Time and Work

Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Basic Concepts
3. Rules and Tricks
4. Practice Questions
1. Introduction:
Time and Work problems are most
frequently asked problems in quantitative
aptitude. To solve these problems very quickly,
you should understand the concept of Time and
Work and some shortcut methods.
Before starting:

If 100 cats kill 100 rats in 100 days, then 1

cats would kill 1 rat in how many days ???
2. Basic Concepts:
In solving the problems based on time and work,
we need to calculate the following parameters.
(A) Time :- Time taken to complete an assigned job.
(B) Individual time :- Time needed by single person
to complete a job.
(C) Work:- It is the amount of work done actually.
If a man can do a piece of work in 5 days, then
he will finish 1/5th of the work in one day.
If a man can finish 1/5th of the work in one
day then he will take 5 days to complete the
work.
If a man 5/6th of work in one hour then he
will take 6/5 hours to complete the full work.
If A works three times faster than B then A
takes 1/3rd the time taken by B.
3. Rules and Tricks:
Rule 1: Universal Rule
This rule can be used in almost every problems.
• If M1 persons can do W1 work in D1 days and
M2 persons can do W2 works in D2days then we can
say
M1D1W2 = M2D2W1
• If the persons work T1 and T2 hours per day
respectively then the equation gets modified to
M1D1T1W2 = M2D2T2W1
• If the persons has efficiency of E1 and E2 respectively
then,
M1D1T1E1W2 = M2D2T2E2W1
Example:
• 5 men can prepare 10 cycles in 6 days working
6 hours a day. Then in how many days can 12
men prepare 16 cycles working 8 hours a day?
Sol:
Here M1 = 5, W1 = 10, D1 = 6, T1 = 6 and
M2 = 12, W2 = 16, T2 = 8
So from the above rule
M1D1T1W2 = M2D2T2W1
5 × 6 × 6 × 16 = 12 × D2 × 8 × 10
D2 = 3 Days.
So they will complete the work in 3 days.
Rule 2:
If A can do a piece of work in n days, then
The work done by A in one day = 1/n

Example:
If A can repair 50 cycles in 5 days then A can
repair 50/5 = 10 cycles in one day.
Rule 3:
If A can do a piece of work in X days and B can
do the same work in Y days, then both of them
working together will do the same work in
XY days.
X+y
Example:
If A can do a piece of work in 10 days and B can do the
same work in 15 days then how long will they take if
they both work together?
Solution 1:
A can finish the work in D1 = 10 days.
B can finish the work in D2 = 15 days.
A and B working together = D1 * D2
D1 + D2
= 10 * 15/ 10 + 15
= 150/25 = 6 days.
Solution 2: (UNITARY METHOD)
Let the total work be assumed as LCM(10,15)= 30 Units

Now to complete 30 units A takes 10 days

To complete 30 units B takes 15 days

Units done in 1 day by A = 3

Units done in 1 day by B = 2
Units done in 1 day by A & B = 5

To complete 30 units they will take 30/5 = 6days

Rule 4:
If A is twice as good a workman as B, then A will take half of
the time taken by B to complete a piece of work.
Example:
A is twice as good a workman as B. Together, they finish the
work in 14 days. In how many days can it be done by each
separately?
Solution 1:
Let’s assume that A alone can finish the work in x days.
It is given that A is twice as good a workman as B so B alone
can finish the work in 2x days
= x * 2x / x + 2x = 2x2/3x = 14.
So x = 21 days.
So A can finish the work in 21 days and B can finish the work
in 42 days.
Solution 2:
If A and B working together can finish a work in
X days and A is K times efficient than B, then the
time taken by
(i) A, working alone, to complete the work is
K + 1 X days.
K
Here, X = 14, K = 2
Hence , = (3/2)14
= 21 days.
(ii) B, working alone, to complete the work is
(K+1)X days.
Hence,
= 3 * 14 = 42 days.
Rule 5:
If A can finish a work in X days and B is K times efficient
than A, then the time taken by both A and B working
together to complete the work is
X days.
1+K
Example:
If A can finish a work in 20 days and B is 3 times
efficient than A, then the time taken by both A and B
working together to complete the work is
Solution: = 20 / (1+3) = 5 days.
Rule 6:
If A, B and C, while working alone, can complete
a work in X, Y and Z days respectively, then they
will together complete the work in
XYZ days.
XY + YZ + ZX
Example:
A, B and C can complete a piece of work in 5, 10
and 15 days respectively. Working together, they
will complete the same work in:
Solution 1:
By using the formula = 5 * 10 * 15
(5*10)+(10*15)+(5*15)
= 2 8/11 days.
Solution 2: ((UNITARY METHOD)
Let the total work be assumed as LCM(5,10,15)= 30 Units
Now to complete 30 units A takes 5 days
To complete 30 units B takes 10 days
To complete 30 units C takes 15 days

