SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 14 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 given table shows the number of bananas produced by five farms over 4 years. Year → Farm: L | M | N | O | P 2020 — 17,500 | 14,180 | 16,300 | 17,405 | 15,805 2021 — 11,200 | 13,900 | 14,600 | 15,304 | 16,207 2022 — 12,300 | 17,652 | 14,800 | 15,150 | 16,404 2023 — 14,650 | 15,558 | 17,465 | 14,185 | 15,450 What is the respective ratio of the dozens of bananas produced by farm M to farm P in the year 2022?

(a)1331 : 1230
(b)1367 : 1471
(c)1471 : 1367
(d)1230 : 1331

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The figure is a table of bananas produced by farms L, M, N, O and P in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and the stem asks for the ratio of the dozens produced by M to P in 2022.

Read the 2022 row: M = 17,652, P = 16,404.

One dozen is 12, so divide each count:
17652 ÷ 12 = 1471
16404 ÷ 12 = 1367

M : P = 1471 : 1367 → option (c)

Both counts take the same divisor, so the ratio itself is unchanged by the conversion — but the options are printed in dozens, so you divide to recognise them.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
1331 : 1230 — Neither figure is a twelfth of a 2022 entry: 1331 × 12 = 15,972 and 1230 × 12 = 14,760, and neither of those counts appears anywhere in the table.
(b)
1367 : 1471 — Right numbers, wrong order. The stem asks M to P, and M's 17,652 is the larger count, so 1471 has to come first. This is 1367 : 1471, which answers P to M.
(d)
1230 : 1331 — This is option (a) reversed, and the reversal does not rescue it — 1230 and 1331 are still not twelfths of the 2022 counts 17,652 and 16,404.

Concept

Two steps, and the table hides the second. First locate the cell: the year is a row, the farm is a column, and the header is split, with a single Farm band sitting over the five sub-columns L to P.

Then convert. Dozens means divide by 12. Because both terms take the same divisor, the ratio is mathematically untouched — 17,652 : 16,404 is already 1471 : 1367.

So the division is not what changes the answer; it is what lets you match the answer against the printed options.

The four options are two pairs, each pair given in both orders. That layout punishes only two things: reading the wrong row, and writing the ratio the wrong way round.

Key facts

In 2022 farm M produced 17,652 bananas and farm P produced 16,404.
One dozen is 12, so 17,652 bananas is 1,471 dozen.
16,404 ÷ 12 = 1,367.
Dividing both terms of a ratio by the same number leaves the ratio unchanged.

Study next

Ratio questions where a unit conversion is applied to both termsReading a table whose header row is merged over sub-columnsPercentage change between two years of the same table row

Common traps

Taking the 2023 row, where M is 15,558 and P is 15,450, instead of 2022.
Writing the ratio as P to M when the stem names M first.
Skipping the division and hunting for 17,652 : 16,404 among the options.

A table item lays one operation on top of the reading, and that operation is what is really being tested. Here it is a conversion to dozens.

At 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.17 the added operation is an average over five rows of a distance table. At 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.22 an export condition is laid over a five-company import table.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.