SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 19 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 profit gained on selling a certain product is 320% of the cost. If the cost increases by 10% but the selling price remains constant, then what percentage of the selling price is the profit (correct to one decimal place)?

(a)70.2%
(b)73.8%
(c)75.7%
(d)63.8%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Set the original cost at 100, because the 320% is quoted against cost.

Profit = 320% of 100 = 320
SP = 100 + 320 = 420, and it does not move
New cost = 100 + 10% = 110
New profit = 420 − 110 = 310

Profit as a share of the selling price = 310⁄420 = 0.73809… = 73.8% → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
70.2% — 70.2% of the ₹420 price is about ₹295, which leaves a cost of ₹125 — a 25% rise, not the 10% the question states.
(c)
75.7% — 75.7% of ₹420 is about ₹318, leaving a cost near ₹102. That is barely a 2% rise, while the question lifts the cost the whole way to 110.
(d)
63.8% — 63.8% of ₹420 is about ₹268, which needs a cost of ₹152 — a 52% rise, far past the 10% given.

Concept

Two bases are in play and the question switches between them mid-sentence. The 320% is measured on cost, while the answer is measured on selling price.

Fixing the cost at 100 turns both into arithmetic. The selling price is then 420 and stays there, so a rise in cost eats straight into profit — it cannot push the price up.

Profit-on-cost and profit-on-price are always different numbers for the same sale, and the larger denominator, the selling price, always returns the smaller percentage.

The rider correct to one decimal place is the paper telling you the answer is a recurring decimal. 310⁄420 is 73.809…, so the rounding is real work, not decoration.

Key facts

Profit measured on cost and profit measured on selling price are different percentages of the same sale.
If profit is 320% of cost, then SP = 4.2 × CP.
310⁄420 = 73.809…%, which rounds to 73.8%.
With the selling price frozen, a rise in cost cuts profit rupee for rupee: cost +10 means profit −10.

Study next

Converting profit-on-cost into profit-on-selling-price and back againMarked price, successive discounts and the selling price that survives themThe break-even cost at which a frozen selling price stops earning

Common traps

Forgetting the cost rise and computing 320⁄420 ≈ 76.2%, a figure the paper does not offer.
Reading 320% as the selling price rather than the profit, which would make SP 3.2 times cost instead of 4.2.
Dividing the new profit by the new cost, 310⁄110, which answers a question about cost and not about price.

The item is a base-switch: a percentage is planted against one quantity and asked against another, and pinning the cost at 100 is the whole solution.

Percentage against a shifting base also decides the discount item at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.2, where a flat 25% is set against 15% followed by 20%.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.