SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 12 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

On the stem as printed in English and Hindi the dresses sell for 18 parts against a total cost of 16.218 parts, a gain of 10.988…%, so the key's 10.98% has the right size but the direction worded in option (c), profit, not the loss keyed at (b).

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

A clothing store sold three dresses, D1, D2, and D3, whose selling prices were in the ratio 5:6:7. They made a profit of 20% on D1, a loss of 10% on D2, and a profit of 30% on D3. What was their approximate total profit or loss percentage for the entire sale?

(a)profit of 12.25%
(b)loss of 10.98%
(c)profit of 10.98%
(d)loss of 12.25%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The card follows SSC's key, a loss of 10.98%. The working below fixes the size; the note on the key explains why the direction is disputed.

Selling prices = 5, 6 and 7 parts, total 18
D1, 20% profit: CP = 5 ÷ 1.2 = 4.167
D2, 10% loss: CP = 6 ÷ 0.9 = 6.667
D3, 30% profit: CP = 7 ÷ 1.3 = 5.385

Total CP = 16.218
Difference = 18 − 16.218 = 1.782
1.782 ÷ 16.218 × 100 = 10.988…%
Printed as 10.98%, the figure keyed at option (b)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
profit of 12.25% — 12.25% is the wrong size. The difference is 1.782 on a cost of 16.218, which is 10.988…%. A 12.25% profit would need sales of about 18.20 parts, not 18.
(c)
profit of 10.98% — Profit of 10.98% has the same size as the keyed answer, 10.988…% printed as 10.98%. SSC's key marks the loss at (b); the note on the key sets out the direction.
(d)
loss of 12.25% — 12.25% is the wrong size, whichever the direction. The difference between 18 parts of sales and 16.218 parts of cost is 1.782, which is 10.988…% of cost.

Concept

When selling prices are given in a ratio, each cost price comes from division: CP = SP ÷ (1 + profit%) for a profit, SP ÷ (1 − loss%) for a loss.

The overall result compares total SP with total CP, and the percentage is taken on total cost. The three percentages cannot simply be averaged.

The key and the arithmetic disagree on direction, not on size. The stem on the response sheet, in English and in Hindi, prints a profit on D1 and D3 and a loss on D2. On those figures total SP, 18 parts, exceeds total CP, 16.218 parts.

SSC's key, read from the colour-marked cell on that sheet, sits on (b), loss of 10.98%. The sheet does not say whether it carries the tentative key or the final one.

Key facts

For a profit of p%, CP = SP ÷ (1 + p⁄100).
For a loss of l%, CP = SP ÷ (1 − l⁄100).
Overall profit or loss % = (total SP − total CP) ÷ total CP × 100.
Here total SP is 18 parts and total CP is 16.218 parts.

Study next

Overall profit when cost prices, rather than selling prices, are given in a ratioTwo articles sold at the same price, one at x% profit and the other at x% lossWeighted averages of percentages taken on different bases

Common traps

Averaging the three percentages, (20 − 10 + 30) ÷ 3 = 13.33%, as if each were taken on the same cost.
Weighting the percentages by the selling-price ratio, (5 × 20 − 6 × 10 + 7 × 30) ÷ 18 = 13.89%. Percentages are weighted by cost.
Treating 5 : 6 : 7 as the cost prices: sales then come to 6, 5.4 and 9.1 parts, a gain of 13.89%, which matches no option.

15 Sep 2025, 16:00, Quant Q.12 uses the same frame with mobile covers: selling prices 3 : 4 : 5, profits of 25% and 10%, and a 20% loss on C3.

There the costs 2.4, 3.636 and 6.25 total 12.286 against sales of 12, a loss of 2.33%, which is what its key marks.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Profit and Loss — all 56 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.