Units done in 1 day by A = 6

Units done in 1 day by B = 3
Units done in 1 day by C = 2
Units done in 1 day by A+B+C = 11

To complete 30 units they will take 30/11 = 2 8/11days

Rule 7:
Two persons A and B, working together, can
complete a piece of work in X days. If A, working
alone, can complete the work in Y days, then B,
working alone, will complete the work in
XY days.
Y-X
Example:
Jack and Jill together can do a piece of work in
10 days. Jack alone can do it in 15 days. In how
many days can Jill alone do it?
Solution 1:
By using formula,
= 10 * 15
15 – 10
= 30 days.
Solution 2: (UNITARY METHOD)
Let the total work be assumed as LCM(10,15)= 30 Units

Now to complete 30 units Jack and Jill takes 10 days

To complete 30 units Jack takes 15 days

Units done in 1 day by Jack + Jill = 3

Units done in 1 day by Jack = 2
Units done in 1 day by Jill = 1

To complete 30 units they will take 30/1 = 30 days

Rule 8:
If A and B, working together, can finish a piece of
work in X days, B and C in Y days, C and A in Z
days, then
(a) A, B and C working together, will finish the
job in 2XYZ days.
XY + YZ + ZX

(b) A alone will finish the job in

2XYZ days.
XY + YZ - ZX
(c) B alone will finish the job in
2XYZ days.
YZ + ZX - XY

(d) C alone will finish the job in

2XYZ days.
ZX + XY – YZ

Note: This type can be solved under unitary

method also.
Rule 9:
If A working alone takes X days more than A and
B together, then B working alone takes Y days
more than A and B together, then the number of
days taken by A and B, working together, to
finish a job is given by √XY
Rule 10:
If the number of men are changed in the ratio of
m:n, then the time taken to complete the work
will change in the ratio n:m.
Rule 11:
If A is K times more efficient than B and is therefore able to finish
a work in X days less than B, then
B, working alone, can finish the work in
KX days.
K-1
Example:
A is thrice as good as workman as B and takes 10 days less to do
a piece of work than B takes. Find the time in which B alone can
complete the work.
Solution 1:
Here, k = 3 and X = 10.
Therefore ,Time taken by B, working alone, to complete the work
= (3 * 10) / (3-1) = 15 days.
Solution 2:
Efficiency ratio = A : B
3 : 1
Time ratio = 1 : 3 (Inverse of efficiency)

Diff = 2 parts
2 parts = 10 days
A = 1 part = 5 days
B = 3 parts = 15 days.
Rule 12:
If A is K times more efficient than B and is
therefore able to finish a work in X days less
than B, then
A, working alone, can finish the work in
X days.
K–1
Rule 13:
If A is K times more efficient than B and is
therefore able to finish a work in X days less
than B, then
A and B, working together, can finish the work in
KX days.
K2 - 1
Rule 14:
If A can complete a/b part of work in X days,
then c/d part of the work will be done in
b * c * X days.
a*d
Practice Questions
1. 45 men complete a piece of work in 30 days
working 12 hours a day. In how many days will
60 men complete the work if working 10 hours a
day?
a) 27 days
b) 30 days
c) 24 days
d) 22 days

Ans: A
2. A contractor undertakes to build a wall in 50
days. He employees 50 people for the same.
However after 25 days he finds that only 40% of the
work is complete. How many more man need to be
employed to complete the work in time?
a) 25
b) 30
c) 35
d) 20

Ans: A
3. 45 men can complete a work in 16 days. Six
days after they started working, 30 more men
joined them. How many days will they now take
to complete the remaining work?
a) 4
b) 5
c) 6
d) 7

Ans: C
4. A computer can perform 30 identical tasks in
six hours. At that rate, what is the minimum
number of computers that should be assigned to
complete 80 of the tasks within 3 hours?
a) 6
b) 7
c) 8
d) 9

Ans: A
5. If 7 maids with 7 mops cleaned 7 floors in 7
hours, how long would it take 3 maids to mop 3
floors with 3 mops?
a) 3 hours
b) 7/3 hours
c) 49/3 hours
d) 7 hours

Ans: D
6. If a man and a half can build a wall and a half
in a day and a half. Then how many walls do six
men build in six days?
a) 3
b) 6
c) 12
d) 24

Ans: D
7. A does alone a work in 4 days. B does alone a
work in 8 days. In how many days the work will
be completed if A & B together?
a) 4 days
b) 8 days
c) 32 days
d) 8/3 days

