SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 6 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.

Study the given table and answer the question that follows. The given table shows the number of students enrolled in different academic faculties of an institution during 2016 – 2019. Year → Science | Commerce | Humanities 2016 — 550 | 457 | 699 2017 — 584 | 554 | 574 2018 — 625 | 332 | 743 2019 — 676 | 444 | 1223 From 2016 to 2019, what is the difference between the total number of students enrolled in science and that of students enrolled in humanities?

(a)930
(b)804
(c)870
(d)912

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The table carries the whole sum: add the two named columns and subtract.

Science 2016–2019: 550 + 584 + 625 + 676 = 2,435
Humanities 2016–2019: 699 + 574 + 743 + 1,223 = 3,239

Difference = 3,239 − 2,435 = 804 → option (b)

The Commerce column is never used.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
930 — 930 overshoots by 126. It survives only if a Humanities entry is read too high or a Science entry too low, and the printed columns total 3,239 and 2,435 exactly.
(c)
870 — 870 is 66 too high. Checking year by year catches it: 149 − 10 + 118 + 547 = 804, where the 2017 term is negative because Science exceeded Humanities that year.
(d)
912 — 912 is 108 too high. If Commerce crept into the working, note that it totals 1,787 — and no pairing of the three column totals produces 912.

Concept

A table DI item like this is arithmetic with a reading step in front of it. The mathematics is addition, and the marks are lost in the reading.

Two habits pay. Identify the two columns the stem names before adding anything, then ignore every other column completely.

Here the stem asks Science against Humanities across 2016–2019, so the Commerce column — which totals 1,787 — never enters the answer.

Column totals also give you a free check: the four year-by-year differences must add to the same 804.

Both the stem and the table are printed inside the image, so the figures live in the picture.

The table gives Science 550, 584, 625, 676 and Humanities 699, 574, 743, 1,223 for 2016 to 2019.

Key facts

Science enrolment across 2016–2019 totals 2,435 students.
Humanities enrolment across 2016–2019 totals 3,239 students.
The difference of two column totals equals the sum of the year-by-year differences, which is the quickest check.

Study next

Table DI asking for the ratio of two column totals rather than their differencePercentage increase between two cells of the same columnAverage of a column across the years a table covers

Common traps

Adding the wrong pair of columns because the stem names them in a different order from the table
Including a year outside the stated range, here anything before 2016 or after 2019
Subtracting year by year and treating the 2017 difference as positive when Science exceeded Humanities

This item's stem is printed inside the image, so the question is legible only from the picture itself.

Table DI also appears at 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.9, where a ratio is applied to one year's row, and at Quant Q.25 of the same paper, where a column is averaged — both of those carry their stem as text.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.