SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 2 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.

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If A is 25% more than B, and B is 20% more than C, then what is A : C?

(a)3 : 2
(b)2 : 3
(c)5 : 4
(d)6 : 5

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Turn each "more than" into a multiplier and chain the two through B.

A is 25% more than B: A = 1.25B = 5⁄4 B
B is 20% more than C: B = 1.2C = 6⁄5 C

Substitute for B: A = 5⁄4 × 6⁄5 C = 3⁄2 C
So A : C = 3 : 2 → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

(b)
2 : 3 — 2 : 3 is C : A, the ratio turned round. A is the largest of the three, so A : C must be greater than 1.
(c)
5 : 4 — 5 : 4 is A : B alone. It stops after the first step and leaves out B's own 20% lead over C.
(d)
6 : 5 — 6 : 5 is B : C alone. A is a further 25% above B, so A : C = 6⁄5 × 5⁄4 = 3⁄2.

Concept

x% more means multiply by (1 + x⁄100). Two changes in a chain multiply; they do not add.

1.25 × 1.2 = 1.5, so A is 50% more than C, not 45%. The extra 5 points is 25% of B's 20% lead: 25 + 20 + (25 × 20)⁄100 = 50.

The common-term method gives the same result. A : B = 5 : 4 = 15 : 12 and B : C = 6 : 5 = 12 : 10, so A : B : C = 15 : 12 : 10 and A : C = 15 : 10 = 3 : 2.

Key facts

x% more than B means B × (1 + x⁄100).
Successive changes of a% and b% make a net change of a + b + ab⁄100 percent.
25% = 1⁄4 and 20% = 1⁄5, so the multipliers are 5⁄4 and 6⁄5.

Study next

By what percent B is less than A, when A is x% more than BCombining A : B and B : C into A : B : C through the common termSuccessive percentage changes: a rise followed by a fall

Common traps

Adding the percentages: 25% + 20% = 45% gives A : C = 29 : 20, which is wrong and not among the options.
Reading the chain backwards and answering C : A = 2 : 3.

The common-term method also settles 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.18: A : B = 6 : 8 and B : C = 5 : 10 scale to 30 : 40 and 40 : 80, so A : B : C = 3 : 4 : 8.

Multipliers chain the same way in 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.4: a 20% markup then a 30% discount is 1.2 × 0.7 = 0.84, a 16% loss.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Percentage — all 66 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.