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

A stock portfolio consists of four stocks. Stock A represents 20% of the portfolio and has a return of 6%. Stock B represents 30% of the portfolio and has a return of 8%. Stock C represents 20% of the portfolio and has a return of 4%. Stock D represents the remaining 30% of the portfolio and has a negative-return of 5%. What is the average return of the portfolio?

(a)2.6%
(b)3.4%
(c)2.9%
(d)3.2%

Answer

Why

Correct — C. A portfolio return is a weighted average: multiply each stock's return by its share, then add.

A: 0.20 × 6% = 1.20
B: 0.30 × 8% = 2.40
C: 0.20 × 4% = 0.80
D: 0.30 × (−5%) = −1.50

The four shares already total 100% (20 + 30 + 20 + 30), so no division is needed at the end.

Sum: 1.20 + 2.40 + 0.80 − 1.50 = 2.90
The portfolio's average return is 2.9% → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
2.6% — Too low. The four contributions are fixed by the stem at 1.2, 2.4, 0.8 and −1.5, summing to 2.9. Reaching 2.6 would need D's negative stock to carry more than its stated 30% share.
(b)
3.4% — Too high. With D's negative 5% weighted at its full 30%, the drag is 1.5 percentage points and the total settles at 2.9. 3.4 understates that drag.
(d)
3.2% — This is the unweighted mean, (6 + 8 + 4 − 5)⁄4 = 3.25. The shares are 20, 30, 20 and 30 percent — unequal — so the returns must be weighted before they are averaged.

Concept

A portfolio's return is a weighted average, not a plain one.

Each stock contributes in proportion to the money held in it: contribution = share × return. Add the four contributions and you have the portfolio.

Because the weights here are percentages that already total 100, the division step vanishes. Had they summed to anything else, you would divide by that total.

A negative return carries its sign through the multiplication — stock D subtracts 1.5 percentage points rather than adding anything.

The stem gives D's share indirectly as "the remaining 30%", so the weights must be checked to total 100 before the shortcut of not dividing is safe to use.

Key facts

Weighted average = Σ(weight × value) ÷ Σ(weights).
When the weights are percentages already totalling 100, the divisor is 1 and the division disappears.
The four contributions here are 1.2, 2.4, 0.8 and −1.5 percentage points, totalling 2.9.
A weighted average always lies between the smallest and the largest input, so it must sit between −5% and 8%.

Study next

Weighted average where the weights do not total 100Alligation as a two-group shortcut for weighted averagesMixture and solution problems written as weighted averages of concentration

Common traps

Averaging the four returns unweighted, which gives 3.25%.
Dropping the minus sign on stock D's 5% return.
Dividing by 4 after weighting, when the weights already total 100%.

SSC dresses the weighted mean as a portfolio, a class of students or a mixture, and plants one negative value or one uneven share so that plain averaging lands on a distractor that is waiting for it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.