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Profit and loss questions with answers

Profit and loss questions hand you two of cost price, selling price and percentage and ask for the third. The percentage sits on cost price unless the paper says otherwise, and that single rule settles most of the set. Each walkthrough below works the multiplier directly, which is the difference between forty seconds and ninety.

Download the PDF — 15 questions with answers

Free, ungated, no email. This is the profit and loss questions with answers PDF — the same 15 questions as below, with every worked solution at the back, ready to print.

How to use this set

The 15 questions below are ordered the way an exam block is rather than easiest-first: two gentle openers, then a run of medium, and a hard one every sixth question — 2 of the 15 sit in the hard band. Every question is a profit & loss.

Work each question on paper before you open its solution. The walkthrough is the method itself, step for step, so reading it first turns a practice set into a reading exercise and teaches nothing. If you are stuck on the method rather than on one question, the method guide is a better place to start than the next question: Profit and loss in one line.

15 profit and loss questions with answers

Every question below was generated by the same engine that mints the ComputePrep daily timed drill, and machine-checked before it reached this page — a multiple-choice question validates its own answer against its own options at generation, and ships only with a walkthrough attached. The walkthrough is the engine's own.

Question 1

What is the selling price?

An article costs ₹500 and is sold at a profit of 12%.

  1. 60
  2. 564
  3. 560
  4. 575
  5. 574
Show the worked solution
  1. Profit = 12% of ₹500 = ₹60.
  2. SP = ₹500 + ₹60 = ₹560.
  3. Answer: 560.

Question 2

What is the loss percentage?

An article bought for ₹500 is sold for ₹440.

  1. 14
  2. 12
  3. 10
  4. 7
  5. 62
Show the worked solution
  1. Loss = ₹500 − ₹440 = ₹60.
  2. Percentage = ₹60 ÷ ₹500 × 100 = 12% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 12.

Question 3

What is the profit percentage?

An article bought for ₹1300 is sold for ₹1430.

  1. 30
  2. 9
  3. 7
  4. 5
  5. 10
Show the worked solution
  1. Profit = ₹1430 − ₹1300 = ₹130.
  2. Percentage = ₹130 ÷ ₹1300 × 100 = 10% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 10.

Question 4

What is the selling price?

An article costs ₹4400 and is sold at a loss of 50%.

  1. 4450
  2. 2200
  3. 4400
  4. 2212
  5. 6600
Show the worked solution
  1. Loss = 50% of ₹4400 = ₹2200.
  2. SP = ₹4400 − ₹2200 = ₹2200.
  3. Answer: 2200.

Question 5

What is the profit percentage?

An article bought for ₹800 is sold for ₹1120.

  1. 29
  2. 45
  3. 320
  4. 54
  5. 40
Show the worked solution
  1. Profit = ₹1120 − ₹800 = ₹320.
  2. Percentage = ₹320 ÷ ₹800 × 100 = 40% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 40.

Question 6

What was the cost price?

An article is sold for ₹11900, at a loss of 15%.

  1. 9800
  2. 14000
  3. 13685
  4. 11900
  5. 2100
Show the worked solution
  1. A loss of 15% means SP = 85% of CP.
  2. So CP = ₹11900 × 100 ÷ 85 = ₹14000 — the percentage is always on COST price, never on the selling price.
  3. Answer: 14000.

Question 7

What does a customer actually pay?

A jacket is marked at ₹1300.

The shop allows a discount of 20%.

  1. 1040
  2. 1560
  3. 1300
  4. 1053
  5. 260
Show the worked solution
  1. Discount = 20% of ₹1300 = ₹260.
  2. Amount paid = ₹1300 − ₹260 = ₹1040 — the discount is the reduction, not the price.
  3. Answer: 1040.

Question 8

What does a customer actually pay?

A jacket is marked at ₹2800.

The shop allows a discount of 5%.

  1. 140
  2. 2660
  3. 2653
  4. 2650
  5. 2800
Show the worked solution
  1. Discount = 5% of ₹2800 = ₹140.
  2. Amount paid = ₹2800 − ₹140 = ₹2660 — the discount is the reduction, not the price.
  3. Answer: 2660.

