◆ DILR · Data Interpretation

Tables & Tabulation, approach + real CAT sets

Pure tabular DI: index tables, cumulative counts, revenue grids and share/price tables. Learn the read-only-what-you-need method, then drill actual CAT sets reproduced faithfully from the book, with the book's own answers.

5approach cards

5CAT sets

11questions

↩ All DI Approach Sheet CAT Sets

Approach & Concept Sheet

Method cards for tabular DI, reading, percentage change and estimation.

1Reading tables

Each cell ties a row label to a column label, read both before touching a number.
First check: absolute values or percentages? What unit (lakh / million / tonnes)? Which years/categories?
Notes below the table often carry the key definition (e.g. "Availability = Production − Export").
Tables are accurate but slow, don't compute every cell; fill only what a question needs.

2% change & growth

% change = (new − old)/old × 100, always divide by the old/base value.
Compound growth over n years: final = initial × (1 + r)ⁿ
Per-capita = total ÷ population; productivity = output ÷ area.
Compare percentage changes, not absolute jumps, when the question says "percentage increase".

3Approximation & estimation

Options are usually far apart, estimate. 642678 ÷ 161335 ≈ 64/16 = 4.
Round to leading digits, then refine only if two options are close.
Use 10%/5%/1% benchmarks: 10% is one decimal shift; 5% is half of that.
For "closest to" questions, eliminate impossible options by sign/magnitude first.

4Skip the speed-breakers

Calculation-heavy questions are speed-breakers, do the easy ones first, return later.
Lots of data on screen ≠ lots of data needed; most questions use only a slice.
Within a set, the first 1-2 questions are usually the cheap marks; the last is often the trap.
Selection beats grinding: a clean 4-of-5 in a friendly set > 2-of-6 in a brutal one.

5Common traps

Unit switch: data in millions, question in lakhs, read the unit on both.
Decoy complexity: a chart can hide a pure logic question; find the real ask.
"At least / at most / exactly" change the answer completely, underline them.
Percentage-of-percentage and base-confusion errors lose easy marks; restate the base.
Ratio data (like FEI = inflow/GDP) ⇒ you can't recover absolutes without the denominator.

CAT Previous-Year Sets

Real CAT tabular-DI sets, reproduced from the book with data tables intact. Difficulty: Easy Moderate Hard. Click any question to reveal the book's solution.

Tables & Tabulation

CAT 2003. Directions (Q. 39 to 40): Answer the questions on the basis of the following information. The following is the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) of a select list of items with the base year of 1993-94. In other words, all the item prices are made 100 in that year (1993-94). Price in all other years for an item are measured with respect to its price in the base year. For instance, the price of cement went up by 1% in 1994-95 as compared to 1993-94. Similarly, the price of power went up by 3% in 1996-97 as compared to 1993-94.

Item	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03
All Items	100	102.0	102.5	104.0	103.0	105.0	106.0	108.0	107.0	106.0
Cement	100	101.0	100.5	103.0	102.5	103.5	103.1	103.8	103.7	104.0
Limestone	100	102.0	102.5	102.75	102.25	103.0	104.0	105.0	104.5	105.0
Power	100	101.5	102.5	103.0	103.5	104.0	106.0	107.0	107.5	108.0
Steel	100	101.5	101.0	103.5	104.0	104.25	105.0	105.5	106.0	105.5
Timber	100	100.5	101.5	102.0	102.5	102.0	103.0	103.5	104.0	104.5
Wages	100	101.5	103.0	103.5	104.0	104.25	104.0	104.75	104.9	105.3

EasyCAT 2003

39. Which item experienced continuous price rise during the ten-year period?

(1) Power
(2) Cement
(3) Wages
(4) Limestone

Show solution

(1) Power. Scanning each row, only Power's index strictly increases every single year (100 → 101.5 → 102.5 → … → 108.0) with no dip. Cement, Limestone, Timber and Wages each have at least one year-on-year fall. Limestone price went down from 1996-97 to 1997-98, but Power experiences a continuous price rise.

ModerateCAT 2003

40. Which item(s) experienced only one decline in price during the ten-year period?

(1) Steel and Limestone
(2) Steel and Timber
(3) Timber
(4) Timber and Wages

Show solution

(4) Timber and Wages. Count year-on-year falls per row: Timber falls once (102.5 → 102.0 in 98-99); Wages falls once (104.25 → 104.0 in 99-00). Steel and Limestone each fall more than once, Cement falls twice.

