SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 14 of 95

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 10 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 following pie chart shows the distribution of the percentage of students in various courses at the university. The total number of students (boys and girls only) in the university is 7000. In B.Com, there are 60% girls and in B.Sc. C.Sci, there are 40% boys. The total number of girls who took admission in B.Sc C.Sci and B.Com courses is what percentage of the total students admitted to the university?

(a)25%
(b)27%
(c)29%
(d)23%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Take the two slices the question names, then the girls inside each.

B.Com = 20% of 7000 = 1,400 students, and 60% of them are girls
Girls in B.Com = 0.6 × 1400 = 840

B.Sc C.Sci = 25% of 7000 = 1,750 students, and 40% are boys, so 60% are girls
Girls in B.Sc C.Sci = 0.6 × 1750 = 1,050

Girls from the two courses = 840 + 1050 = 1,890
1890 ⁄ 7000 × 100 = 27% → option (b)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
25% — 25% of 7,000 is 1,750, which is every B.Sc C.Sci student, boys included — and it leaves the 840 B.Com girls out altogether.
(c)
29% — 29% would mean 2,030 girls, 140 more than the chart allows: 60% of B.Com's 1,400 and 60% of C.Sci's 1,750 come to 1,890 and no further.
(d)
23% — The swap: reading B.Com's 60% as boys leaves 560 girls there, and 560 + 1,050 = 1,610, which is 23%. In B.Com the 60% is the girls' share.

Concept

There are two layers, and the pie chart carries only the first.

The slices give each course's share of the 7,000 students — B.Com 20%, B.Sc C.Sci 25%. The boy–girl split inside a course is given in words, and it applies to that course's own strength, not to the university total.

Because the answer is a percentage of the same 7,000, the head count can be skipped: 60% of 20% is 12%, 60% of 25% is 15%, and 12 + 15 = 27%.

Every slice is labelled with its own percentage — B.Sc Maths 20, B.Sc Physics 10, B.Sc Chem 12, B.Sc C.Sci 25, B.Com 20, BBA 13 — so nothing here depends on measuring an angle.

Key facts

B.Com holds 20% of the 7,000 students (1,400) and B.Sc C.Sci holds 25% (1,750).
40% boys in B.Sc C.Sci means 60% girls, so take the complement before multiplying.
The six slices total 100%: 20 + 10 + 12 + 25 + 20 + 13.
Girls counted here are 1,890 of 7,000, which is exactly 27%.

Study next

Pie charts carrying a second layer in a ratio tablePercentage of a percentage, taken without computing head countsComplementary shares, where boys are 100% minus the girls' share

Common traps

Taking C.Sci's 40% as girls when 40% is the boys' share.
Dividing the 1,890 girls by the two courses' 3,150 students instead of by all 7,000.
Reading a slice's label as degrees when it is already a percentage.

SSC pairs the chart with a second layer stated outside it, in words or in a ratio table — as at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.9, where a male-to-female ratio table sits beside the slices.

The bar-graph form of the same 'one arithmetic step off a chart' reading is at Quant Q.10 of this shift.

Related PYQs

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