Solve 40+ Profit and Loss CAT Questions​ 2024 with Solutions

Overview: If you are a CAT aspirant, you must know that the CAT exam Maths questions are generally tricky and might confuse you with its conceptual questions. Profit and loss CAT questions have been regularly used in over past five years.

The QA section of the CAT exam is generally time-consuming and on the higher side of the difficulty level. In Profit and Loss CAT questions, around 3-4 questions are directly or indirectly related to the basic concepts of this topic. Various shortcut formulas and tricks are used to solve these questions.

This article will answer many previous year CAT questions on profit and loss. These questions have been carefully selected based on an analysis of past year's trends in the CAT exam.

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Profit and Loss CAT Questions for Practice 2024

Que 1. An automobile agency launched a scheme that if a customer purchases two Jabaaj Discover bikes, one extra Jabaaj Discover will be free. If he purchases 3 Jabaaj Pulser, he will get one extra Jabaaj Pulser free. If the cost prices of 3 Jabaaj Discover and 4 Jabaaj Pulser are Rs. 67500 and Rs. 232500, respectively. If a customer purchases two bikes of Jabaaj Discover and three bikes of Jabaaj Pulser as per the scheme, he availed of 1 bike free of each category, then at what price should these bikes be sold so that the agency can get an overall profit of 17.5% :

(a) 235250
(b) 352500
(c) 368000
(d) 268000

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Que 2. Rahul went to purchase a Nokia mobile handset. The shopkeeper told him to pay 20% tax if he asked for the bill. Rahul managed to get a 5% discount on the actual sale price of the mobile, and he paid the shopkeeper Rs. 3325 without tax. Besides, he managed to avoid paying 20% tax on the already discounted price. What is the amount of discount that he has got?

(a) 750
(b) 375
(c) 875
(d) 525

Que 3. When a bicycle manufacturer reduced its selling price by 50%, the number of bicycles sold radically increased by 600%. Initially, the manufacturer was only getting a 140% profit. What is the percentage increase of his profit?

(a) 10%
(b) 14%
(c) 0%
(d) can’t be determined

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Que 4. A trader marks his goods so that he can make 32% profit after giving a 12% discount. However, a customer availed himself of a 20% discount instead of 12%. What is the trader's new profit percentage?

(a) 20%
(b) 44%
(c) 30%
(d) 28.8%

Que 5. A retailer bought 3850 Linc pens and 1848 Cello pens at the same price. He sells Linc pens in such a way that he can buy 650 Linc pens with the sale price of 481 Linc pens. Again, he can buy only 408 Cello pens, and the sale price is 629 pens. What is the retailer's overall percentage of profit?

(a) 4.8%
(b) 9.6%
(c) 13%
(d) none of these

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Que 6. The ratio of selling price of 3 articles A, B and C is 8:9: 5, and the ratio of percentage profit is 8: 7: 14, respectively. If the profit percentage of A is 14.28% and the cost price of B is Rs. 400, what is the overall percentage gain?

(a) 14.28%
(b) 14.87% 
c) 16.66%
(d) none of these

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Que 7. Anna sold his car to Boney at a profit of 20% and Boney sold it to Chakori at a profit of 10%. Chakori sold it to the mechanic at a loss of 9.09%. The mechanic spent 10% of his purchase price and then sold it at a profit of 8.33% to Anna once again. What is the loss of Anna?

(a) 23%
(b) 29%
(c) 50%
(d) 40%

Que 8. In an office, the number of employees reduces in the ratio of 3: 2, and the wages increase in the ratio of 20: 27. What is the profit percentage of employees over the previous wages? 

(a) 10%
(b) 9.09% 
(c) 11.11%
(d) none of these 

Que 9.I asked the shopkeeper the price of a wristwatch. I found that I had just the required sum of money. When the shopkeeper allowed me a 25% discount, I could buy another watch worth ₹ 940 for my younger sister. What is the price I paid for my watch? 

(a) ₹ 2700
(b) ₹ 1800 
(c) ₹ 2820
(d) ₹ 3760 

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Que 10. A and B are two partners, and they have invested ₹ 54,000 and ₹ 90,000 in a business. After one year, A received ₹ 1800 as his share of profit out of a total profit of ₹ 3600, including his certain commission on total profit, since he is a working partner and the rest of the profit is received by B. What is the commission of A as a percentage of the total profit? 

(a) 20%
(b) 10% 
(c) 5%
(d) 25% 

Que 11. A trader sells goods to a customer at a profit of k% over the cost price. He also cheats his customers by giving them only 880 g instead of 1 kg. Thus, his overall profit percentage is 25%. Find the value of k. 

