SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 7 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.

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A banner is shaped like a trapezium with bases 5 m and 3 m, and height 4 m. If printing costs ₹250/m², what is the total cost?

(a)₹4,000
(b)₹5,000
(c)₹6,000
(d)₹8,000

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Find the banner's area, then multiply by the printing rate.

Area of trapezium = ½ × (sum of parallel sides) × height
= ½ × (5 + 3) × 4 = ½ × 8 × 4 = 16 m²

Cost = area × rate = 16 × 250 = ₹4,000 → option (a)

Why the others are wrong

(b)
₹5,000 — ₹5,000 pays for 20 m² (5,000 ÷ 250), the area of a 5 m × 4 m rectangle. The banner narrows to 3 m, so it covers only 16 m².
(c)
₹6,000 — ₹6,000 pays for 24 m² (6,000 ÷ 250), 8 m² more than the ½ × (5 + 3) × 4 = 16 m² the banner actually has.
(d)
₹8,000 — ₹8,000 pays for 32 m² = (5 + 3) × 4, the formula without its ½. The trapezium's area is half of that.

Concept

A trapezium's area is the average of its parallel sides times the height: ½ (a + b) h. The average of 5 m and 3 m is 4 m, so this banner has the same area as a 4 m × 4 m square.

A cost question adds one step: cost = area × rate per m². Keep the units matched, metres with ₹ per m².

The height must be the perpendicular distance between the two parallel sides. Here the stem gives it directly as 4 m.

Key facts

Area of a trapezium = ½ × (sum of parallel sides) × perpendicular height.
The two bases of a trapezium are its parallel sides.
Cost = area × rate, so 16 m² at ₹250/m² costs ₹4,000.

Study next

Area of a trapezium when the height must first be found from the slant sidesComposite plots split into trapezia and trianglesCost of fencing (perimeter × rate) versus cost of covering (area × rate)

Common traps

Forgetting the ½, which doubles the area to 32 m² and the cost to ₹8,000.
Treating the banner as a rectangle on its longer base, which gives 20 m² and ₹5,000.

Here the trapezium's area feeds a cost. The same formula prices two adjoining trapezoids at Quant Q.8 of this paper, and finds a field's area at 21 Sep 2025, 09:00, Quant Q.9 (parallel sides 30 m and 50 m, height 20 m, 800 m²).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Triangle, Quadrilaterals, Regular Polygons, Circle — all 97 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.