SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 20 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 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.

In a clearance sale, a sari whose marked price was ₹10,490 is now sold for ₹9,441. What is the discount percentage on the sari?

(a)12%
(b)10%
(c)18%
(d)15%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Discount is always measured against the marked price, never the selling price.

Discount = 10,490 − 9,441 = ₹1,049
Discount % = 1049⁄10490 × 100
1049⁄10490 = 1⁄10
= 10% → option (b)

The one-line read: 9,441 is exactly 0.9 × 10,490, so a tenth of the tag has been knocked off.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
12% — 12% off ₹10,490 removes ₹1,258.80 and prices the sari at ₹9,231.20. It actually sold for ₹9,441, so the cut taken was smaller than this.
(c)
18% — 18% would strip ₹1,888.20 and leave ₹8,601.80 — far under the stated ₹9,441. The real reduction is ₹1,049, a tenth of the marked price.
(d)
15% — 15% off is ₹1,573.50, giving a selling price of ₹8,916.50. That sits ₹524.50 below what the stem says the sari fetched.

Concept

Marked price (MP) is the tag, selling price (SP) is what is paid, and the discount is the gap between them.

Discount % = (MP − SP) ⁄ MP × 100 — the base is always MP. Dividing by SP instead is the single commonest error in this topic.

Equivalently SP = MP × (1 − d⁄100), so a 10% discount is simply the multiplier 0.9 and the whole question can be done as a ratio rather than a subtraction.

Cost price plays no part: discount is a markdown from the tag, while profit and loss are measured from CP.

The rupee figures look deliberately untidy, but they are built so the ratio is exact — 1,049 is precisely one tenth of 10,490 — which is the signal to divide once rather than test each option.

Key facts

Discount % = (MP − SP)⁄MP × 100, with the marked price as the base.
Here MP − SP = 10,490 − 9,441 = ₹1,049.
SP = MP × (1 − d⁄100), and 0.9 × 10,490 = ₹9,441 confirms d = 10%.
Discount is computed from MP, whereas profit and loss are computed from CP.

Study next

Successive discounts and the single equivalent multiplierFixing a marked price so a required profit survives a stated discountDiscount percentage versus profit percentage, and the base each uses

Common traps

Dividing the ₹1,049 cut by the selling price ₹9,441, which gives 11.11%.
Treating ₹9,441 as a cost price and computing profit instead of discount.
Assuming untidy figures mean an untidy answer and estimating, when 1,049⁄10,490 is exactly 1⁄10.

SSC keeps the arithmetic exact and hides it behind awkward-looking rupee figures. Percentage work also appears at Quant Q.1 (successive increases and a decrease), Q.2 (a table total raised by 15%), Q.17 (a shopkeeper short-weighting a kilogram) and Q.24 (a percentage rise read off a table).

Related PYQs

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