19September 2026
Today’s poster
What to note today
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Study Material
DILR
DILR is the section that decides CAT percentiles, because the sets vary enormously in difficulty and choosing which to attempt matters more than solving quickly. Two candidates of equal ability can differ by twenty percentile points on selection alone.
Read the data interpretation and logical reasoning topics for the techniques, and the set-selection topic for the skill that actually converts them into a score.
Current affairs · 19 September 2026
Today’s current affairs, checked at the source
Every item is dated, read on the conducting body’s or ministry’s own site, and written with the question it becomes. Read today’s items, take the quiz, or download the month as a PDF.
3 topics written
Read these in order
Each topic is a complete lesson — concepts, formula tables, worked examples and practice questions with explanations.
Weighting
Where DILR marks actually sit
A syllabus lists topics with equal visual weight, and no paper treats them that way. The table below collects what each DILR lesson records about the exams that examine it, so the reading order on this page can be checked against the exams you are actually sitting.
Counts are ranges observed across cycles rather than promises. The notification for your cycle is what fixes the paper, and a topic can move.
| Topic | Examined most in | Typical volume | Lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Interpretation | CAT DILR section; Banking Quantitative Aptitude; SSC CGL Tier 1 and 2 | 2–3 sets of 4–5 questions | 22 min · 16 questions |
| Logical Reasoning Sets | CAT DILR section; XAT Decision Making; Banking Reasoning | 2–3 sets of 4–5 questions | 22 min · 16 questions |
| Set Selection | CAT DILR section; XAT Decision Making and DI; Banking Reasoning and DI | Determines the whole score | 21 min · 16 questions |
How to use the table rather than read it
Find the rows naming the exam you are preparing for, and study those first regardless of where they sit in the reading order above — the order on this page is pedagogical, built so each lesson can rest on the one before it, and it is not a priority list. Where a topic you are weak at also carries the highest volume in your paper, that row is the whole of your next fortnight.
Method
How to study data interpretation and logical reasoning
In sectionally timed examinations, DILR is decided less by whether you can solve a set than by whether you chose the right sets to attempt. Selection is the skill, and it is trainable.
Building selection judgement
- Spend the first minute of the section scanning, not solving. Triage costs a minute and repeatedly saves five.
- Before calculating anything, read the structure of a set. Thirty seconds understanding how a set is arranged is recovered several times over. Rushing into an unread structure is how whole sets are lost.
- Set a hard abandonment rule and obey it. A set that has not yielded within your limit is costing you another you could have solved. Sunk cost is the most expensive error in a timed section.
- Review your selections afterwards, not just your answers. Were the sets you skipped genuinely harder, or merely unfamiliar? That distinction calibrates the instinct.
Underneath the selection skill sits arithmetic fluency. A candidate who reads a fraction as a percentage without computing works through a data set in a fraction of the time someone converting each figure longhand takes — which is why calculation drilling, apparently unrelated to reasoning, improves this section more than most reasoning practice does.
Questions
DILR — FAQs
What makes DILR different from ordinary data interpretation?
Set selection. In a banking paper the data interpretation sets are broadly comparable in difficulty and you attempt most of them. In DILR the sets vary enormously, several are deliberately unsolvable in the time available, and most of the score comes from choosing correctly which sets to attempt. That choice is a trainable skill and it is the one candidates prepare least.
How do I get better at choosing sets?
By practising selection explicitly rather than solving everything. Give yourself the first few minutes of a section to read every set and rank them, then solve in that order and review afterwards whether the ranking was right. Doing this repeatedly builds the judgement; solving sets one after another in the order printed does not.
How much calculation ability does DILR need?
Enough to avoid computing what does not need computing. Approximation, ratio comparison and percentage estimation matter far more than exact arithmetic, because most questions ask which is larger or roughly how much rather than for a precise value. Practise deciding what precision a question actually requires before calculating anything.
Can logical reasoning sets be prepared by topic?
Partly. Recognisable families recur — arrangements, scheduling, distribution, games and tournaments, network and route problems — and knowing the family gives you a starting representation. But the paper deliberately sets unfamiliar structures too, so the durable skill is building a representation from scratch under time, which is why volume and variety matter more here than topic-wise study.
Read the concept, then test it the same day
Every topic ends with practice questions, and a full mock is the fastest way to find out which ones actually stuck.
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