SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 9 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.

The pie chart given below shows the number of hours spent by a student for different activities on a working day. The percentage of hours spent at school in a day is _____.

(a)30%
(b)35%
(c)40%
(d)25%

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The chart is titled 'hours/day' and its slices are labelled in hours, not percentages, so total them before taking a share.

Slices: sleep 8, school 6, homework 4, play 2, other 4
Total = 8 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 4 = 24 hours — a full day, which confirms the reading

School share = 6 ⁄ 24 = 1⁄4 = 25% → option (d)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
30% — 30% is 6 ⁄ 20 — school hours divided by a day that has lost one of its two 4-hour slices. All five slices belong in the denominator, and together they make 24.
(b)
35% — 35% of a 24-hour day is 8.4 hours, which is more than the chart's largest slice, sleep at 8. No activity here can hold that share.
(c)
40% — 40% would need a denominator of 15 hours (6 ⁄ 15). The five slices sum to a full 24-hour day, and that total is itself the check that you read the labels correctly.

Concept

A pie chart may be labelled in percentages or in raw units. This one carries hours, so a share is that slice divided by the sum of all slices.

The sum is the safety net. Because these are hours in a day, the five values must total 24 — and 8 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 4 does, so no label has been misread.

Percentages convert straight to angles: 6 of 24 hours is one quarter of the pie, which is 90° at the centre.

Two slices are both labelled 4 (homework and other). Dropping one of them while totalling is the single likeliest slip on this item.

Key facts

The slices read sleep 8, school 6, homework 4, play 2 and other 4 hours.
The five slices sum to 24 hours, a complete day.
School takes 6 of 24 hours, which is one quarter, or 25%.
One quarter of a pie is 90° of its 360°.

Study next

Pie charts labelled in absolute values rather than percentagesConverting a slice's share into its central angle in degreesTwo-pie-chart questions where the two totals differ

Common traps

Assuming the numbers printed on the slices are already percentages
Dropping one slice when totalling, which turns 6 ⁄ 24 into 6 ⁄ 20
Answering with the hours (6) when the question asks for a percentage

The options step in fives — 25, 30, 35, 40 — so an eyeballed slice is not enough and the exact fraction is required. The same shift asks the same percentage-of-total step off an income table at Quant Q.1.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.