SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 1 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.

Simplify 4 4⁄5 × 3⁄8 + (3 1⁄2 + 2⁄3) × 4⁄5

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The options are pictures; option (b) is the fraction 77⁄15. Convert the mixed numbers first, then follow BODMAS — bracket, then the two products, then the sum.

4 4⁄5 = 24⁄5
24⁄5 × 3⁄8 = 72⁄40 = 9⁄5

Bracket: 3 1⁄2 + 2⁄3 = 7⁄2 + 2⁄3 = 21⁄6 + 4⁄6 = 25⁄6
25⁄6 × 4⁄5 = 100⁄30 = 10⁄3

9⁄5 + 10⁄3 = 27⁄15 + 50⁄15 = 77⁄15 → option (b), which is 5 2⁄15.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Option (a) shows 3⁄10, which is 10⁄3 turned upside down. Flipping a fraction is not an operation the expression calls for, and two positive terms adding to more than 5 cannot give a value below 1.
(c)
Option (c) shows 15⁄77, the reciprocal of the correct 77⁄15. It comes from inverting at the last step, after the addition has already been done correctly.
(d)
Option (d) shows 10⁄3, which is only the second term, 25⁄6 × 4⁄5. The first product 9⁄5 has been dropped, so the answer stops one addition short.

Concept

A mixed number is an addition in disguise: 4 4⁄5 means 4 + 4⁄5 = 24⁄5. Convert every mixed number before you touch an operator, and the rest is ordinary fraction work.

Then BODMAS decides the order. The bracket 3 1⁄2 + 2⁄3 resolves first, then the two multiplications, and only then the final addition.

Unlike denominators are cleared with the LCM: 21⁄6 + 4⁄6 inside the bracket, and 27⁄15 + 50⁄15 at the end.

The arithmetic here is small on purpose. Nothing in this item is hard once 24⁄5 and 25⁄6 are on the page, which is why the marks are lost in the conversion rather than in the multiplication.

Key facts

A mixed number is a sum, so 4 4⁄5 = 4 + 4⁄5 = 24⁄5.
BODMAS resolves the bracket before the multiplications, and the multiplications before the final addition.
24⁄5 × 3⁄8 = 9⁄5 and 25⁄6 × 4⁄5 = 10⁄3.
9⁄5 + 10⁄3 = 77⁄15, which is 5 2⁄15.

Study next

Converting mixed numbers to improper fractions before any operationBODMAS where the word of appears alongside division and multiplicationAdding unlike fractions through the LCM of the denominators

Common traps

Reading 4 4⁄5 as 4 × 4⁄5 = 16⁄5 instead of 24⁄5.
Multiplying the bracket by 4⁄5 before adding 3 1⁄2 and 2⁄3 inside it.
Stopping after the second product and choosing 10⁄3.

SSC sets this BODMAS drill in more than one dress. The bracket-and-of version, with whole numbers instead of mixed numbers, runs at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.15 and at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.23.

There the difficulty is the operator of; here it is the conversion of the mixed numbers. The order of operations being tested is the same both times.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.