SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · Mathematical Abilities · Question 18 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick 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. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

(0.1667×0.8333×0.3333)⁄(0.2222×0.6667×0.1250) is approximately equal to:

(a)4.5
(b)2.5
(c)0.25
(d)0.5

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Each four-place decimal is a rounded simple fraction.

Convert the top: 0.1667 ≈ 1⁄6, 0.8333 ≈ 5⁄6, 0.3333 ≈ 1⁄3
Multiply: 1⁄6 × 5⁄6 × 1⁄3 = 5⁄108
Convert the bottom: 0.2222 ≈ 2⁄9, 0.6667 ≈ 2⁄3, 0.1250 = 1⁄8
Multiply: 2⁄9 × 2⁄3 × 1⁄8 = 4⁄216 = 1⁄54

Divide: 5⁄108 ÷ 1⁄54 = 5⁄108 × 54 = 5⁄2 = 2.5 → option (b)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
4.5 — 4.5 overshoots. Pair the terms: 0.1667⁄0.2222 = 3⁄4 and 0.8333⁄0.6667 = 5⁄4 multiply to 15⁄16, just under 1, so the answer sits a little under 0.3333⁄0.1250 = 8⁄3 ≈ 2.67.
(c)
0.25 — 0.25 is one-tenth of the true value, the sign of a misplaced decimal point. Working in fractions avoids it: 5⁄108 ÷ 1⁄54 = 2.5.
(d)
0.5 — 0.5 is below 1, but the top is larger than the bottom: 5⁄108 ≈ 0.046 against 1⁄54 ≈ 0.019. A larger number divided by a smaller one exceeds 1.

Concept

Four-place decimals such as 0.1667 and 0.8333 are rounded fractions, and spotting them turns a long multiplication into cancelling.

Sixths: 1⁄6 ≈ 0.1667, 5⁄6 ≈ 0.8333
Thirds and ninths: 1⁄3 ≈ 0.3333, 2⁄3 ≈ 0.6667, 2⁄9 ≈ 0.2222
Eighths: 1⁄8 = 0.125

The word approximately in the stem flags the rounding. The fractions give the exact value the decimals are rounded from.

Pairing gives a second route: 0.1667⁄0.2222 = 3⁄4, 0.8333⁄0.6667 = 5⁄4 and 0.3333⁄0.1250 = 8⁄3, and 3⁄4 × 5⁄4 × 8⁄3 = 5⁄2. Multiplying the printed decimals out gives about 2.5003.

Key facts

1⁄6 ≈ 0.1667 and 5⁄6 ≈ 0.8333.
1⁄3 ≈ 0.3333, 2⁄3 ≈ 0.6667 and 2⁄9 ≈ 0.2222.
1⁄8 = 0.125 exactly.
Dividing by a fraction multiplies by its reciprocal: 5⁄108 ÷ 1⁄54 = 5⁄108 × 54.

Study next

Decimal forms of sevenths and elevenths: 1⁄7 ≈ 0.1429, 1⁄11 ≈ 0.0909Converting recurring decimals such as 0.333… and 0.1666… to fractionsPairing numerator and denominator terms to cancel before multiplying

Common traps

Multiplying the decimals out by hand: slow, and one misplaced decimal point turns 2.5 into 0.25.
Reading 0.2222 as 1⁄9, which is 0.1111: that halves the bottom and doubles the answer to 5.

Here every decimal is a disguised fraction, and the options are far enough apart that the rounding cannot mislead.

Spotting a hidden relationship instead of multiplying out also settles 14 Sep 2025, 09:00, Quant Q.2, where each numerator term is one-third of a denominator term, so the ratio is (1⁄3)³.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Computation of whole numbers, decimals, fractions and relationships between numbers — all 53 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.