SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 22 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 proportion of Suresh's spending to saving is 3 : 1. His salary rises by 25%. What percentage of his expenditure will increase if his saving grows by 10%?

(a)40%
(b)20%
(c)10%
(d)30%

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Spending and saving together make up the salary, so take the salary as 4 parts: 3 spent, 1 saved.

Salary after the 25% rise = 4 × 1.25 = 5
Saving after the 10% rise = 1 × 1.10 = 1.1
New expenditure = 5 − 1.1 = 3.9
Rise in expenditure = 3.9 − 3 = 0.9

0.9 ÷ 3 = 0.30, so expenditure rises 30% → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
40% — A 40% rise puts expenditure at 4.2 out of the new salary of 5, leaving 0.8 to save — a 20% fall in savings, not the 10% growth the question states.
(b)
20% — At 20% the expenditure is 3.6, so savings would be 5 − 3.6 = 1.4, a 40% jump. The question pins savings growth at 10%.
(c)
10% — This is the savings figure copied straight across. If expenditure also rose 10%, to 3.3, savings would have to reach 1.7 — a 70% rise.

Concept

What makes the item solvable is the identity income = expenditure + savings, true before and after the rise. Two of the three are handed a growth rate, so the third is forced.

Working in parts rather than rupees keeps it clean: 3 : 1 means a salary of 4 parts. Any actual salary gives the same answer, because a percentage change is a ratio of a ratio.

Notice that expenditure grows faster (30%) than the salary (25%) precisely because savings grew slower (10%). The larger component absorbs the shortfall.

The paper says the proportion of spending to saving is 3 : 1, so spending is the larger part. Reading it the other way round inverts every step that follows.

Key facts

Income = expenditure + savings, so fixing any two growth rates fixes the third.
A 3 : 1 spending-to-saving split makes expenditure 75% of income.
Salary 4 → 5 with savings 1 → 1.1 leaves expenditure 3 → 3.9.
Expenditure can rise faster than income whenever savings rise slower than income.

Study next

Income and expenditure problems that ask for the savings percentage insteadPercentage change measured on a base that is itself part of a larger wholeSplitting a ratio when the total and the parts change at different rates

Common traps

Answering 10% by carrying the savings growth rate straight onto expenditure.
Applying the 25% salary rise to expenditure directly, which quietly assumes savings also grew 25%.
Reading 3 : 1 as saving to spending, which reverses which part is the 3.

The item hands you two of the three growth rates and asks for the third, so it collapses to one identity and one subtraction. Percentage change against a moving base also decides the profit item at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.19.

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