Question 1:

A man buys a toy for Rs. 25 and sells it for Rs. 30. Find his gain/loss
percentage.
Solution: As we can see, the Cost Price is smaller than Selling Price;
therefore the person must have had a profit on the total transaction.
Therefore using the above mentioned formula

Question 2:
When an article is old at Rs. 910000, then the profit percentage amounts
to 30%. Determine the Cost Price.
Solution: When profit percentage is x%, in this case 30%,
Cost Price = 100
Selling Price = 100 + x = 100 + 30 = 130
The value of 130% is 910000, to find the value of Cost Price i.e. 100% the
equation must be

Few Practice Problems:

1. Question: Calculate the Cost Price when the Selling price of the
article is Rs. 42500 and loss percentage on selling the article amounts
to 15%.
2. Question: When the article is bought at Rs. 8000 and sold at Rs.
9500, calculate the gain percentage.
3. Question : A man got a radio for Rs. 800 and spent Rs. 400 on its
repair. He sold it for Rs. 1500. Find his gain percentage.

Before moving forward, let us solve some more questions based on the
similar logic.

Question 3
A man bought a cycle for Rs. 250. For how much should he sell it so as to
gain 10%?
Solution: As we have discussed above, the formula shows
Profit percentage = x% = 10%
Cost Price = 100
Selling Price = 100 + x = 100 + 10 = 110
Cost Price is provided to us as Rs. 250 and according to our calculation
amounts to 100%. So, the equation becomes

Few Practice problems:

1. Question: A man bought a bicycle for Rs. 560. For how much should he
sell it so as to lose 10%?
[HINT: The formulae for Profit and Loss differ a little bit. Check them before
starting the calculation.]
2. Question: By selling an article for Rs. 390 a shopkeeper gains 20%, Find
the Cost Price?
Another very common question asked in the exams also called “Goods
passing through successive hands”. Let us explore the type.

Question 4
Ram buys a watch for Rs. 500 and sells it to Shyam at 10% loss. Shyam
then sells it to Ravi at 20% profit and Ravi sells it to Rakesh at 10% profit.
How much did Rakesh pay for the watch?
Solution: Rather than using the amount for calculation, use percentages to
make it easier.
Let us consider that Ram spends 100 to buy the watch.
➡Ram buys watch at 100 and sells it to Shyam at 10% loss. 10% of 100 is
10. Therefore,
➡ Cost Price for Ram = 100
➡ Selling Price for Ram = 100 – (10% of 100 = 10) = 100 - 10 = 90
➡ Cost Price for Shyam = 90
➡ Selling Price for Shyam = 90 + (20% of 90 = 18) = 90 + 18 = 108
➡ Cost Price for Ravi = 108
➡ Selling Price for Ravi = 108 + (10% of 108 = 10.8) = 108 + 10.8 = 118.8
➡ Cost Price for Rakesh = 118.8
➡ The initial amount was Rs. 500 and the percentage we considered 100.
So for final calculation, the equation becomes,

➡ So, the amount Rakesh spent to buy the watch is Rs. 594.

Few Practice Problems:

1. Question: Sunita sells a good to Sandhya at a profit of 20% and Sandhya
sells it to Kiran at a profit of 25%. If Kiran pays Rs. 225 for it, how much
amount did Sunita pay for the good?
2. Question: Surya sells a bicycle to Ravi at a profit of 30% and Ravi sells it to
Kamal at a loss of 20%. If Kamal pays Rs. 520 for it, at what price did Surya
buy the bicycle?

Let us discuss a type of question very common in the competitive exams.

Question 5
If a man purchases 11 oranges for Rs. 10 and sells 10 oranges for Rs. 11.
How much profit or loss does he make?
Solution:
➡ To make the calculations fast, let’s discuss a quick method for this type
of questions.

➡ Now, we try and make the Quantities equal using cross multiplication.
After calculation,

➡ When the data is observed, we can see that 110 oranges are brought in
Rs. 100 while 110 oranges are sold in Rs. 121. Ultimately, the person is
having PROFIT in the entire transaction.

➡ One more question will help you understand the process more clearly.

Question 6
A man purchases 8 pens for Rs. 9 and sells 9 pens for Rs. 8. How much
profit or loss does he make?
Solution:

➡ When we make the quantities equal,

➡ When the data is observed, we can see that 72 oranges are bought in Rs.
81 while 72 oranges are sold in Rs. 64. Ultimately, the person is having
LOSS in the entire transaction.

Few Practice problems:

1. Question: A boy buys oranges at 9 for Rs. 16 and sells them at 11 for Rs.
20. What is his gain or loss percentage?

Another type of question asked in examinations is a “dishonest dealer

using false weight”. Let us try and understand this with an example.

Question 7
A dishonest dealer professes to sell his goods at Cost Price, but he uses
a weight of 960 gm for the kg weight. Find his gain percentage.
Solution:
➡ Since the kg weight is of 1000 gm but the dealer uses only the 960 gm
weight. Thus giving himself the profit of
1000 – 960 = 40 gm

Few Practice Problems:

1. Question: A dishonest dealer professes to sell his goods at cost price, but
he uses a weight of 950 gm for the kg weight. Find his gain percentage.
2. Question: A dishonest dealer professes to sell his goods at cost price but
uses a weight of 875 gm for the kilogram weight. Determine his gain
percentage.

