Profit & Loss — CAT Previous-Year Questions

The selling price of a product is fixed to ensure 40% profit. If the product had cost 40% less and had been sold for 5 rupees less, then the resulting profit would have been 50%. The original selling price, in rupees, of the product is

A shop wants to sell a certain quantity (in kg) of grains. It sells half the quantity and an additional 3 kg of these grains to the first customer. Then, it sells half of the remaining quantity and an additional 3 kg of these grains to the second customer. Finally, when the shop sells half of the remaining quantity and an additional 3 kg of these grains to the third customer, there are no grains left. The initial quantity, in kg, of grains is

Bina incurs 19% loss when she sells a product at Rs. 4860 to Shyam, who in turn sells this product to Hari. If Bina would have sold this product to Shyam at the purchase price of Hari, she would have obtained 17% profit. Then, the profit, in rupees, made by Shyam is

Gopi marks a price on a product in order to make 20% profit. Ravi gets 10% discount on this marked price, and thus saves Rs 15. Then, the profit, in rupees, made by Gopi by selling the product to Ravi, is

Gita sells two objects A and B at the same price such that she makes a profit of 20% on object A and a loss of 10% on object B. If she increases the selling price such that objects A and B are still sold at an equal price and a profit of 10% is made on object B, then the profit made on object A will be nearest to

Minu purchases a pair of sunglasses at Rs.1000 and sells to Kanu at 20% profit. Then, Kanu sells it back to Minu at 20% loss. Finally, Minu sells the same pair of sunglasses to Tanu. If the total profit made by Minu from all her transactions is Rs.500, then the percentage of profit made by Minu when she sold the pair of sunglasses to Tanu is

Jayant bought a certain number of white shirts at the rate of Rs 1000 per piece and a certain number of blue shirts at the rate of Rs 1125 per piece. For each shirt, he then set a fixed market price which was 25% higher than the average cost of all the shirts. He sold all the shirts at a discount of 10% and made a total profit of Rs 51000. If he bought both colors of shirts, then the maximum possible total number of shirts that he could have bought is

A merchant purchases a cloth at a rate of Rs.100 per meter and receives 5 cm length of cloth free for every 100 cm length of cloth purchased by him. He sells the same cloth at a rate of Rs.110 per meter but cheats his customers by giving 95 cm length of cloth for every 100 cm length of cloth purchased by the customers. If the merchant provides a 5% discount, the resulting profit earned by him is

Ankita buys 4 kg cashews, 14 kg peanuts and 6 kg almonds when the cost of 7 kg cashews is the same as that of 30 kg peanuts or 9 kg almonds. She mixes all the three nuts and marks a price for the mixture in order to make a profit of ₹1752. She sells 4 kg of the mixture at this marked price and the remaining at a 20% discount on the marked price, thus making a total profit of ₹744. Then the amount, in rupees, that she had spent in buying almonds is

Amal buys 110 kg of syrup and 120 kg of juice, syrup being 20% less costly than juice, per kg. He sells 10 kg of syrup at 10% profit and 20 kg of juice at 20% profit. Mixing the remaining juice and syrup, Amal sells the mixture at ₹ 308.32 per kg and makes an overall profit of 64%. Then, Amal’s cost price for syrup, in  Rupees per kg, is

Amal purchases some pens at ₹ 8 each. To sell these, he hires an employee at a fixed wage. He sells 100 of these pens at ₹ 12 each. If the remaining pens are sold at ₹ 11 each, then he makes a net profit of ₹ 300, while he makes a net loss of ₹ 300 if the remaining pens are sold at ₹ 9 each. The wage of the employee, in INR, is

A person buys tea of three different qualities at ₹ 800, ₹ 500, and ₹ 300 per kg, respectively, and the amounts bought are in the proportion 2 : 3 : 5. She mixes all the tea and sells one-sixth of the mixture at ₹ 700 per kg. The price, in INR per kg, at which she should sell the remaining tea, to make an overall profit of 50%, is 

A person spent Rs. 50000 to purchase a desktop computer and a laptop computer. He sold the desktop at 20% profit and the laptop at 10% loss. If overall he made a 2% profit then the purchase price, in rupees, of the desktop is

Anil buys 12 toys and labels each with the same selling price. He sells 8 toys initially at 20% discount on the labeled price. Then he sells the remaining 4 toys at an additional 25% discount on the discounted price. Thus, he gets a total of Rs 2112, and makes a 10% profit. With no discounts, his percentage of profit would have been

A man buys 35 kg of sugar and sets a marked price in order to make a 20% profit. He sells 5 kg at this price, and 15 kg at a 10% discount. Accidentally, 3 kg of sugar is wasted. He sells the remaining sugar by raising the marked price by p percent so as to make an overall profit of 15%. Then p is nearest to

Mukesh purchased 10 bicycles in 2017, all at the same price. He sold six of these at a profit of 25% and the remaining four at a loss of 25%. If he made a total profit of Rs. 2000, then his purchase price of a bicycle, in Rupees, was

A shopkeeper sells two tables, each procured at cost price p, to Amal and Asim at a profit of 20% and at a loss of 20%, respectively. Amal sells his table to Bimal at a profit of 30%, while Asim sells his table to Barun at a loss of 30%. If the amounts paid by Bimal and Barun are x and y, respectively, then (x - y) / p equals

A wholesaler bought walnuts and peanuts, the price of walnut per kg being thrice that of peanut per kg. He then sold 8 kg of peanuts at a profit of 10% and 16 kg of walnuts at a profit of 20% to a shopkeeper. However, the shopkeeper lost 5 kg of walnuts and 3 kg of peanuts in transit. He then mixed the remaining nuts and sold the mixture at Rs. 166 per kg, thus making an overall profit of 25%. At what price, in Rs. per kg, did the wholesaler buy the walnuts? 

