SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 4 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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A bookseller purchases 5 novels at the marked price of 4 novels from a distributor. If he then sells these novels to customers, offering a discount of 5% on the marked price, what is his profit percentage?

(a)15%
(b)18.75%
(c)20.26%
(d)25%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Take the marked price of one novel as ₹100.

Cost of 5 novels = marked price of 4: 4 × 100 = ₹400
Cost per novel: 400 ÷ 5 = ₹80
Selling price after 5% off: 100 − 5 = ₹95

Profit per novel: 95 − 80 = ₹15
Profit %: 15⁄80 × 100 = 18.75% → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
15% — 15% is the profit on the marked price, ₹15 out of ₹100. Profit percentage is measured on the cost, ₹80, and 15⁄80 = 18.75%.
(c)
20.26% — The exact profit is 15⁄80 = 18.75%. 20.26% would need about ₹16.21 of profit on the ₹80 cost, and a 5% discount does not leave that much.
(d)
25% — 25% ignores the 5% discount. Selling at the full ₹100 on an ₹80 cost gives 20⁄80 = 25%, but the novels sell at ₹95, which cuts the profit to ₹15.

Concept

Two separate deals sit in this question. Buying 5 for the price of 4 lowers the cost: each novel costs 4⁄5 of its marked price.

Selling at 5% off lowers the selling price to 95% of the marked price.

Put both on one base, the marked price: selling price ÷ cost = 95⁄80 = 1.1875, an 18.75% profit. Unless a question says otherwise, profit percentage is taken on the cost price.

The marked price never needs its real value. Any figure works, and ₹100 keeps the 5% discount in whole rupees.

Key facts

Buying n items for the price of m makes the cost per item m⁄n of the marked price.
Profit % = (SP − CP) ⁄ CP × 100, measured on the cost price.
SP ⁄ CP = 0.95 ⁄ 0.80 = 1.1875, which is an 18.75% profit.

Study next

Buy-x-get-y-free offers converted into an effective discountChained equalities between the marked, cost and selling prices of different item countsA quantity offer followed by successive percentage discounts

Common traps

Dividing the ₹15 profit by the ₹100 marked price and marking 15%.
Forgetting the 5% discount and marking 25%.

23 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.22 chains two such equalities (marked price of 55 items = cost of 99, selling price of 56 = marked price of 35), keyed 12.5% profit because 99⁄55 × 35⁄56 = 9⁄8.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Discount — all 56 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.