Quant by Anshul Gupta: CAT 2020

Percentages, Profit & Loss

“Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do”
- Benjamin Spock

27th March 2020

Concept Review
1. The difference between 71% of a number and 58% of the same number is 299. What is 67%
of that number?

a. 1608
b. 1531
c. 1541
d. 1641

2. The difference between 20% of a number and 4/5 of the same number is 2499. What is 2/7
of that number?

a. 1090
b. 1260
c. 1190
d. 1366

3. If 40% of 50 = x% of 80, what is the value of x?

a. 25
b. 20
c. 40
d. 80

4. If 40% of a number y is 75 more than 20% of 1500, y = _____

5. The price of an article is decreased by 20% and then increased by 20%. Find the net
percentage change in the price.

a. 0% change
b. 4% increase
c. 4% decrease
d. None of these

6. The cost price of a product is 50. It is increased by 20% and then by 40% . Find its latest
price:

a. 80
b. 84
c. 90
d. None of these
7. If 8.1 liters of milk is mixed with 36.9 liters of water, then the percentage of milk in the
mixture is

a. 12%
b. 15%
c. 16%
d. 18%

8. The price of a share increases by Rs.15 per day. The price on the first day was Rs.200. Find
the percentage increase in the price of the share on the 5

a. 20
b. 40
c. 37.5
d. 30

9. If the price of rice increases by 45%, then approximately by how much percent should
people cut down their consumption of rice so that their expenditure on rice remains
constant?

a. 20
b. 45
c. 35
d. 31

10. Alok bought a watch for 250 and sold it for 300. Find his profit percentage

a. 10%
b. 20%
c. 25%
d. 40%

11. Anand gained 20% by selling a book at 30. Find his gain percentage if he sells it for 36.

a. 20%
b. 44%
c. 33%
d. 30.55%

12. If Ram sold an article at four-fifth of its actual selling price, he would have incurred a loss of
40%. Find his actual profit / loss percentage.

a. 20%
b. 25%
 c. 30%
d. 40%

13. The profit made on selling 5 m of a cloth equals the cost price of 2 m of that cloth. Find the
profit percentage in selling each metre of the cloth. ____

14. A shopkeeper sells an item at a profit of 20 % and uses a weight which is 20% less. Find his
total profit. _____

15. A dishonest dealer sells goods at 10% loss on cost price but uses 20% less weight. Calculate
profit or loss percent. _____

16. Simon gets a discount of 25% on purchasing 100 VCD’s from Samuel. He sells them and
makes a profit equal to the undiscounted price of 25 VCD’s. What is the gain percentage?

a. 25%
b. 33.33%
c. 30%
d. 66.66%

Exercise
1. There are 30 employees in a company. The salaries of 20 of them were each increased by
10%. The salaries of the rest were each increased by 20%. Find the percentage increase in
the total salary of the employees.

a. 13.33%
b. 16.67%
c. Cannot be determined
d. None of these

2. If the length and the breadth of a rectangle are increased by 10% and 15% respectively,
then what is the percentage increase in the perimeter of the rectangle?

a. 25%
b. 26.5%
c. 27.5%
d. Cannot be determined

3. In a colony, 60% of the total population of the colony are men and 12% of the total
population of the colony is literate. If 20% of the women in the particular colony are
 literate, then find the number of illiterate men in the colony as a percentage of the total
number of men in the colony. [Assume, that every person in the colony is either literate or
illiterate.]

a. 90%
b. 93.33%
c. 80%
d. 83.33%

4. There are ‘x’ 50 paise coins and ‘y’ Re. 1 coins. Had there been ‘x’ Re. 1 coins and ‘y’ 50
paise coins the amount would have been 30% more. Which of the following is a possible
value of ‘y’?

a. 27
b. 26
c. 28
d. 25

5. The list price of an article was increased by 20%. It was then decreased by 20%. If the final
price became Rs. 20, then find the initial list price (in Rs.)

6. A shirt is marked at Rs.2,000. The shopkeeper allows successive discounts of x%, 2y% and
3z% on it. The final selling price (in Rs.) of the shirt is:
7. The breadth of a rectangle decreases by 20% and then increases by 50%. By what percent
should the length decrease, so that the area remains unchanged?

a. 16.67%
b. 16.33%
c. 13.67%
d. 13.33%

8. A pond is inhabited by only four types of fishes, namely A, B, C and D. The number of Type A
fishes is 25% more than that of type C; the number of type B fishes is 10% less than that of
type A fishes, and the number of type D fishes constitutes 20% of the total fishes in the
pond. If the number of type B fishes is 144, the total number of fishes in the pond is
_______

9. Aseem’s weight is 140% of Chari’s weight. Bhaskar’s weight is 90% of Sandy’s weight. Sandy
weighs twice as much as Chari. Aseem’s weight is what percentage of Bhaskar’s weight?
_____

10. Balu sold two TV sets, one at 10% profit and the other at 10% loss. Find his overall
profit/loss percentage if he sold both the sets at the same price ____.

11. A trader marked his goods 40% above his cost price. He then gave a discount of 20%. Find
his profit percentage.

a. 20%
b. 12%
c. 28%
 d. Cannot be determined

12. A dry fruit seller purchased three kinds of groundnut at the rate Rs. 21/kg, Rs. 18/kg and Rs.
15/kg. He then mixed them in the ratio 3 : 4 : 5 respectively by weight and sold the mixture
at 40% profit. What is the selling price of the mixture?

a. 22.50
b. 24.50
c. 25
d. Cannot be determined

13. The cost price of 10 apples is equal to the selling price of the 15 bananas. If a banana was
bought at the same price as that of an apple, then percentage profit/loss on selling 12
bananas will be:

a. 66.67%
b. 25%
c. 33.33%
d. 50%

14. Ravi’s salary before he got an increment was 20% of the total income of his family. His
increment was one-fourth of his salary after the increment. What percentage of the total
income of his family is his new salary?

a. 16.67%
b. 20%
c. 25%
d. 33.33%

15. A trader sells an article at a profit of 25. If the cost price is reduced by 25 and consequently
the selling price is reduced by 25% he would make a profit of 25%. What is his initial cost
price?

a. 100
b. 150
c. 120
d. 200

16. A trader promised his customers to sell at cost price. But he cheats his customers by giving
100 gms less for every kg that he sells. Find his profit percentage. _____

17. There is a dishonest shopkeeper whose claim is that he sells a certain product at a cost of Rs
23/kg, which actually costs him Rs 25/kg. The shopkeeper says that he is taking the loss to
let his customers get a better deal. When examined thoroughly, a policeman finds that the
 shopkeeper is actually using an 800 gms weight in place of a 1 kg weight. Does he gain or
lose? If so how much?

a. 15%
b. -15%
c. 23.3%
d. Cannot be determined

18. A grocery dealer cheats to the extent of 10% while buying as well as selling by using false
weight. What is his increase in the profit % ?

a. 20%
b. 21%
c. 22%
d. None of these

19. A dishonest dealer sells products at 10% loss on cost price but uses 2 gm instead of 4 gm.
What is his profit or loss percent? _______

20. A shopkeeper uses 940 gm in place of one kg. He sells it at 4% profit. What will be the
overall profit or loss? ______

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is

what makes life meaningful”
- Joshua J Marine
Answer Key:

Concept Review:
1. C
2. C
3. A
4. 937.5
5. C
6. B
7. D
8. D
9. D
10. B
11. B
12. B
13. 28.57%
14. 50%
15. 12.5%
16. B