SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 10 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.

In a company, the ratio of men and women is 5 : 3, respectively. When 150 additional women are employed in the company, the ratio becomes 5 : 4. How many men are employed in the company?

(a)850
(b)750
(c)550
(d)950

Answer

Why

Correct — B.

Men : women = 5 : 3, so write men = 5x and women = 3x.

The 150 new employees change only the women's count:
5x : (3x + 150) = 5 : 4
Cross-multiply: 4 × 5x = 5 × (3x + 150)
20x = 15x + 750

5x = 750, and men = 5x, so the company employs 750 men → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
850 — 850 men would mean one ratio part is 850 ⁄ 5 = 170. The men's term is 5 in both ratios, so a part is exactly the number of women who joined — and that number is 150, not 170.
(c)
550 — 550 men needs a part of 110, which would mean 110 women joined. The question fixes the intake at 150, and 5 × 150 = 750.
(d)
950 — 950 men needs a part of 190. Substituting back, 5x = 950 gives x = 190 and the equation 20x = 15x + 750 fails, since 3800 ≠ 3600.

Concept

This is a ratio with one quantity held fixed. Men are never hired or lost, so the men's share is 5 parts before the change and 5 parts after.

Because that term is literally the same number in both ratios, the two ratios are already on the same scale. The women's term moves from 3 parts to 4 parts, a rise of one part, and the question tells you that rise is 150 people.

So one part = 150, and men = 5 parts = 750. The algebra with x reaches the same place; the shortcut just skips it.

The shortcut works here only because the men's term is unchanged at 5 in both ratios. If the fixed quantity's term differed — 5 : 3 becoming 10 : 9, say — you would have to rescale before comparing parts.

Key facts

Men : women = 5 : 3 becomes 5 : 4 with the men's term unchanged, so both ratios share one part size.
One part equals the 150 women who joined, because the women's term rises from 3 parts to 4 parts.
Men = 5 parts = 5 × 150 = 750, leaving 600 women after the intake.
Check by substitution: 750 : (450 + 150) = 750 : 600 = 5 : 4.

Study next

Ratio problems where one quantity is fixed and the other is increased or decreasedTurning a 'the ratio becomes' condition into a linear equation by cross-multiplicationAges-before-and-after problems, which use the same two-ratio structure

Common traps

Adding the 150 to the men because men are named first in the ratio.
Answering 600, the women's count after the intake, instead of the men's count.
Assuming both ratios share a part size when the fixed quantity's term is not identical in the two ratios.

SSC reuses one template across 2024 shifts: a starting ratio, a fixed number added to one side, a new ratio, then a count asked back.

Also asked on 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.12 (male : female 2 : 3, 200 males added, ratio becomes 5 : 6) and on 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.11 (one gold coin per four non-gold, 20 gold coins added, ratio becomes 2 : 3).

Related PYQs

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