Profit and Loss | General Aptitude for GATE PSU ESE AE/JE

Profit and Loss is one of the most important and scoring topics in General Aptitude for exams like GATE, PSU, ESE, AE/JE. Questions are usually straightforward if concepts and formulas are clear.

Basic Definitions

• Cost Price (CP): Price at which an article is purchased
• Selling Price (SP): Price at which an article is sold
• Profit: SP − CP (when SP > CP)
• Loss: CP − SP (when CP > SP)

Important Formulas

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

Important Tricks

• Profit always calculated on Cost Price
• Successive profit/loss uses formula: a + b + (ab/100)
• Marked Price (MP) concept is important in discount questions

Discount Concept

Discount is reduction on Marked Price (MP).

• Discount = MP − SP
• Discount % = (Discount / MP) × 100
• SP = MP × (100 − Discount%) / 100

GATE Level Questions

Question 1

A shopkeeper buys an article for ₹500 and sells it for ₹600. Find the profit percentage.

Solution:
Profit = 600 − 500 = 100
Profit % = (100/500) × 100 = 20%
Answer: 20%

Question 2

A product is sold at 10% loss. If CP = ₹800, find SP.

Solution:
SP = 800 × (90/100) = ₹720
Answer: ₹720

Question 3

Marked price of an article is ₹1000. A discount of 20% is given. Find selling price.

Solution:
SP = 1000 × (80/100) = ₹800
Answer: ₹800

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Calculating profit % on SP instead of CP
• Ignoring discount while solving MP-based questions
• Not using shortcut formulas

Exam Tips

• Practice shortcut formulas regularly
• Focus on accuracy and speed
• Solve previous year questions

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