 2.Download PDF📄2023XAT 2023 Question Paper102 questions plus 3 essay questions. Cover page reads: XAT 2023, 08 January 2023, Shift 2.Download PDF📄2022XAT 2022 Question Paper102 questions. Cover page reads: XAT 2022, 02 January 2022, Shift 1.Download PDF📄2021XAT 2021 Question PaperXLRI lists it on its own exam resources page.Download PDF📄2020XAT 2020 Question PaperXLRI lists it on its own exam resources page.Download PDF📄2019XAT 2019 Question PaperXLRI lists it on its own exam resources page.Download PDF📄2018XAT 2018 Question Paper84 questions. Cover page reads: XAT 2018 Question Paper.Download PDF2025 and 2026 papers are not on this archive yet
Checked 12 September 2026XLRI's exam-resources listing on xatonline.in stops at XAT 2024. XAT 2025 and XAT 2026 are both already over, and XLRI hasn't posted either paper yet. XLRI has updated this archive with a real lag before, sometimes over a year. Check the official site directly rather than trusting a claim elsewhere. A third-party site offering the 2025 or 2026 paper right now is not a reliable source.
Check xatonline.in directlyBe careful with any outside claim about a "2025" or "2026" XAT paper. It is more likely a mock paper made to look real, not an actual XLRI release.
XLRI's archive gives you the real question paper and nothing more. No answer key or worked solution comes with any of the seven years, 2018 through 2024.
This changes what "solving a past paper" means for XAT. You get the real questions in the real order, under the real time limit. But XLRI does not tell you which answer is correct.
For most sections, this is a small gap. Decision Making does not have one fixed correct answer anyway. It rewards good judgment instead. You still learn something useful by working through each scenario, even without a marked key.
Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation is different. A wrong self-check here can quietly teach you the wrong method. Do not trust a calculation just because it "felt" right. Check it against the exam's own section-wise marking scheme instead.
It is not there yet. As of 12 September 2026, xatonline.in's exam-resources listing still stops at XAT 2024. You will not find an XAT 2026 question paper or its answer key there.
The gap is bigger than a few missing months. XAT 2025, an entire cycle before XAT 2026, is also missing. XLRI's website has already moved on to the XAT 2027 cycle. That is how far behind today's archive is.
We won't guess when XLRI will post XAT 2026. Here is what we can say for sure. Neither the XAT 2026 paper nor its answer key is in XLRI's archive today.
Some readers want more than the raw paper. They also want a marked answer key. Keep an eye on the official archive itself, not on a site that claims to already have one. XLRI has never included a solved key with any of the seven years it has published so far. There is no reason to expect 2025 or 2026 will be different once they go up.
XLRI does not give out separate files by slot. It publishes one master PDF per year, and that file already shows the shift label used that day.
The 2022 file's cover page reads "XAT 2022, 02 January 2022, Shift 1." The 2024 file reads "XAT 2024, 07 January 2024, Shift 2." We copied both labels straight from the documents.
A "slot-wise" version of these papers already exists, in a way. It is just not a separate download. It sits inside the one master file XLRI already gives you.
XAT 2027 runs as one single sitting, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM on January 3, 2027, per xatonline.in. So do not worry about comparing old slots. Focus on finishing inside one 3-hour window. That is the real challenge you will face.
XLRI does not publish a separate sample paper for the XAT 2027 cycle. There is no official mock test on xatonline.in either. We checked both the homepage and the exam-resources page directly. Neither has a mock-test or sample-paper link.
This actually works in your favour. There is no official sample paper to wait for. The seven real papers from 2018 to 2024 are the closest thing XLRI gives you. These are not made to look like XAT. They are XAT, from years that already happened.
Build your study plan around these real papers instead of waiting for a sample paper that may never come. Check the XAT 2027 syllabus page to see what each section tests. Then use the real papers to see those topics in action. A coaching site's own "XAT 2027 sample paper" is just their guess at the format. XLRI did not produce it.
The biggest benefit is simple. XLRI has never released an official mock test to compare against. These seven papers are the only place where you can see XAT's real difficulty level.
Solve the 2018 to 2024 papers one after another. This shows you something a syllabus PDF cannot. Question counts moved from 84 in 2018 to 102 in both 2022 and 2023. An essay component appeared in 2023, stayed in 2024, and then the format changed again in later cycles.
If you only read about the format, you can miss that XAT has changed more than once. If you open four or five real papers, you see that change directly.
Decision Making is the other big reason these papers matter. It is unique to XAT, and it uses workplace and ethical scenarios instead of formulas. No textbook question bank copies it well. These seven papers are the only real practice you get for this section.
A full masterclass working through real XAT Quant questions from past papers, the kind of practice this page argues no coaching mock can substitute for.
XAT 2025 Previous Year Questions | XAT Quant PYQs Masterclass | #xat2026 #xatpyqs #xatexam #xlri
Most people just read through a past paper. That is not enough. You need to sit for it like a real timed exam.
Set a real 3-hour block, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and stick to it. Treat the paper as one full sitting, not a set of questions you dip into. This one change helps your prep more than ten strategy articles.
A few habits make the difference between solving a paper and learning from it:
Once you finish a few real papers, go back to the XAT 2027 overview page. See how this practice fits into the full timeline, from registration through result.
Since XLRI never publishes a Decision Making answer key, working through explained past questions like these is the closest thing to a marked solution set.
XAT Decision Making 2027 | Top 38+ XAT Decision Making PYQs Explained
Answers to what readers ask most often.
Yes, XLRI Jamshedpur posts real XAT master question papers on xatonline.in. As of 12 September 2026, these cover 2018 through 2024. Each file is the actual exam paper, not a summary. Data Sources: xatonline.in, checked 12 September 2026.
No, XLRI's archive gives only the raw question paper for each year. No marked answer key comes with it. This is true for all seven years listed, 2018 to 2024. Check your quantitative answers separately on your own. Data Sources: xatonline.in exam resources, checked 12 September 2026.
No, as of 12 September 2026, XLRI's official archive on xatonline.in still stops at XAT 2024. XLRI hasn't added the XAT 2025 paper or the XAT 2026 paper yet. Check the official site directly, do not trust a third-party claim. Data Sources: xatonline.in exam resources, checked 12 September 2026.
No, XLRI publishes one master PDF per year. That file already carries the shift label used on that day. The 2022 paper's cover page reads Shift 1. The 2024 paper's cover page reads Shift 2. Data Sources: XAT 2022 and XAT 2024 master question papers, xatonline.in.