Ans: D
8. A can do a work in 15 days and B can do it in
18 days. With the help of C, all of them
complete the work In 6 days. How long will it
take C to finish the work alone?
a) 30 days
b) 45/2 days
c) 90/2 days
d) 40 days

Ans: B
9. A can do a work in 15 days and B can do it in
18 days. With the help of C, all of them
complete the work In 6 days. A, B and C received
total Rs.27,000 for the whole work. What is the
share of C, If the money is distributed in the
ratio of amount of work done, individually?
a) 2700
b) 14400
c) 7200
d) 6300
Ans: C
10. A can do 1/3rd of a work in 5 days and B can
do 2/5th of the work in 10 days. In how many
days both A and B together can do the work?
a) 13 2/3 days
b) 9 3/8 days
c) 18 5/8 days
d) 13 days

Ans: B
11. Lal singh can eat 50 laddoos in 4 hours and
Pal singh can eat 42 laddoos in 6 hours. If both
of them start together, then what is the total
time required by them to eat 507 laddoos?
a) 20 hours
b) 21 hours
c) 26 hours
d) 25 hours

Ans: C
12. Raja can do a piece of work in 14 days, while
Rani can do the same work in 21 days. They
started the work together but 3 days before the
completion of the work, Raja left the work. The
total number of days to complete the work is:
a) 7
b) 8.5
c) 5
d) 10.2

Ans: D
13. Fatima and Zahira can do a piece of work in
12 days and 15 days respectively. If they work
for alternate day and Fatima starts the work
first, then in how many days the work will be
completed?
a) 12 1/5 days
b) 13 ¼ days
c) 13 1/5 days
d) 15 days

Ans: B
14. A piece of work can be done by A and B in 10 days,
by B and C in 15 days and by C and A in 20 days. All
three worked for 6 days and then A withdrew. B and C
worked for and another 4 days and then B stopped
working. How many more days will C take to complete
the remaining work?
a) 12
b) 12.5
c) 10.33
d) 10

Ans: D
15. A can finish a work in 24 days, B in 9 days
and C in 12 days. B & C start the work but are
forced to leave after 3 days. The remaining work
done by A in:
a) 10
b) 12.5
c) 20
d) 7

Ans: A
16. A alone can complete a work in 16 days and
B alone can complete the same in 12 days.
Starting with A, they work on alternate days.
The total work will be completed in how many
days?
a) 12 days
b) 12 ½ days
c) 13 ¾ days
d) 13 days

Ans: C
17. Manoj and Harvinder can complete a piece
of work in 16 days, which Harvinder can
complete in 32 days. If Manoj & Harvinder work
on alternate days, starting with Harvinder, in
how much time would the work be completed?
a) 16 days
b) 17 days
c) 32 days
d) None of these

Ans: C
18. A can do a piece of work in 36 days, B in 54
days and C in 72 days. All three began the work
together but A left after 8 days and B left 12
days before the completion of the work. Total
number of days to complete the work?
a) 25 2/11 days
b) 30 6/7 days
c) 30 days
d) 28 days

Ans: B
19. An intern can do a job in 15 days. The manager
and senior manager are busy with other priorities
and thus take 25 and 40 days respectively to
complete the task. How long will they take to finish
the task if all of them work together?
a) 7
b) 7 47/49
c) 8
d) 8 47/49

Ans: B
20. Sonu can do a piece of work in 20 days. He
started the work and left after some days, when
25% work was done. After that Abhijeet joined and
completed it working for 10 days. In how many days
Sonu and Abhijeet can do the complete work,
working together?
a) 6
b) 8
c) 10
d) 12

Ans: B
21. 2 men and 3 women finish 25% of the work
in 4 days, while 6 men and 14 women can finish
the whole work in 5 days. In how many days will
20 women finish it?
a) 20
b) 25
c) 24
d) 30

Ans: A
22. 10 men and 15 women together can
complete a work in 6 days. It takes 100 days for
one man alone to complete the same work. How
many days will be required for one woman alone
to complete the same work?
a) 90
b) 100
c) 125
d) 225

Ans: D
23. One man, 3 women and 4 boys can do a
piece of work in 96 hours, 2 men and 8 boys can
do it in 80 hours, 2 men & 3 women can do it in
120 hours. 5 Men & 12 boys can do it in how
many hours?
a) 39 1/11 hrs
b) 42 7/11 hrs
c) 43 7/11 hrs
d) 44 hrs

Ans: C
24. 10 men can finish a piece of work in 10 days
whereas it takes 12 women to finish it In 10
days. If 15 men and 6 women undertake to
complete the work, how many days will they
take to complete it?
a) 7 days
b) 5 days
c) 9 days
d) 8 days

