SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 2 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 10 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.

An article is sold at a profit of 250%. What is the ratio of its cost price to selling price?

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Profit percentage is measured on the cost price, so fix CP at 100.

CP = 100
Profit = 250% of 100 = 250
SP = 100 + 250 = 350

CP : SP = 100 : 350
= 2 : 7 → option (d), the image reading 2 : 7.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Option (a) shows 7 : 2 — the right numbers in the wrong order. That is SP : CP, and the question names cost price first.
(b)
Option (b) shows 2 : 5, which is CP : SP at a profit of 150% (CP 100, SP 250). A 250% profit carries SP to 350, not 250.
(c)
Option (c) shows 5 : 2, option (b) reversed — a 150% profit read back to front. Both the profit rate and the order of the ratio are wrong.

Concept

Profit percentage is always a percentage of the cost price, so the fastest route is to set CP = 100 and let SP follow.

SP = CP × (100 + p) ⁄ 100. At p = 250 that is 100 × 350 ⁄ 100 = 350.

So CP : SP = 100 : (100 + p) for any profit rate p, and 2 : 7 is simply that formula at p = 250. Learning the formula rather than the single answer covers every rate SSC can name.

The four options are supplied as images rather than text: (a) 7 : 2, (b) 2 : 5, (c) 5 : 2 and (d) 2 : 7.

Key facts

Profit percentage and loss percentage are both calculated on the cost price.
For a profit of p%, CP : SP = 100 : (100 + p).
A 250% profit makes the selling price three-and-a-half times the cost price, giving CP : SP = 2 : 7.

Study next

Turning a loss percentage into a CP : SP ratio, where the second term is 100 − pDiscount problems where marked price, cost price and selling price all appear at once

Common traps

Answering SP : CP when the question asks for CP : SP
Taking 250% of the selling price rather than of the cost price

The same ratio-of-two-prices idea is asked from the discount side at 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.23, which allows a 20% discount on the marked price for a 10% gain and asks for the ratio of the cost price to the marked price.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.