SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 23 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 percentage distribution of expenditure over various items of Saloni's monthly income is given in the following table. Study the table carefully and answer the question that follows. Items → Rent | Food | Education | Bills | Miscellaneous Percentage distribution — 30% | 20% | 25% | 20% | 5% If Saloni's monthly income is ₹75,000, how much money (in ₹) does she spend on Rent and Education?

(a)43,250
(b)41,250
(c)40,150
(d)42,150

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The image gives Saloni's monthly income as ₹75,000 and splits her expenditure as Rent 30%, Food 20%, Education 25%, Bills 20%, Miscellaneous 5%.

Rent + Education = 30% + 25% = 55%
1% of ₹75,000 = ₹750
55 × 750 = ₹41,250 → option (b)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
43,250 — ₹43,250 is ₹2,000 too high. It works out to 57.7% of ₹75,000, while Rent and Education together come to 55%.
(c)
40,150 — ₹40,150 is 53.5% of ₹75,000. It falls short of the 55% that Rent at 30% and Education at 25% add up to, which is ₹41,250.
(d)
42,150 — ₹42,150 is ₹41,250 with the 1 and the 2 swapped. It reads as 56.2% of the income, a share those two rows do not make.

Concept

A percentage-table question is two moves: add the shares the question names, then take that single combined share of the base once.

Adding first keeps the arithmetic clean. 30% + 25% = 55%, and 55% of ₹75,000 is one multiplication rather than two.

The 1% unit makes it faster still. 1% of ₹75,000 is ₹750, so any row is that row's number times 750: Rent alone is 30 × 750 = ₹22,500 and Education is 25 × 750 = ₹18,750, which add back to ₹41,250.

The five shares in the table add to 100%, and the question treats them as shares of the ₹75,000 income, so there is no unspent remainder to set aside before taking a share.

Key facts

Rent is 30% and Education is 25% in the table, so together they take 55% of the income.
1% of ₹75,000 is ₹750, which turns every row of the table into a one-step multiplication.
Rent ₹22,500 plus Education ₹18,750 is ₹41,250, the same figure the combined 55% gives.

Study next

Adding two shares before applying them to a single baseTurning a percentage table into the central angles of a pie chartRecovering the base when one item's rupee value is given

Common traps

Taking 30% of ₹75,000 and then 25% of what remains, which multiplies the shares instead of adding them.
Picking up Bills at 20% as Education, since Food and Bills carry the same figure.
Adding Rent and Food, the two leftmost columns, rather than Rent and Education.

Share-of-a-total reading also runs at 26 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.22, where a table gives the percentage distribution of students across four schools. At 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.3 the same distribution idea is put as a pie chart and the answer wanted is a central angle.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.