SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 18 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 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.

The following pie chart below shows the expenditure in book publishing by a publisher under various heads. Printing — 30% | Paper — 25% | Binding — 15% | Royalty — 20% | Others — 10% Given that marked price of a book is ₹270, what is the cost of paper to publish a single copy of the book if the marked price of a book is 20% more than its cost price?

(a)₹56.25
(b)₹58.45
(c)₹68.75
(d)₹62.15

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The stem is an image. A pie chart splits a publisher's expenditure into Printing 30%, Paper 25%, Binding 15%, Royalty 20% and Others 10%, and the marked price of a book is ₹270, which is 20% more than its cost price.

Those slices divide the cost, so find the cost first.
MP = 1.2 × CP
270 = 1.2 × CP
CP = 270 ÷ 1.2 = ₹225

Paper takes 25% of that.
0.25 × 225 = ₹56.25 → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

(b)
₹58.45 — Option (b) implies a cost of 58.45 ÷ 0.25 = ₹233.80. That would make ₹270 about 15.5% above cost, not the 20% the stem states.
(c)
₹68.75 — Option (c) implies a cost of 68.75 ÷ 0.25 = ₹275, which is above the ₹270 marked price. A book marked 20% over cost cannot cost more than its own marked price.
(d)
₹62.15 — Option (d) implies a cost of 62.15 ÷ 0.25 = ₹248.60, putting the ₹270 mark only about 8.6% above cost.

Concept

A pie chart gives shares of a whole, and everything turns on identifying what that whole is.

Here the slices are heads of expenditure, so they divide the cost price. They say nothing directly about the marked price or the profit.

The bridge between the two is the mark-up: MP = CP × 1.2, so CP = 270 ÷ 1.2 = ₹225. Only after that conversion does a slice percentage mean anything in rupees.

Reverse the order and take 25% of ₹270 and you get ₹67.50, which answers a question nobody asked.

The whole stem, chart and wording together, arrives as a single image. Read the five slice labels off the picture before starting, and check they sum to 100%.

Key facts

The slices are Printing 30%, Paper 25%, Binding 15%, Royalty 20% and Others 10%, summing to 100%.
A marked price 20% above cost means MP = 1.2 × CP, so CP = ₹270 ÷ 1.2 = ₹225.
Paper takes 25% of the cost: 0.25 × ₹225 = ₹56.25 for one copy.
Taking 25% of the marked price instead gives ₹67.50, which is not among the options.

Study next

Converting pie-chart percentages into rupees once the base amount is knownMark-up and discount chains that put MP, CP and SP in one problemPie charts given in degrees rather than per cent, where 360° is the whole

Common traps

Applying the 25% share to the ₹270 marked price instead of the ₹225 cost price.
Computing the cost as ₹270 minus 20% of ₹270, which gives ₹216 rather than ₹225.
Reading the 30% Printing slice when the question asks about Paper.

Pie-chart reading also appears in this same paper at Quant Q.11, where the slices are given in degrees rather than per cent. Converting a percentage slice into a central angle is asked at 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.20, on a pie chart of fruit sales.

Related PYQs

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