Question 9

What was the cost price?

An article is sold for ₹10000, at a profit of 25%.

  1. 2000
  2. 7500
  3. 10000
  4. 12000
  5. 8000
Show the worked solution
  1. A profit of 25% means SP = 125% of CP.
  2. So CP = ₹10000 × 100 ÷ 125 = ₹8000 — the percentage is always on COST price, never on the selling price.
  3. Answer: 8000.

Question 10

What is the loss percentage?

An article bought for ₹1800 is sold for ₹900.

  1. 100
  2. 50
  3. 45
  4. 41
  5. 42
Show the worked solution
  1. Loss = ₹1800 − ₹900 = ₹900.
  2. Percentage = ₹900 ÷ ₹1800 × 100 = 50% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 50.

Question 11

What was the cost price?

An article is sold for ₹3200, at a loss of 20%.

  1. 2400
  2. 3840
  3. 3200
  4. 800
  5. 4000
Show the worked solution
  1. A loss of 20% means SP = 80% of CP.
  2. So CP = ₹3200 × 100 ÷ 80 = ₹4000 — the percentage is always on COST price, never on the selling price.
  3. Answer: 4000.

Question 12

What is the loss percentage?

An article bought for ₹10000 is sold for ₹9000.

  1. 5
  2. 10
  3. 3
  4. 30
  5. 11
Show the worked solution
  1. Loss = ₹10000 − ₹9000 = ₹1000.
  2. Percentage = ₹1000 ÷ ₹10000 × 100 = 10% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 10.

Question 13

What is the profit percentage?

An article bought for ₹400 is sold for ₹600.

  1. 33
  2. 50
  3. 45
  4. 42
  5. 200
Show the worked solution
  1. Profit = ₹600 − ₹400 = ₹200.
  2. Percentage = ₹200 ÷ ₹400 × 100 = 50% — divide by the COST price.
  3. Answer: 50.

Question 14

What is the selling price?

An article costs ₹1300 and is sold at a loss of 10%.

  1. 1160
  2. 130
  3. 1168
  4. 1170
  5. 1165
Show the worked solution
  1. Loss = 10% of ₹1300 = ₹130.
  2. SP = ₹1300 − ₹130 = ₹1170.
  3. Answer: 1170.

Question 15

What does a customer actually pay?

A jacket is marked at ₹7600.

The shop allows a discount of 5%.

  1. 7220
  2. 7600
  3. 380
  4. 7980
  5. 7230
Show the worked solution
  1. Discount = 5% of ₹7600 = ₹380.
  2. Amount paid = ₹7600 − ₹380 = ₹7220 — the discount is the reduction, not the price.
  3. Answer: 7220.
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Where these questions come from

Most free practice for this topic is a scanned upload or a blog quiz, and neither can tell you a question has exactly one answer. That is the one thing this set can promise: it is minted, not typed. The engine behind it serves ComputePrep's daily timed drill, so the questions here are the same shape as the ones a live round would give you — and there is an unlimited supply of them, which is why this page can be regenerated rather than padded.

If you want the method rather than more questions, Profit and loss in one line covers the approach, the traps and a worked table. This page and that one deliberately answer different questions: that one is how do I solve these, this one is give me profit and loss questions with the answers.

FAQ

Does the discount percentage sit on cost price too?

No. Profit and loss percentages are on cost price; discount is on marked price. Getting this wrong does not produce an obviously silly number — it produces a clean, plausible one that will be sitting among the options waiting for you.

How do successive discounts combine?

Not by addition. Two discounts of a and b per cent give a net of a + b − ab/100, so 20 per cent then 10 per cent is 28, not 30. Alternatively multiply the multipliers: 0.8 × 0.9 = 0.72, a 28 per cent discount. The multiplier route generalises to any number of steps.

What is the trick with false weights?

The gain percentage is the shortfall divided by the weight actually given, not by the claimed weight. Selling 900 g as a kilogram is a gain of 100/900, which is 11.11 per cent, not 10. The denominator is what the question is testing.

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