SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 3 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

A bronze article having a marked price of ₹1,000 is sold during a festive season sale after three successive discounts of 20% and 30% and 10%. What will be the amount (in ₹) to be paid by a customer if she buys the article during the festival season?

(a)496
(b)504
(c)564
(d)508

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Successive discounts multiply; they never add.

MP = ₹1,000
After 20% off: 1,000 × 0.80 = ₹800
After 30% off: 800 × 0.70 = ₹560
After 10% off: 560 × 0.90 = ₹504

She pays ₹504 → option (b)

Equivalent single discount: 1 − 0.504 = 49.6%, not 60%.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
496 — ₹496 is the total discount, not the price: 1,000 − 504 = 496. The question asks the amount the customer pays.
(c)
564 — ₹564 is above ₹560, the price after only the first two discounts. A third discount must push the price below 560, so this fails before any multiplication.
(d)
508 — ₹508 survives that check, so settle it by multiplying: 560 × 0.90 = 504 exactly. For 508 the last discount would have to be about 9.29%, not 10%.

Concept

A discount of d% leaves a factor of (1 − d ⁄ 100). Chain them by multiplying the factors, never by adding the percentages.

Here 0.80 × 0.70 × 0.90 = 0.504, so the customer pays 50.4% of the marked price and the equivalent single discount is 49.6%.

Because multiplication is commutative, the order the shop applies the three discounts in cannot change the final bill — a useful check when a question reorders them.

The marked price is a round ₹1,000 precisely so the multiplication is easy; the item is testing method, not arithmetic stamina.

Key facts

Successive discounts of 20%, 30% and 10% leave a factor of 0.80 × 0.70 × 0.90 = 0.504.
The equivalent single discount is 49.6%, not the 60% you get by adding.
Order of application never changes the final price.
On ₹1,000 the customer pays ₹504 and saves ₹496.

Study next

Equivalent single discount for a chain of two or three discountsMarked price, discount and profit combined in one questionSuccessive percentage change where one step is an increase and one a decrease

Common traps

Adding 20 + 30 + 10 to get a 60% discount and answering ₹400
Reporting the discount (₹496) when the question asks the amount paid
Applying each percentage to the original ₹1,000 instead of to the running price

SSC keeps the marked price round so the whole item turns on multiplying the factors rather than adding the rates. The same shift comes at the same topic from the other side at Quant Q.23, giving a 20% discount and a 10% gain and asking for the cost-price-to-marked-price ratio.

Related PYQs

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