There are reports that the exam system was not behaving in the same way at all centers and passwords were not working, putting lots of candidates into distress. Looks like a super way to stress test the candidates, ie, if you could complete the exam in the first place, you are already interview material!
Jokes aside, more rigorous testing should have been done, and fewer but stronger centers could have been opted for this initial online exam. Hindsight 20/20. Problems will happen in every large scale execution, but online tests are really the way to go with improvements. Here’s the message from CATIIM.in:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT for Sunday 29th November 2009
The launch of the computerized CAT involved the delivery of exams by Prometric into more than 360 testing labs at 104 individual locations. While a significant majority of the candidates successfully completed their exams on Day One, various technical issues arose at selected computers in approximately 50 labs that prevented approximately 2,000 exams from being delivered. Prometric has generated new appointments for these individuals and they are in the process of being contacted through SMS and email messages. Prometric technicians have been dispatched to address these isolated problems. To avoid candidate inconvenience and to allow for the necessary repairs to be completed at the impacted labs, Prometric has scheduled a closure of these labs on Sunday, 29 November 2009. Candidates affected by this closure will also be notified by Prometric in the manner described above and provided with new appointments within this year’s testing period.

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And here’s some feedback from a CAT candidate after his exam, and based on the details of his explanation, there was quite some noise.

From Gaurav Gupta: I wrote my exam on 28th Nov and would like to add my 2 cents on how the exams are being conducted this year.

1. The test started at different times for different people.This led to two main problems.Firstly,a lot of people for whom the test had not started were still able to see the test as they could easily peep into the computer screen of their neighbors. Secondly,there was so much noise in the room because of the officials entering username and password for the rest of the students that I had to literally keep my hands on my ears and write the exam.Sir, they werent just whispering rather they were shouting inside the testing room.

2. Officials were chatting and discussing amongst themselves throughout the paper.One of the official even had his mobile phone kept on charging inside our test centre and it rang twice during the paper.

3. The officials kept moving around from one room to another and there was absolutely no silence during the paper.The worse part was the door connecting the two rooms made an irritating noise every time it was opened and closed.My request to keep the door open by placing a stopper so that we could do away with the noise was rejected outrightly by one of the officials without any clarification.

4. The officials were absolutely unconcerned about the fact that they were making so much noise in the room and inspite of a lot of requests by a lot of students they kept doing the same.

5.Since the test started at different times, it also ended at different times and due to this there was a lot of chaos in the room because officials started to complete formalities(collecting rough sheet,handling back the admit card etc.) for students who had already completed the test and all this completely spoiled the last 10 mins of my exam.

6. Finally, one technical problem that has not yet been covered in the media.We were told not to use the review button during out test because the usage of the same for one of the student had led to the closure of the test.Due to this,I had to click 40 times to get to the DI section whereas people at other centres could easily go to any question by using the review button.Sir, I would like to highlight here that due to this problem I had to change my examination strategy completely.I always attempted sections in the order DI,Maths and English.But as I was not able to navigate to the question of my choice I had to attempt the questions in the same order as they were in the actual test.
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Folks, as IIM alumni from a decade back, it is interesting to see how the online CAT got screwed at a few places. But just so you know that CAT centers have lots of things going around them; way back during CAT 1996 exam in Nagpur, there was a full blown wedding with blaring music and fireworks just next to the testing room. Another center we know had a funeral procession next to it. Just imagine! C’est la vie.