New Delhi: New Delhi: The hugely competitive common admission test (CAT) for admission into business schools went online for the first time on Saturday, but several students had a harrowing time as computers crashed in 11 centres across the country.

The unexpected fault occurred soon after the CAT examination began in 32 cities, but organisers said it affected only a small number of the 12,000-odd aspirants who appeared on the first day of the staggered exam.

The CAT determines admissions into the country’s prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other B-schools.

The organisers termed the failure as “teething problems” since the test switched over this year to a computer-based system from the earlier optical reader marking paper-based tests.

Convener of the CAT committee of the IIMs, Satish Deodhar, said the main reason for the problem was “incompatibility of some softwares at centres with servers”.