SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 2 of 99

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 given table shows the number of televisions that were sold by different showrooms in years 2015 to 2019. Year/Showroom — A | B | C | D 2015 — 212 | 200 | 205 | 208 2016 — 210 | 215 | 225 | 220 2017 — 190 | 204 | 212 | 205 2018 — 198 | 212 | 222 | 224 2019 — 218 | 192 | 205 | 203 Find the difference between the sale of televisions from showrooms A, B and C in 2017 and the sale of televisions from showrooms B, C and D in 2019?

(a)3
(b)6
(c)8
(d)5

Answer

Why

Correct — b. The stem asks for A + B + C in 2017 against B + C + D in 2019 — different years and a different trio of showrooms on each side.

2017 row, showrooms A, B, C:
190 + 204 = 394
394 + 212 = 606

2019 row, showrooms B, C, D:
192 + 205 = 397
397 + 203 = 600

Difference = 606 − 600 = 6 → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
3 — 3 would need the two trios to differ by three. They do not: 190 + 204 + 212 = 606 and 192 + 205 + 203 = 600. Add each trio twice before subtracting.
(c)
8 — 8 is the gap between 2019's A + B + C (615) and 2017's A + C + D (607) — the right years with the wrong columns. The stem pins A, B, C to 2017 and B, C, D to 2019.
(d)
5 — 5 comes from 2019's A + C + D (626) against 2017's B + C + D (621), again the wrong letters. Column A belongs only to the 2017 side and column D only to the 2019 side.

Concept

This is a two-window table item: the sums you subtract sit in different rows and different columns, so most of the work is bookkeeping rather than addition.

Mark the six cells before adding anything. The stem gives A, B and C for 2017 and B, C and D for 2019 — B and C overlap, A and D do not.

Both trios land near 600, so the answer is a small number and one mis-copied cell changes it entirely. That is why the wrong options are all single digits too.

The whole question is a single image: two lines of text, then a five-row grid with Year down the side and Showrooms A to D across the top. The rows in play are 2017 (190, 204, 212, 205) and 2019 (218, 192, 205, 203).

Key facts

2017 gives A = 190, B = 204 and C = 212, so A + B + C = 606.
2019 gives B = 192, C = 205 and D = 203, so B + C + D = 600.
The difference the stem asks for is 606 − 600 = 6.

Study next

Selecting rows and columns from a grid before doing any arithmeticDifferences between two multi-cell totals rather than two single cellsRatios of totals drawn from the same table

Common traps

Adding the same three showrooms for both years
Taking the 2018 row because it sits between the two years named
Including showroom D in the 2017 total, which the stem does not ask for

The cells you need are named in the last line of the stem, never in the table itself, so that line decides the question. Compare 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.7, which asks for the ratio of two printers' three-day totals off the same kind of grid.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.