SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 13 of 99

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 man spends 80% of his income. His income has increased by 25%, but his expenditure remains the same. By what percent have his savings increased?

(a)125%
(b)150%
(c)100%
(d)200%

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Take income as 100, so the percentages become rupees.

Expenditure = 80% of 100 = 80
Old savings = 100 − 80 = 20

New income = 100 × 1.25 = 125
Expenditure unchanged = 80
New savings = 125 − 80 = 45

Rise in savings = 45 − 20 = 25
25 ÷ 20 × 100 = 125% → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

(b)
150% — A 150% rise would take savings from 20 to 50, which needs an income of 80 + 50 = 130, a 30% rise, not 25%.
(c)
100% — 100% would mean savings doubled from 20 to 40, which needs an income of 120, a 20% rise, not the 25% given.
(d)
200% — 200% would take savings from 20 to 60, needing an income of 140, a 40% rise. The real rise is 25 on a base of 20.

Concept

Savings = income − expenditure. With expenditure frozen, every extra rupee of income goes straight into savings.

So the rupee rise in savings equals the rupee rise in income, 25 here. What changes is the base: 25 is a 25% rise on an income of 100 but a 125% rise on savings of 20.

Always divide the change by the old savings, not by the old income.

Key facts

Savings = Income − Expenditure
Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100
With expenditure fixed, the rupee rise in savings equals the rupee rise in income

Study next

Income and expenditure both changing, by different percentagesExpenditure-to-savings ratio problems (such as 4 : 1) with income and spending changesWorking back to the expenditure change needed for a target change in savings

Common traps

Dividing the rise of 25 by the old income (100) and answering 25%
Taking the new savings 45 as a percentage of the old 20 (225%) instead of the rise 25

The same 80% spending start appears at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.11 (income +15%, expenditure +5%, keyed 55%) and 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.15 (income +20%, expenditure +10%, keyed 60%).

Here the expenditure is frozen, which makes the arithmetic shortest.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Percentage — all 82 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.