SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 11 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.

Rohini buys a Bluetooth headphone set for ₹1,700 from a wholesale shop and marks it at ₹2,000. Later on, she allows a discount of 40% on its sale. What is her loss or gain percentage (correct up to two decimal places)?

(a)29.41% gain
(b)25.19% loss
(c)25.19% gain
(d)29.41% loss

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Discount is taken on the marked price; profit or loss is taken on the cost price. Keep those two bases apart and the sum is three lines.

Selling price = 2000 − 40% of 2000
= 2000 − 800 = ₹1,200
Loss = 1700 − 1200 = ₹500
Loss% = 500⁄1700 × 100 = 29.41% → option (d)

The division carried out: 500⁄1700 = 5⁄17 = 0.294117…, which is 29.41% to two decimal places, and the sale price sits below the cost, so it is a loss.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
29.41% gain — The right number with the wrong direction. Rohini pays ₹1,700 and receives ₹1,200, so money leaves her — a gain would need the selling price above the cost price.
(b)
25.19% loss — The loss is ₹500 on a cost of ₹1,700, and 500⁄1700 = 29.41%. Taking the same ₹500 on the marked price would give 500⁄2000 = 25% exactly, so 25.19% matches neither base.
(c)
25.19% gain — Wrong on both counts. The transaction is a loss, since ₹1,200 comes in against ₹1,700 paid, and 25.19% is not 500⁄1700 on any reading.

Concept

Three prices have to be held apart: cost price ₹1,700, marked price ₹2,000, selling price ₹1,200.

Discount rides on the marked price. Forty percent of ₹2,000 is ₹800, so the sale price is ₹1,200. Taking that 40% off the cost price instead is the single commonest slip in this topic.

Profit and loss ride on the cost price. Compare ₹1,200 with the ₹1,700 she paid, then divide the gap by ₹1,700, never by the marked price.

Marking up and then discounting deeply can still lose money, and this sum is built to show it.

The paper asks for two decimal places, so finish the division rather than rounding early: 5⁄17 = 0.294117… gives 29.41%, not 29.4% and not 29%.

Key facts

Selling price after a discount = marked price × (100 − discount%)⁄100.
Loss% = (CP − SP)⁄CP × 100, always measured on the cost price.
Here SP = ₹1,200 against CP = ₹1,700, a loss of ₹500.
500⁄1700 = 5⁄17 = 29.41% to two decimal places.

Study next

Successive discounts and the single equivalent discount that replaces themThe mark-up needed above cost to hold a target profit after a stated discountProfit and loss where cost and sale are quoted on different unit bases

Common traps

Taking the 40% discount off the ₹1,700 cost price instead of the ₹2,000 marked price
Dividing the ₹500 loss by the marked price and reporting 25%
Rounding 29.4117% to 29.4% when the question asks for two decimals

The item pairs a mark-up with a discount and asks for the net effect on cost, and it wants two decimals, so a rounded answer fails.

Profit and loss arithmetic is also asked in this paper at Quant Q.8, where Ramesh buys 130 books at ₹200 each and sells them in three lots at different rates.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.