Question 8.
A dishonest dealer professes to sell his goods at a profit of 20% and also
weighs 800 gm in place of a kg. Find his actual gain percentage?

Solution:
➡ Similar to our previous logic, he is suppose to weigh 1 kg i.e. 1000 gm
instead he weighs 800 gm.So,

➡ Difference = 1000 – 800 = 200 gm

➡ Also he is selling his product at the profit of 20%. So we find 20% of
1000gm (1 kg).

20% of 1000 = 200 gm

➡ So, total profit = one from false weight + one from the profit percentage

➡ Profit = 200 + 200 = 400 gm

➡ What he actually sold = 800 gm.

➡ So, similar to the last question, the equation becomes,

Question 9
A merchant professes to sell his goods at a loss of 10% but weighs 750
gm in place of a kg. Find his real loss or gain percentage?
Solution:
➡ He is supposed to weigh 1000 gm instead he weighs 750 gm. So, profit
equation be like
Difference = 1000 – 750 = 250
➡ But he is selling his goods at loss of 10%. So, we subtract this 10% of
1000 gm from the above profit.
➡ 10% of 1000 = 100 gm
➡ Total profit equation should look like,
➡ Total profit = 250 – 100 = 150 [we are saying profit here because the
transaction results a positive value, which indicates the profit. If the
transaction at the end results in a negative answer, the dealer will suffer a
LOSS]
➡ On the sale of 750 gm. Therefore, similar to what we have been doing up
untill now, the equation becomes

➡ One another type of question is “To find the cost price”. Let’s have a look
at the type of question and the way to solve them.
Question 10
A man sells an article at 15% loss. If he had sold it for Rs. 450 more, he
would have earned a profit of 10%. Find the cost price of this article.
Solution:
➡ Man when sells the article at loss,
➡ Loss percentage = x% = 15%
➡ Cost Price = 100
➡ Selling Price = 100 – x = 100 – 15 = 85
➡ Now, if he sells the article to earn the profit of 10%,
➡ Profit percentage = x% = 10%
➡ Cost Price = 100
➡ Selling Price = 100 + x = 100 + 10 = 110
➡ The difference in Selling price = 110 – 85 = 25
➡ And the sentence in the question says “if the product was sold for Rs.
450 more” which means the difference in amount is Rs. 450.
➡ Therefore, 25% = 450
➡ And we need to determine the Cost Price which is 100%, So
100% = ?
➡ The equation for calculation becomes

➡ This method can be remembered in the form of formula as:

Few Practice Problems:

1. Question: A dealer sold a camera at a profit of 20%. Had he sold it for Rs.
200 less, he would have gained a profit of 15%. Determine the cost price.
2. Question: A man sells a bed enduring a loss of 80%. If he sells it for Rs.
72000 more, the loss percentage becomes 50%. Find the cost price of the
bed.
In all the questions of above type, the COST PRICE of the article remained
same while the condition was associated with SELLING PRICE. What if the
condition mentioned in the question is associated with COST PRICE along
with theSELLING PRICE. Let’s take a question to explore the type.

Question 11
A person sells an article at a profit of 10%. If he had bought it at 10% less
and sold it for Rs. 3 more, he would have gained 25%. Find the Cost Price?
Solution:
➡ Let us start solving this similar to what we have been doing up until now.
We deal in percentages. ➡ Let us consider Cost Price of the article as
100%.
➡ First profit percentage = x% = 10%
➡ Cost Price = 100
➡ Selling Price = 100 + x = 100 + 10 = 110
➡ Next condition says that the Cost Price is reduced by 10%.
➡ 10% of intial Cost Price (100) = 10
➡ Cost Price = 100 – 10 = 90
➡ The line “he would have gained 25%” provides us with the profit
percentage, when the cost price is 90.
➡ 25% of 90 = 22.5
➡ Since there is a profit.
➡ Cost Price + Profit = Selling Price
➡ 90 + 22.5 = 112.5
Let us make it visually easy for you to understand,

First Condition

Cost Price Selling Price

100 110

Second Condition
 Cost Price Selling Price

90 112.5

➡ Now, go through a condition in the question that says “sold it for Rs. 3
more”,this clearly indicates the difference in the two Selling Prices as in the
Selling Price in first condition and the Selling Price in the second condition.
➡ Difference in the selling prices = Selling Price in first condition – Selling
Price in second condition
➡ Difference = 112.5 – 110 = 2.5 [We just need the difference irrespective
of sign]
➡ Now, according to our assumption, the difference is Rs. 2.5 but as per
question, the difference must be Rs. 3. This is because of our assumption
of COST PRICE initally. So,
➡ Cost Price (when the difference is 2.5) = 100

➡ Cost Price (when the difference is 3) =

➡ So, the COST PRICE of the article is Rs. 120