SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 16 September 2025, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 10 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 13 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.

A gadget is sold at a 15% discount on its marked price. This sale leads to a profit of 20% on its cost price. If the profit earned is ₹450, what would have been the selling price if the gadget was sold at a 25% discount on its marked price?

(a)₹2,585.36
(b)₹1,528.24
(c)₹2,879.45
(d)₹2382.35

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The profit gives the cost price, and the cost price leads to the marked price.

Profit = 20% of CP = ₹450
CP = 450 ÷ 0.20 = ₹2,250
SP at 15% off = 2,250 + 450 = ₹2,700

₹2,700 is 85% of the marked price
MP = 2,700 ÷ 0.85 ≈ ₹3,176.47

At 25% off, the buyer pays 75% of MP
3,176.47 × 0.75 ≈ ₹2,382.35 → option (d)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
₹2,585.36 — ₹2,585.36 is 81.4% of the ₹3,176.47 marked price, a discount of about 18.6%. A 25% discount leaves 75% of the marked price, which is ₹2,382.35.
(b)
₹1,528.24 — ₹1,528.24 is below even the ₹2,250 cost price. It would need a discount of about 52% on ₹3,176.47, more than double the 25% the question names.
(c)
₹2,879.45 — ₹2,879.45 is more than ₹2,700, the price at a 15% discount. A deeper 25% discount must give a lower price, so this figure moves the wrong way.

Concept

Three prices sit on one line: cost price, selling price, marked price. Profit links CP to SP, and discount links SP to MP.

Here the profit is given both in rupees and as a percentage, so it fixes CP first. From CP you climb to the actual SP, then to MP, and finally step down to the new discount.

A faster route skips MP: new SP = old SP × 75⁄85, because both prices are fractions of the same marked price.

The shortcut in numbers: 2,700 × 75⁄85 = 2,700 × 15⁄17 = 40,500⁄17 ≈ ₹2,382.35, with no need to find MP.

The wrong figures here, ₹2,585.36, ₹1,528.24 and ₹2,879.45, are also the wrong options of 17 Sep 2025, 12:30, Quant Q.11, a different problem. Test them against the ratio rather than hunting for a mistake behind them.

Key facts

A profit of 20% on CP equal to ₹450 gives CP = 450 ÷ 0.2 = ₹2,250.
SP after a d% discount = (100 − d)% of the marked price.
Two selling prices from the same marked price are in the ratio of what each discount leaves: 75 : 85 = 15 : 17.

Study next

Successive discounts on one marked price, such as 20% followed by 10%Markup, discount and profit in one chain: SP = CP × (1 + markup) × (1 − discount)Finding CP when the profit is given in rupees and as a percentage

Common traps

Treating ₹450 as 20% of the selling price, which makes SP = ₹2,250 instead of CP = ₹2,250.
Taking the 25% discount off the ₹2,700 selling price, which gives ₹2,025, instead of off the marked price.

18 Sep 2025, 09:00, Quant Q.6 is the same frame with new numbers: a 20% discount gives a 10% profit of ₹300, so CP = ₹3,000, SP = ₹3,300, MP = ₹4,125, and a 30% discount gives ₹2,887.50.

14 Sep 2025, 12:30, Quant Q.16 also starts from a rupee profit: marked 20% above CP and sold at 15% off, the profit is 2% of CP = ₹300, so CP = ₹15,000.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Discount — all 78 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.