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Syllabus
📋 SSC CGL
Subject:Tier-I Examination Syllabus

Profit, Loss & Discount

Syllabus Unit: Quantitative Aptitude

Why it matters

Chapter overview

Profit and loss questions on SSC CGL are almost always solvable with percentage multipliers rather than algebra — marking up, discounting, adding GST, and shortchanging with a faulty weight are all just chained percentage operations on a single cost price. This topic builds the CP-SP-MP relationship, the multiplicative rule for successive discounts, GST layering, and the faulty-weight gain formula.

Tier-I Examination Syllabus Quantitative Aptitude 25% weightage
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1CPBase cost price = 100%
2Mark-upMP = CP × (1 + markup%)
3DiscountSP = MP × (1 − discount%)
4Profit%(SP − CP)/CP × 100

1Profit, Loss & Marked Price

Profit and loss percentages are always calculated on cost price (CP) unless the question says otherwise — keep MP, SP and CP as three distinct percentages of the same base.

Learning Objectives

  • Compute profit% = (SP−CP)/CP × 100 and loss% = (CP−SP)/CP × 100, always based on CP.
  • Relate marked price, discount and SP using SP = MP × (1 − discount%/100).
  • Find SP given CP and a desired profit%, or find CP given SP and a stated profit%/loss%.
  • Solve combined mark-up-then-discount problems by chaining percentage multipliers instead of absolute values.

Key Terms

Cost Price (CP)The price at which an article is purchased or produced; the base on which profit/loss % is always calculated.
Selling Price (SP)The price at which an article is actually sold to the customer.
Marked Price (MP)The printed or labelled price on an article before any discount is applied.
Profit/Loss PercentageAlways computed as a percentage of CP: (SP−CP)/CP×100 for profit, (CP−SP)/CP×100 for loss — never of SP or MP.

The entire profit-loss chapter rests on one rule: profit% and loss% are percentages of CP. Every trap in this chapter tries to get you to compute the percentage on SP or MP instead.

Profit% = (SP − CP)/CP × 100 Loss% = (CP − SP)/CP × 100

Marked price and discount

SP = MP × (1 − discount%/100)

Worked example: mark-up then discount

CP = 100. Marked up 25%: MP = 125. Discounted 10%: SP = 125 × 0.9 = 112.5. Profit = 12.5% of CP — note this is NOT simply 25% − 10% = 15%, since the discount applies to the marked-up price, not the original CP.

Common MistakeTrap: profit% is never MP% minus discount% by simple subtraction — always chain the multipliers (1+markup%)(1−discount%) and compare to CP.