(a) 8.33%
(b) 8.25% 
(c) 10% 
(d) 12.5% 

Que 12. A trader sells two brands of petrol; one is Extra Premium (EP), and the other one is ‘Speed’ (SP). He mixes 12 litres of EP with 3 litres of speed, and by selling this mixture at the price of EP, he gets a profit of 9.09%. If the price of Extra Premium is ₹ 48 per litre, then the price of Speed (SP) is : 

(a) ₹ 38 per litre 
(b) ₹ 42 per litre 
(c) ₹ 28 per litre 
(d) none of these 

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Que 13. A, B and C invest in the ratio of 3 : 4 : 5. The percentage of return on their investments is in the ratio of 6 : 5 : 4. Find the total earnings if B earns ₹ 250 more than A : 

(a) ₹ 6000
(b) ₹ 7250 
(c) ₹ 5000
(d) none of these 

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Que 14. Ajay bought a motor cycle for ₹ 50,000. Two years later, he sold it to Bijoy at 10% less than the cost price. Bijoy spent 5% of the purchasing price on its maintenance. Later, Bijoy displayed the sale price of his motorcycle ₹ 50,000. Chetan wanted to purchase it at a 15% discount, but Bijoy gave him two successive discounts of 10% and 5% instead of 15% at once. What is the actual discount Chetan offers? 

(a) 15%
(b) 15.5% 
(c) 14.5%
(d) none of these 

Que 15. Kamal bought a house in Sushant city, whose sale price was ₹ 8 lakh. He availed 20% discount as an early bird offer and then 10% discount due to cash payment. After that, he spent 10% of the cost on interior decoration and the house's lawn. At what price should he sell the house to earn a profit of 25%? 

(a) ₹ 9 lakh
(b) ₹ 7.99 lakh 
(c) ₹ 7.92 lakh
(d) none of these 

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Que 16. I wanted to purchase 10 chairs for the classroom, whose cost was ₹ 200 each. The trader offered me a discount if I were to purchase a set of 12 chairs So, I calculated that if I assumed the normal price of 10 chairs, then we could purchase 2 extra chairs, which cost me only ₹ 80 each of two chairs at the cost price of 12 chairs after discount. What is the percentage discount? 

(a) 6%
(b) 8%
(c) 12%
(d) 10% 

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Que 17. The cost of servicing a Maruti car at Maruti Care Pvt. Ltd. is ₹ 400. Manager of service centre told me that for the second service within a year a customer can avail a 10% discount and further for third and fourth servicing he can avail 10% discount of the previous amount paid, within a year. Further, if a customer gets more than 4 services within a year, he has to pay just 60% of the servicing charges on these services. A customer availed 5 services from the same servicing station; what is the total percentage discount fetched by the customer? 

(a) 19.42% 
(b) 18.5%
(c) 17.6%
(d) 26% 

Que 18. The cost price of an article is C and the selling price of the same article is S, where Z is the profit or loss percentage. If the cost price and selling price are both increased by the same amount, then which of the following is true : 

(a) Z increases
(b) Z decreases 
(c) remains constant
(d) none of these 

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Que 19. The cost price of 12 oranges is equal to the selling price of 9 oranges, and the discount on 10 oranges is equal to the profit of 5 oranges. What is the percentage point difference between the profit percentage and discount percentage?

(a) 20
(b) 22.22
(c) 16.66
(d) 15

Que 20. A car mechanic purchased four old cars for ₹ 1 lakh. He spent a total of 2 lakh on the maintenance and repair of these four cars. What is the average sale price of the other three cars to get 50% total profit if he has already sold one of the four cars at ₹ 1.2 lakh? 

(a) 1.5 lakh
(b) 1.1 lakh 
(c) 1.2 lakh 
(d) 1.65 lakh 

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Que 21. The cost of setting up a magazine is ₹ 2800. The cost of paper and ink, etc, is ₹ 80 per 100 copies, and the printing cost is ₹ 160 per 100 copies. In the last month, 2000 copies were printed, but only 1500 copies could be sold at ₹ 5 each. A total of 25% profit on the sale price was realized. There is one more source of income from the magazine, which is advertising. What sum of money was obtained from the advertising in a magazine? 

(a) ₹ 1750 
(b) ₹ 2350
(c) ₹ 1150
(d) ₹ 1975 

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Que 22. DSNL charges a fixed rental of ₹ 350 per month. It allows 200 calls free per month. Each call is charged at ₹ 1.4 when the number of calls exceeds 200 per month, and it charges ₹ 1.6 when the number of calls exceeds 400 per month. A customer made 150 calls in February and 250 calls in March. By how much per cent each call is cheaper in March than in February? 

