Profit, Loss and Discount for SSC & Railways Exams

By : Neha Uppal

Updated : Oct 19, 2020, 18:16

Profit, Loss and Discount are one of the most frequently asked topics in the SSC and Railways Exams. It is asked in the Quantitative Aptitude Section in most of the SSC & Railways exams. This will help the aspirants in understanding the most critical concepts of Profit, Loss and Discount. It will also give the SSC aspirants a glimpse into the kind of questions that have been asked in the previous years’ examinations and the ones that are expected to be asked most frequently.

Profit, Loss and Discount are crucial from the perspective of competitive government exams such as Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Railways as it is highly scoring and takes very little time to solve questions under this topic.

Important Concepts for Profit & Loss For SSC Exam

Cost Price (CP)	Money paid by the shopkeeper to acquire goods from the manufacturer.
Selling Price (SP)	Price at which the goods are sold to the buyers. It can be a discounted or a marked up price.
Profit	Whenever the shopkeeper gains on selling a product, he is said to have made a profit on it. It is calculated by deducting CP from SP, and the answer is always a positive figure.
Loss	Whenever a shopkeeper loses on selling a product, he is said to have incurred a loss. It is also incurred by deducting CP from SP. However, the answer is always a negative figure.
Marked Price (MP)	A shopkeeper almost always knows that his buyers are going to bargain with him. He, therefore, marks up his Cost Price to leave some buffer zone for reducing it when the customer bargains. Marked Price = Cost Price + Mark up.
Discount	This is a concession given by the seller to the buyer. It is an amount that reduces the marked price and gives us the selling price. Discount = Marked Price – Selling Price.

Tips & Tricks to solve Profit Loss Discount SSC Questions

CP if gain % is given:

CP = (100/ (100 + gain %)) * SP

CP if loss % is given:

CP = (100/ (100 – loss %)) * SP

SP if gain % is given:

SP = ((100 + gain %)/ 100) * CP

SP if loss % is given:

SP = ((100 – loss %)/ 100) * CP

Profit % = (Profit/ CP) * 100
Loss % = (Loss/ CP) * 100
If there is no discount, then Marked Price has to be assumed equivalent to Selling Price. In that case, MP = SP
Discount % = (Discount/ Marked Price) * 100
If there are two discounts given successively, then the total discount given is (x + y – x ∗ y/ 100)
If the Cost Price of articles ‘a’ is equal to the Selling Price of articles ‘b’, what is the resultant percentage of profit or the percentage of loss? (b – a)/b * 100

SSC Profit Loss Previous Year Questions with Solutions

A shopkeeper is about to sell some goods, and he anticipates that there will be at least 45/2 gain per cent on this Cost Price. If he can sell the product for Rs. 392, calculate his Profit.

Solution:

Substitute all the values in this formula - CP = (100/ (100 + gain %)) * SP

C.P. comes out to be Rs. 320.

Profit = SP – CP = 392 – 320 = Rupees 72.

A shopkeeper sold a bag at a loss of 5%. He has sold it for Rs. 1140. Calculate at what price the bag should be sold so that he has a 5% profit.

Solution:

(100 – loss %)/ First Selling Price = (100 + gain %)/ Second Selling Price

Substitute all the figures in the above-mentioned formula.

95/1140 = 105/x

x = 1260

The new Selling Price should be Rupees 1260.

SSC Profit, Loss & Discount Questions for MTC, CGL with Solutions

A shopkeeper wants to earn a profit of 8%, and he fixes the marked price at 35% above the CP. What is the discount % allowed by him to the buyer to earn a profit of 8%?

Solution:

Such questions have to be attempted by assuming the value of CP to be 100.

Marked up price becomes 135

Profit becomes 8.

Selling Price becomes 108

Discount is 135 – 108 = 27

Discount % = (Discount/ Marked Price) * 100

(27/ 135) * 100

=20 %

A bag of flour is purchased for Rs. 600. If some portion of the material, say ¼, is sold at 20 % loss and the remaining ¾ is sold at 8 % gain. Calculate the overall percentage of either profit or loss?

Solution:

The first step would be to calculate the Selling Price. This will make the problem easier because if we have SP, we can calculate the gain and loss percentage.

Second step would be to calculate: Money received after ¼ of the material:

(1/ 4) * 600 * (80/ 100) = Rupees 120

Third step would be to calculate: Money received after selling 3/4th of the material

(3/ 4) * 600 * (110/ 100) = Rupees 495

Now we have the selling price = 495 + 120 = Rupees 615

Profit = SP – CP

615 – 600 = Rupees 15

Profit % = (Profit/ CP) * 100

= (15/600)*100

= 2.5 % is the overall profit percent.

What is the importance of Profit Loss Discount in SSC exam?

Profit Loss Discount questions are very easy to solve and do not require much time to reach the final answer. This makes these questions very scoring. Once the critical concepts are clear, this topic is not hard to master. This topic has the weightage of 7-8 marks in the CGL tier 2 arithmetic. This much weightage is extremely high from the perspective of a competitive exam and enough to give you an edge over other candidates.

Most recommended books for SSC Profit Loss Discount

Rajesh Verma, Arihant publication, - Fast Track Objective Arithmetic
RS Aggarwal, S Chand Publication - Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Exams

Why should you use the BYJU'S Exam Prep app for Profit Loss Discount for SSC Exam?

BYJU'S Exam Prep provides a comprehensive study material.
It gives out past years question papers as well.
It has a very vast question bank.
It also intimates the user regarding important dates of the upcoming exams.

Frequently Asked Questions for Profit Loss Discount Questions

Is the topic of Profit Loss Discount easy?

Yes, once you understand the concepts and once you practice a few questions.

Are past year papers important for scoring high in Profit Loss Discount in SSC exams?

Yes, they are extremely important. Every year similar questions appear in the exams.