SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 11 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 seller offers a combo deal: "Buy 3 shirts for the price of 2". If each shirt costs him Rs. 300, what is the effective loss percentage?

(a)25.33%
(b)33.33%
(c)30%
(d)20%

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The customer takes 3 shirts and pays for 2. Taking each shirt's price as its Rs. 300 cost:

Cost of 3 shirts = 3 × 300 = Rs. 900
Money received = 2 × 300 = Rs. 600
Loss = 900 − 600 = Rs. 300
Loss % = 300 ÷ 900 × 100 = 33.33% → option (b)

Shortcut: 1 shirt in 3 is handed over free, so the loss is 1⁄3 of cost.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
25.33% — 25.33% of the Rs. 900 cost is about Rs. 228. The seller loses a whole shirt, Rs. 300, which is 1⁄3 of the cost.
(c)
30% — 30% of Rs. 900 is Rs. 270, less than the Rs. 300 shirt he gives away. Rs. 300 lost on Rs. 900 is 33.33%.
(d)
20% — 20% would be 1 free shirt in 5, as in 'buy 4, get 1 free'. Here 1 shirt in 3 is free, so the loss is 1⁄3 of cost.

Concept

'Buy 3 for the price of 2' means 1 shirt in every 3 goes free.

Loss % is measured on cost, and the cost covers all 3 shirts handed over. So the base is 3 shirts, not the 2 paid for: 1 ÷ 3 = 33.33%.

From the buyer's side the same deal is a 33.33% discount on 3 shirts.

The stem gives the Rs. 300 cost but no selling price. The 33.33% needs each shirt to be priced at that cost, which is how the key reads it.

At a higher price the loss shrinks: at Rs. 450 a shirt, 2 paid shirts bring Rs. 900 and there is no loss at all.

Key facts

Buy n for the price of m: the fraction given free is (n − m) ÷ n.
Loss % = loss ÷ cost price × 100, on the cost of every unit handed over.
Buy 3 for the price of 2 gives away 1⁄3, which is 33.33%.

Study next

Buy-n-get-m-free offers converted to a single discountFree articles combined with a percentage discount on the marked priceProfit when a trader receives extra units free from the wholesaler

Common traps

Dividing by the 2 shirts paid for: 300 ÷ 600 = 50% measures the loss against the money received, not against cost.
Reading 'buy 3 for the price of 2' as 'buy 3, get 1 free': that offer hands over 4 shirts for 3 and gives away 25%.

A different ratio of the same free-units idea is 25 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.18: 'Buy 5 Sweaters, Get 2 Sweaters Free' gives away 2 of 7, a 28 4⁄7% discount.

The shirt deal itself is set from the buyer's side at 24 Sep 2025, 09:00, Quant Q.16: 2 shirts at Rs. 1200 each, a third free, is Rs. 800 a shirt.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Profit and Loss — all 87 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.