If a seller gives a discount of 15% on retail price, she still makes a profit of 2%. Which of the following ensures that she makes a profit of 20%?

In a market, the price of medium quality mangoes is half that of good mangoes. A shopkeeper buys 80 kg good mangoes and 40 kg medium quality mangoes from the market and then sells all these at a common price which is 10% less than the price at which he bought the good ones. His overall profit is:

If Fatima sells 60 identical toys at a 40% discount on the printed price, then she makes 20% profit. Ten of these toys are destroyed in fire. While selling the rest, how much discount should be given on the printed price so that she can make the same amount of profit?

The manufacturer of a table sells it to a wholesale dealer at a profit of 10%. The wholesale dealer sells the table to a retailer at a profit of 30%. Finally, the retailer sells it to a customer at a profit of 50%. If the customer pays Rs 4290 for the table, then its manufacturing cost (in Rs) is

Mayank buys some candies for Rs 15 a dozen and an equal number of different candies for Rs 12 a dozen. He sells all for Rs 16.50 a dozen and makes a profit of Rs 150. How many dozens of candies did he buy altogether?

A leather factory produces two kinds of bags, standard and deluxe. The profit margin is Rs. 20 on a standard bag and Rs. 30 on a deluxe bag. Every bag must be processed on machine A and on machine B. The processing times per bag on the two machines are as follows:

The total time available on machine A is 700 hours and on machine B is 1250 hours. Among the following production plans, which one meets the machine availability constraints and maximizes the profit?

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Each question is followed by two statements A and B. Answer each question using the following instructions:

Answer (1) if the question can be solved by any one of the statements, but not the other one.
Answer (2) if the question can be solved by using either of the two statements.
Answer (3) if the question can be solved by using both the statements together and not by any one of them.
Answer (4) if the question cannot be solved with the help of the given data and more data is required.

A dress was initially listed at a price that would have fetched the store a profit of 20% on the wholesale cost. What was the wholesale cost of the dress?

A. After reducing the listed price by 10% the dress was sold for a net profit of 10 dollars.
B. The dress was sold for 50 dollars.

Choose 1; if the question can be answered by using one of the statements alone, but cannot be answered using the other statement alone.
Choose 2; if the question can be answered by using either statement alone.
Choose 3; if the question can be answered by using both statements together, but cannot be answered using either statement alone.
Choose 4; if the question cannot be answered even by using both statements together.

Harshad bought shares of a company on a certain day, and sold them the next day. While buying and selling he had to pay to the broker one percent of the transaction value of the shares as brokerage. What was the profit earned by him per rupee spent on buying the shares?

1. The sales price per share was 1.05 times that of its purchase price.
2. The number of shares purchased was 100.

What is the maximum current gain possible?

If the USA dollar becomes cheap by 12% over its original cost and the cost of German mark increased by 20%, what will be the gain? (The selling price is not altered.)

After allowing a discount of 11.11%, a trader still makes a gain of 14.28%. At how many percentage above the cost price does he mark on his goods?

A dealer buys dry fruits at Rs. 100, Rs. 80 and Rs. 60 per kilogram. He mixes them in the ratio 3 : 4 : 5 by weight, and sells at a profit of 50%. At what price per kilogram does he sell the dry fruit?

Instead of a metre scale, a cloth merchant uses a 120 cm scale while buying, but uses an 80 cm scale while selling the same cloth. If he offers a discount of 20% on cash payment, what is his overall profit percentage?

If he is able to sell only 1,200 out of 1,500 watches he has made in the season, then he has made a profit of

If he produces 1,500 watches, what is the number of watches that he must sell during the season in order to break-even, given that he is able to sell all the watches produced?

I sold two watches for Rs. 300 each, one at the loss of 10% and the other at the profit of 10%. What is the percentage of loss(–) or profit(+) that resulted from the transaction?

A stockist wants to make some profit by selling sugar. He contemplates about various methods . Which of the following would maximise his profit?

I. Sell sugar at 10% profit.
II. Use 900 g of weight instead of 1 kg.
III. Mix 10% impurities in sugar and selling sugar at cost price.
IV. Increase the price by 5% and reduce weights by 5%.

A dealer offers a cash discount of 20% and still makes a profit of 20%, when he further allows 16 articles to a dozen to a particularly sticky bargainer. How much percent above the cost price were his wares listed?