SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 2 · 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.

Raman fixes the sale price of his goods at 16% above the cost price. He sells his goods at 12% less than the fixed price. Find the profit percentage correct to two places of decimal.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Take the cost price as ₹100 so every percentage reads off in rupees.

Fixed price = 100 + 16% of 100 = ₹116
Sold 12% below that: 116 × 0.88 = ₹102.08
Profit = 102.08 − 100 = ₹2.08 on a cost of ₹100

That is a profit of 2.08%, the figure printed in option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Option (a) shows 0.08%, which would mean a selling price of ₹100.08 on a ₹100 cost. It is the tail of ₹102.08 read as the whole profit, with the ₹2 dropped.
(c)
Option (c) shows 1.07%, a selling price of ₹101.07. The 16% markup followed by a 12% cut lands on ₹102.08, and no step in that chain produces ₹101.07.
(d)
Option (d) shows 3.01%. Even the common slip of taking 12% off the cost price rather than the marked price gives ₹104 and a 4% profit, so it does not reach 3.01% either.

Concept

Successive percentage changes multiply, they do not add. The 16% is charged on the cost price, but the 12% is taken off the marked price, so the two act on different bases.

Chain the multipliers: 1.16 × 0.88 = 1.0208. The selling price is 102.08% of cost, so the profit is 2.08%.

The net-change formula gives the same number in one line: x + y + xy ⁄ 100 with x = +16 and y = −12 is 16 − 12 − 1.92 = 2.08.

The stem asks for the answer correct to two decimal places, which is the signal that it will not be the tidy 4% you get by subtracting 12 from 16. The four options are printed as images in the response sheet, so read them as 0.08%, 2.08%, 1.07% and 3.01%.

Key facts

Markup and discount act on different bases, so 16% up then 12% down is 1.16 × 0.88 = 1.0208.
The net effect of two successive changes of x% and y% is x + y + xy ⁄ 100 percent.
Assuming a cost price of ₹100 converts every profit-and-loss percentage directly into rupees.
A 16% markup followed by a 12% discount still leaves a profit, because 12% of 116 is less than 16.

Study next

Successive percentage change and the x + y + xy ⁄ 100 shortcutMarked price, discount and profit chained in one questionFinding the marked price when the profit percentage after discount is given

Common traps

Subtracting the percentages to get 4%, which ignores that the 12% is taken on ₹116.
Taking 12% off the cost price instead of the fixed price, which gives ₹104.
Rounding 2.08 to 2.1 and then hunting for the nearest option.

SSC marks goods up on cost, discounts them on the marked price, and asks for the gain.

The identical chain is asked at 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.19, where the market price is 25% above cost and the discount is 18% — that one works out to 2.5%. A plain discount on a marked price also appears in this shift at Quant Q.4.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.