CAT 1999. Directions (Q. 10 to 13): Answer the questions on the basis of the following information. The table below presents data on percentage population covered by drinking water and sanitation facilities in selected Asian countries. Country A is said to dominate B or A > B if A has higher percentage in total coverage for both drinking water and sanitation facilities, and B is said to be dominated by A, or B < A. A country is said to be on the coverage frontier if no other country dominates it. Similarly, a country is not on the coverage frontier if it is dominated by at least one other country. (Source: World Resources 1998-99, p. 251, UNDP, UNEP and World Bank.)

Country	Drinking Water			Sanitation Facilities
Country	Urban	Rural	Total	Urban	Rural	Total
India	85	79	81	70	14	29
Bangladesh	99	96	97	79	44	48
China	97	56	67	74	7	24
Pakistan	82	69	74	77	22	47
Philippines	92	80	86	88	66	77
Indonesia	79	54	62	73	40	51
Sri Lanka	88	52	57	68	62	63
Nepal	88	60	63	58	12	16

ModerateCAT 1999

10. Which countries are the countries on the coverage frontier?

(1) India and China
(2) Sri Lanka and Indonesia
(3) Philippines and Bangladesh
(4) Nepal and Pakistan

Show solution

(3) Philippines and Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the highest percentage in drinking-water facilities (total 97) and has better sanitation facilities than India, China, Pakistan and Nepal. Similarly, Philippines has the highest percentage of sanitation facilities (total 77) and has greater drinking-water coverage than all countries except Bangladesh. So the countries on the coverage frontier are Philippines and Bangladesh.

ModerateCAT 1999

13. India is not on the coverage frontier because
A. it is lower than Bangladesh in terms of coverage of drinking water facilities.
B. it is lower than Sri Lanka in terms of coverage of sanitation facilities.
C. it is lower than Pakistan in terms of coverage of sanitation facilities.
D. it is dominated by Indonesia.

(1) A and B
(2) A and C
(3) D
(4) None of these

Show solution

(4) None of these. Checking all the statements: statements A, B and C are individually true, but none is a valid reason for India not being on the coverage frontier, because each mentions only one parameter (drinking water OR sanitation) and domination requires being lower on both. Statement D is wrong because Indonesia has lesser drinking-water coverage than India (62 vs 81) and so does not dominate it. Hence none of the options given are correct.

CAT 2003. Directions (Q. 34 to 36): Answer the questions on the basis of the following information. Table A below provides data about ages of children in a school. For the age given in the first column, the second column gives the number of children not exceeding that age. For example, first entry indicates that there are 9 children aged 4 years or less. Tables B and C provide data on the heights and weights respectively of the same group of children in a similar format. Assuming that an older child is always taller and weighs more than a younger child, answer the following questions.

Age (yr)	Number
4	9
5	12
6	22
7	35
8	42
9	48
10	60
11	69
12	77
13	86
14	100

Height (cm)	Number
115	6
120	11
125	24
130	36
135	45
140	53
145	62
150	75
155	81
160	93
165	100

Weight (kg)	Number
30	8
32	13
34	17
36	28
38	33
40	46
42	54
44	67
46	79
48	91
50	100

ModerateCAT 2003

34. What is the number of children of age 9 years or less whose height does not exceed 135 cm?

(1) 48
(2) 45
(3) 3
(4) Cannot be determined

Show solution

(2) 45. Age ≤ 9 ⇒ 48 children. Height ≤ 135 cm ⇒ 45 children. Since taller ⇔ older, the 45 shortest are exactly the 45 youngest, all within the 48 youngest. So 45 children satisfy both.

HardCAT 2003

35. How many children of age more than 10 years are taller than 150 cm and do not weigh more than 48 kg?

(1) 16
(2) 40
(3) 9
(4) Cannot be determined

Show solution

(1) 16. Age > 10 ⇒ 100 − 60 = 40 oldest. Taller than 150 cm ⇒ 100 − 75 = 25 tallest (= 25 oldest). Weight ≤ 48 kg ⇒ 91 lightest (= 91 youngest). Children that are among the oldest 40, the tallest 25 and the lightest 91: the tallest 25 are oldest, of whom those with weight ≤ 48 are 91 − 75 = 16.

