SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 23 of 98

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 marked price of a TV set is ₹18,500. If the dealer allows two successive discounts of 20% and 5%, for how much is the TV available?

(a)₹14,000
(b)₹14,060
(c)₹15,000
(d)₹15,060

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Successive discounts apply one after the other, each to the price left by the previous one.

Marked price = ₹18,500
First discount 20%: 18,500 × 0.80 = ₹14,800
Second discount 5%: 5% of 14,800 = ₹740
14,800 − 740 = ₹14,060 → option (b).

Faster route: the single equivalent discount for 20% then 5% is 20 + 5 − (20 × 5)⁄100 = 24%, and 18,500 × 0.76 = ₹14,060.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
₹14,000 — ₹14,000 takes ₹800 off the ₹14,800, but 5% of 14,800 is ₹740. That ₹60 overcharge on the discount is the whole gap between this figure and the right one.
(c)
₹15,000 — ₹15,000 is higher than ₹14,800, the price the 20% discount alone already leaves. A second discount can only push the price down, so any figure above ₹14,800 is out on sight.
(d)
₹15,060 — ₹15,060 is also above the ₹14,800 reached after the first discount. Two discounts cannot leave the buyer paying more than one discount does.

Concept

Two successive discounts are not one discount of their sum. The second is charged on the reduced price, so 20% followed by 5% is not 25%.

The multiplier form is the safe one. A discount of d% multiplies the price by (100 − d)⁄100, so the price here becomes 18,500 × 0.80 × 0.95.

The single equivalent discount for a% then b% is a + b − ab⁄100, which gives 24% for 20 and 5. It is always less than the plain sum, because the second cut works on a smaller base.

Order does not matter: 0.80 × 0.95 and 0.95 × 0.80 are the same number, so taking 5% first and 20% second also ends at ₹14,060. What does change the answer is applying both discounts to the marked price, which gives ₹13,875 and is the error the arithmetic is built to punish.

Key facts

Successive discounts of 20% and 5% multiply the marked price by 0.80 and then by 0.95.
18,500 × 0.80 = 14,800, and 5% of 14,800 is 740.
The single equivalent discount for a% then b% is a + b − ab⁄100, which is 24% here.
18,500 × 0.76 = 14,060, the same figure the two-step route reaches.

Study next

Equivalent single discount for three successive discountsRecovering the marked price from the selling price when discount and profit are both givenDiscount and profit percentage applied to the same article

Common traps

Adding 20 and 5 into a single 25% discount and answering ₹13,875
Taking the second 5% on the marked price rather than on ₹14,800
Answering with the total discount of ₹4,440 instead of the price the buyer pays

SSC sets the two-step discount forwards, as here, and also backwards from the price paid to the marked price. The same percentage-on-a-changed-base idea drives Quant Q.19 of this paper, where a 25% rise in income meets a 20% rise in expenditure.

Related PYQs

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