Ans: B
25. If 15 men or 24 women or 36 boys can do a
work in 12 days working 8 hours a day, how
many men must be associated with 12 women
and 6 boys to do another work 2 ¼ times as
great in 30 days working 6 hours per day?
a) 10
b) 15
c) 8
d) 9

Ans: C
26. Sonu can do a piece of work in 20 days. He
started the work and left after some days, when
25% work was done. After that Abhijeet joined
and completed it working for 10 days. In how
many days Sonu and Abhijeet can do the
complete work, working together?
a) 6
b) 8
c) 10
d) 12
Ans: B
27. Railneer is packaged in a water bottling plant with the help
of two machines M1 and M2. M1 and M2 produce 400 and 600
bottles per minute. One day’s production can be processed by
M1 operating alone for 9 hours, by M2 operating alone for 6
hours or by both M1 and M2 operating simultaneously for 3
hours and 36 minutes. It’s one day production is processed by
M1 operating alone for 1/3 of the time and M1 and M2
simultaneously operating for 2/3 of the time. Then in how
many hours the total production of one day will be
completed?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4.5
d) 4.8
Ans: C
28. Milinda takes 8 1/3 hours more when she
works alone in comparison of when she works
with Bill. While Bill takes 5 1/3 hours more when
he work alone in comparison of when he works
with Milinda. How long it will take by Bill to
complete the work alone?
a) 10 hrs
b) 15 hrs
c) 18 hrs
d) 12 hrs
Ans: D
29. Jay and Anup can do a job, each working
alone in 30 and 15 days respectively. Jay started
the work and after a few days, Anup joined him.
They completed the work in 18 days from the
start. After how many days did Anup join A?
a) 6
b) 10
c) 12
d) 14
Ans: C
30. If A and B work together, they will complete a
job in 7.5 days. However, if A works alone and
completes half the job and then B takes over and
completes the remaining half alone, they will be
able to complete the job in 20 days. How long will
B alone take to do the job if A is more efficient
than B?
a) 20 days
b) 40 days
c) 36 days
d) 30 days
Ans: D
31. A and B working together can finish a job in
T days. If A works alone and completes the job,
he will take T+5 days. If B works alone and
completes the same job, he will take T+45 days.
What is T?
a) 25 days
b) 60 days
c) 15 days
d) None of these

Ans: C
32. Three professors Dr. Gupta, Dr. Sharma, Dr. Singh are
evaluating answer script of a subject. Dr. Gupta is 40 more
efficient than Dr. Sharma, who is 20 more efficient than Dr.
Singh. Dr. Gupta takes 10 days less than Dr. Sharma to
complete the evaluation work. Dr. Gupta starts the
evaluation work and works for 10 days and then Dr. Sharma
takes over. Dr. Sharma evaluates for next 15 days and then
stops. In how many days, Dr. Singh can complete the
remaining evaluation work?
a) 7.2 days
b) 9.5 days
c) 11.5 days
d) None of these
Ans: A
33. A work is done by 30 workers not all of them have
the same capacity to work. Every day exactly 2 workers,
do the work with no pair of workers working together
twice. Even after all possible pairs have worked once,
all the workers together works for two more days to
finish the work. Find the number of days in which all
the workers together will finish the whole work?
a) 31
b) 29
c) 41
d) 48

Ans: A
34. A factory produces nuts and bolts. A machine in it
produces only nuts while another produces only bolts. The
machine producing only nuts produces 400 nuts per minute
and need to be cleared for 15 minutes after production of
2000 nuts. The machine producing only bolts produces 300
bolts per minute and needs to be cleared for 15 minutes
after production of 3000 bolts. Find the minimum time
required to produce 12000 pairs of bolts and nuts if both
machines are operated simultaneously.
a) 85 mins
b) 105 mins
c) 100 mins
d) 115 mins
Ans: B
35. Ramesh has two examinations on Wednesday - Engineering
mathematics in the morning and Engineering Drawing in the afternoon.
He has a fixed amount of time to read the textbooks of both these
subjects on Tuesday. During this time he can read 80 pages of
Engineering Mathematics and 100 pages of Engineering drawing.
Alternatively, he can also read 50 pages of Engineering Mathematics
and 250 pages of Engineering drawing. Assume that the amount of
time it takes to read one page of the textbook of either subject is
constant. Ramesh is confident about Engineering Drawing and wants to
devote full time to reading Engineering Mathematics. The number of
Engineering Mathematics text book pages he can read on Tuesday is :
a) 500
b) 300
c) 100
d) 60
Ans: C