ModerateCAT 2003

36. Among the children older than 6 years but not exceeding 12 years, how many weigh more than 38 kg?

(1) 34
(2) 52
(3) 44
(4) Cannot be determined

Show solution

(3) 44. Age in (6, 12] ⇒ 77 − 22 = 55 children (the 23rd to 77th oldest). Weight > 38 kg ⇒ 100 − 33 = 67 heaviest (= 67 oldest). The overlap is children ranked 34th-77th by age, i.e. 77 − 33 = 44.

CAT 2000. Directions (Q. 14 to 15): Answer these questions with reference to the table given below. Information Technology Industry in India (Figures are in million US dollars).

Segment	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99
Software, Domestic	350	490	670	950	1250
Software, Exports	485	734	1083	1750	2650
Hardware, Domestic	590	1037	1050	1205	1026
Hardware, Exports	177	35	286	201	4
Peripherals, Domestic	148	196	181	229	329
Peripherals, Exports	6	6	14	19	18
Training	107	143	185	263	302
Maintenance	142	172	182	221	236
Networking & others	36	73	156	193	237
Total	2041	2886	3807	5031	6052

ModerateCAT 2000

15. The highest percentage growth in the total IT business, relative to the previous year was achieved in

(1) 1995-96
(2) 1996-97
(3) 1997-98
(4) 1998-99

Show solution

(1) 1995-96. Year-on-year growth of Total: 95-96 = (2886−2041)/2041 ≈ 41%; 96-97 = (3807−2886)/2886 ≈ 32%; 97-98 = (5031−3807)/3807 ≈ 32%; 98-99 = (6052−5031)/5031 ≈ 20%. The largest is 1995-96.

CAT 2017. Directions (Q. 61 to 64): Answer the questions on the basis of the following information. There are only four brands of entry level smart phones called Azra, Bysi, Cxqi, and Dipq in a country. Details about their market share, unit selling price, and profitability (defined as the profit as a percentage of the revenue) for the year 2016 are given in the table below:

Brand	Market Share (%)	Unit Selling Price (₹)	Profitability (%)
Azra	40	15,000	10
Bysi	25	20,000	30
Cxqi	15	30,000	40
Dipq	20	25,000	30

In 2017, sales volume of entry level smart phones grew by 40% as compared to that in 2016. Cxqi offered a 40% discount on its unit selling price in 2017, which resulted in a 15% increase in its market share. Each of the other three brands lost 5% market share. However, the profitability of Cxqi came down to half of its value in 2016. The unit selling prices of the other three brands and their profitability values remained the same in 2017 as they were in 2016.

ModerateCAT 2017

61. The brand that had the highest revenue in 2016 is:

(1) Cxqi
(2) Bysi
(3) Azra
(4) Dipq

Show solution

(3) Azra. Revenue ∝ (share × unit price). Azra: 40×15000 = 600,000; Bysi: 25×20000 = 500,000; Cxqi: 15×30000 = 450,000; Dipq: 20×25000 = 500,000 (units of a base volume). Azra is highest.

HardCAT 2017

62. The brand that had the highest profit in 2016 is:

(1) Bysi
(2) Dipq
(3) Cxqi
(4) Azra

Show solution

(3) Cxqi. Profit ∝ share × price × profitability (per a base of 100x units). Azra: 40×15000×0.10 = 60x; Bysi: 25×20000×0.30 = 150x; Cxqi: 15×30000×0.40 = 180x; Dipq: 20×25000×0.30 = 150x. The highest is Cxqi at 180x.

HardCAT 2017

64. The complete list of brands whose profits went up in 2017 from 2016 is:

(1) Azra, Bysi, Dipq
(2) Cxqi, Azra, Dipq
(3) Azra, Bysi, Cxqi
(4) Bysi, Cxqi, Dipq

Show solution

(1) Azra, Bysi, Dipq. Total volume grew 40%. Azra/Bysi/Dipq kept price & profitability but lost only 5 share-points each, their absolute volumes (1.4 × new share) still rose, so profit rose. Cxqi gained share but its profitability halved and price dropped 40%, so its profit fell. Hence the three whose profit rose are Azra, Bysi and Dipq.