SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 3 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 MP of an article was Rs.180 and it was sold at a discount of 15%, the discount in Rs. is:

(a)27
(b)15
(c)12
(d)18

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The stem asks for the discount in rupees, not for the price after it.

Discount = 15% of the marked price
= 15⁄100 × 180
= 0.15 × 180 = 27 → option (a)

Faster on paper: 10% of 180 is 18, 5% is half of that at 9, and 18 + 9 = 27.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
15 — 15 is the rate, not an amount of money — the percentage copied out of the stem without ever multiplying it by 180.
(c)
12 — 180 ÷ 15 = 12: the marked price divided by the rate instead of multiplied by 15⁄100. A percentage is a multiplier, never a divisor.
(d)
18 — 18 is 10% of 180, the discount a 10% rate would give. The stem says 15%, and that is 18 + 9 = 27.

Concept

Marked price (MP) is the price on the tag, and a discount is always a percentage of the MP — never of the cost price and never of the selling price.

Discount amount = MP × rate⁄100.
Selling price = MP − discount amount.

Here those are two different numbers: the discount is Rs.27 and the selling price is Rs.153. The last five words of the stem decide which one you write down.

The paper prints MP unexpanded and writes the currency as Rs. rather than the rupee sign, and it ends with the discount in Rs. is — that closing phrase is the whole instruction.

Key facts

Discount = MP × rate⁄100, so 15% of Rs.180 is Rs.27.
The selling price here is Rs.180 − Rs.27 = Rs.153, which is not what was asked.
Discount is reckoned on the marked price, while profit and loss are reckoned on the cost price.

Study next

Successive discounts and their single equivalent rate, a + b − ab⁄100Discount combined with profit, where the cost price is a stated percentage of the MPWorking backwards from a discounted selling price to the marked price

Common traps

Answering with the selling price, Rs.153, when the discount was asked for.
Writing the rate, 15, as though it were an amount in rupees.
Dividing by the rate instead of multiplying by rate⁄100.

SSC runs this one-step discount from both ends: the price paid after a 27% discount on Rs.15,620 at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.4, and the marked price recovered from a discounted selling price at 18 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.4.

Successive-discount builds also appear, for instance two discounts of 10% and 5% on a Rs.500 bed sheet at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.