(a) 28% 
(b) 25% 
(c) 18.5% 
(d) None of the above 

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Que 23. In the Bargain bazaar, everyone purchases with fair bargaining, so the traders mark up the prices too much. A trader who marked up an article at ₹ M expected a huge profit if it was sold at the marked price. But a customer purchased it at M/2 with his fine bargaining skills, so the trader's expected profit diminished by 66.66%. What is the percentage discount fetched by the customer through bargaining? 

(a) 33.33%
(b) 50% 
(c) 66.66%
(d) none of these 

Que 24.. Tika Chand has a weighing balance with a technical fault. The right pan of his balance always measures 200 g more than its left pan. Tika Chand, as usual, misutilise this balance in his business. While purchasing the articles, he puts goods in the left pan and weight in the right pan. While selling, he reverses the order, i.e., goods in the right pan and weight in the left. He uses only 2 kg weight for the measurement, and to measure 2n kg weight, he measures n times by 2-2 kg, but he sells goods at cost price. What is his profit percentage? 

(a) 20%
(b) 22 2/9 % 
(c) 18 2/11 % 
(d) none of these

Que 25.. Akram Miya has two types of grapes. One is the fresh grapes containing 80% water, and dry grapes containing 25% water. He sells 20 kg of dry grapes by adding water to the dry grapes at a cost price. What is the total profit percentage when, after adding water, the weight of 20 kg of dry grapes increased in the proportion of water in fresh grapes? 

(a) 275%
(b) 200% 
(c) 80%
(d) 125% 

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Que 26. Pankaj and Sushil invested some money in a business in the ratio of 3: 5 for the same period. They decided that at the end of the year, 20% of the profit would be donated to the AIDS Control Society of India. Of the remaining, 75% would be reinvested, and the rest would be divided as interest on their capital. Find the total profit if the difference in their shares is ₹ 1200. 

(a) ₹ 18000
(b) ₹ 24000 
(c) ₹ 20000
(d) none of these 

Que 27. Jagran group launched a new magazine in January 2004. The group printed 10000 copies initially for ₹ 50000. It distributed 20% of its stock freely as specimen copies, and 25% of the rest of the magazines were sold at a 25% discount and the rest at a 16.66% discount, whose printing price was ₹ 12 per copy. What is the overall gain or loss in the magazine's first month’s issue if the magazine could not realize the income from advertisements or other resources? 

(a) 56% profit 
(b) 27% loss 
(c) 16.66% profit 
(d) 38% profit 

Que 28. Teenagers' shoe company sells shoes whose prices, i.e., cost prices and selling prices, are multiples of either 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19, starting from ₹ 399 to ₹ 699 (i.e., 399 less than equal to CP/SP less than equal to 699). What can be the company's maximum profit? 

(a) ₹ 292
(b) ₹ 398 
(c) ₹ 298
(d) ₹ 300 

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Que 29. Jhun Jhunwala makes 1000 toys and incurs a cost of ₹ 1.2 for each toy. He marks up the price so that if he sells only 70% of the manufactured toys, he will realize 16.66% overall profit. He sells only 750 articles at the marked price since the rest of the toys are found to be defective, so they can’t be sold. What is Jhun Jhunwala's net profit or loss? 

(a) 14.44% loss
(b) 25% profit 
(c) 33.33% profit
(d) none of these 

Que 30. Anupam sells a painting to Bhargava at 4/5th the rate of profit at which Bhargava sells it to Chaudhary. Further, Chaudhary sells it to Dara Singh at half the rate of profit at which Anupam sold it to Bhargava. If Chaudhary earns a profit of 10% by selling it to Dara Singh for ₹ 2805. What is the cost price of painting for Bhargava? 

(a) 1896
(b) 2040 
(c) 1680
(d) 2000 

Que 31. A dishonest retailer cheats on his wholesaler and customer. He purchases 19% more from the wholesaler and sells 15% less to his customer. What is the profit percentage by selling the goods at cost price? 

(a) 36.78%
(b) 34% 
(c) 40%
(d) 36.85% 

Que 32. Rotomac produces very fine-quality writing pens. The company knows that, on average, 10% of the produced pens are always defective, so they are rejected before packing. The company promises to deliver 7200 pens to its wholesaler at ₹ 10 each. It estimates the overall profit on all the manufactured pens to be 25%. What is the manufacturing cost of each pen? 

(a) ₹ 6
(b) ₹ 7.2 
(c) ₹ 5.6
(d) ₹ 8 

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Que 33. Pratibha printers prepare diaries expecting to earn a profit of 40% by selling them at the marked price. However, during transportation, 8% of the diaries were spoiled due to random rain, and 32% could be sold only at 75% of the cost price. Thus, the remaining 60% of the diaries could be sold at the expected price. What is the net profit or loss in the whole consignment? 

(a) 6%
(b) 10% 
(c) 8%
(d) can’t be determined 

Que 34. Radhey Lal marked up the prices of sweets by 40%, and he sold only 40% of those at this price. He sells half of the rest at a 14 2/7 % discount and the rest at a 25% discount. What is the net profit of Radhey Lal? 

(a) 26.5%
(b) 23.5% 
(c) 30%
(d) 28.6% 

Que 35. The price of an article reduces to 576 after two successive discounts. The markup is 80% above the cost price of ₹ 500. What is the new profit percentage if, instead of two successive discounts, the markup price was further increased twice by the same percentage? 

(a) 259.2%
(b) 59.2% 
(c) 159.2%
(d) can’t be determined 

Que 36. A trader marks up his goods by 80% and gives a discount of 25%. Besides, he weighs 10% less while selling his goods. What is the trader's net profit? 

(a) 50%
(b) 35% 
(c) 45%
(d) 55% 

Que 37. A dishonest trader marks up his goods by 80% and gives a 25% discount. Besides, he gets 20% more per kg from the wholesaler and sells 10% less per kg to the customer. What is the overall profit percentage? 

(A) 80%
(b) 60% 
(c) 70%
(d) none of these 

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Que 38. A dishonest dealer purchases goods at a 20% discount on the cost price of Rs x and also cheats his wholesaler by getting 20% extra through false weighing per kg. Then, he marks up his goods by 80% of x, but he gives a discount of 25% and cheats his customer by weighing 10% less than the required. What is his overall profit percentage? 

(a) 125%
(b) 100% 
(c) 98.66%
(d) 120% 

Que 39. Anjali, Bhoomika and Chawla went to the market to purchase the rings, whose costs were the same. But each ring was available with two successive discounts. Anjali availed two successive discounts of 5% and 20%. Bhoomika availed two successive discounts, 10% and 15%, while Chawla availed two successive discounts of 12% and 13%. Who gets the maximum possible discount? 

(a) Anjali
(b) Bhoomika 
(c) Chawla
(d) all of these 

Que 40. An egg seller sells his eggs only in packs of 3 eggs, 6 eggs, 9 eggs, 12 eggs, etc., but the rate is not necessarily uniform. One day, Raju (not the same egg seller) purchased at the rate of 3 eggs for a rupee, and the next hour, he purchased an equal number of eggs at the rate of 6 eggs for a rupee. The next day, he sold all the eggs at the rate of 9 eggs for ₹ 2. What is his percentage profit or loss? 

(a) 10% loss
(b) 11.11% loss 
(c) 3% loss
(d) 2.5% profit 

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Solutions for the Above Profit and Loss CAT Questions for Practice

Download CAT Profit and Loss Questions' Solutions

Tips Before You Start Solving Profit and Loss CAT Questions 2024

The CAT exam preparation requires a strategic approach, especially when tackling quantitative topics like CAT Profit and Loss questions. Here are some crucial tips to follow before you start practising CAT profit and loss questions:

TIP 1. The Basics of Profit & Loss

Before diving into profit and loss CAT questions for practice, ensure you have a strong grasp of the fundamental concepts related to Profit and Loss. This includes:

• Cost Price (CP): The price at which an article is purchased.
• Selling Price (SP): The price at which an article is sold.
• Profit or Gain: When the selling price exceeds the cost price.
• Loss: When the cost price exceeds the selling price.
• Profit Percentage and Loss Percentage: Calculated based on the cost price.

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TIP 2. Memorize the Key Formulas

Understand the key formulas used in CAT Profit and Loss questions calculations:

• Profit = SP - CP
• Loss = CP - SP
• Profit Percentage = (Profit / CP) * 100
• Loss Percentage = (Loss / CP) * 100
• Selling Price when there is a Profit = CP + Profit
• Selling Price when there is a Loss = CP - Loss

TIP 3. Interpret Word Problems

Profit and Loss CAT questions often come as word problems. Practice interpreting these problems accurately to identify what is given and what needs to be calculated.

TIP 4. Practice Mental Math

Improve your mental math skills to do quick calculations. This is useful for approximations and checking your answers.

TIP 5. Use Varied Practice Sources

Practice Profit and Loss questions from various CAT preparation books like Arun Sharma, Nishit Sinha, etc. 5.

Analyze Previous Year Papers- Review CAT previous year papers to understand the type and difficulty level of Profit and Loss questions that have appeared in the exam. This will give you a better idea of what to expect.

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Conclusion

To have a full grasp, identify and focus on areas where you face difficulties. Spend some time understanding and practising this topic to ensure you score well. 

After practising questions, always review your mistakes and understand where you went wrong. This will help you avoid similar errors in the future.

By following these tips, you'll be well-prepared to tackle Profit and Loss CAT questions effectively, boosting your overall performance in the CAT exam.

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