Profit and Loss Questions for SSC CHSL

Core Definitions

Everything in Profit and Loss revolves around three prices: Cost Price (CP) is what the seller paid to buy or make the item. Selling Price (SP) is what the buyer pays. Marked Price (MP) is the printed label price before any discount. If SP is more than CP, there is profit. If SP is less than CP, there is loss. Always remember: profit and loss percentages are ALWAYS calculated on CP, not SP, unless the question explicitly says otherwise.

• CP = what you paid, SP = what you got, MP = what is written on the tag
• Profit = SP minus CP. Loss = CP minus SP
• Profit percent = (Profit divided by CP) multiplied by 100
• Loss percent = (Loss divided by CP) multiplied by 100
• Discount = MP minus SP. Discount percent = (Discount divided by MP) multiplied by 100
• Profit and loss percent are always on CP. Discount percent is always on MP.

Successive Profit and Loss (Two Transactions)

When a person buys, sells, buys again and sells again — or when there is a markup then a discount — you cannot simply add or subtract the percentages. You must use the net multiplier method. Multiply the two multipliers together. This type appears in SSC CHSL as: a trader marks up by X% then gives a discount of Y%, find overall profit or loss.

• Never add two percentages directly when both apply one after another
• Net effect formula: use a + b + (ab/100) where a and b are percentages with sign (profit positive, loss negative)
• Markup then discount: if markup is 20% and discount is 20%, net is NOT zero — it is a 4% loss
• Multiplier method: overall SP = CP x (1 + a/100) x (1 + b/100)
• If result is more than 1, there is profit. If less than 1, there is loss.

Faulty Weights and Dishonest Shopkeeper

A very common SSC CHSL trick question. The shopkeeper claims to sell at cost price but uses a faulty weight — he gives less than what he says. The profit comes purely from cheating, not from pricing. The formula is clean and direct. Learn it as a one-liner.

• The shopkeeper gains on the quantity he withholds from the customer
• True weight means what the customer should get. False weight means what the customer actually gets
• If he uses 800g weight and claims it is 1000g, the error is 200g on true weight 1000g
• Profit percent = (Error / True weight - Error) x 100 — some books write it as error over false weight
• Always identify true weight and false weight carefully from the question

Two Items Sold at Same SP — Classic Trap

When two articles are sold at the SAME selling price, one at X% profit and one at X% loss, the overall result is ALWAYS a loss. This is a standard trap in SSC. The net loss percentage depends only on the common profit or loss percentage, not on the selling prices.

• Same SP, one at profit X%, one at loss X% — always a net loss
• The loss percentage formula is clean and fixed
• This question appears almost every year in some form in SSC tier exams
• Do not fall for the trap that profit and loss cancel out — they never do in this case

• Calculating profit or loss percent on SP instead of CP — the most common error. Always anchor percent calculations to CP unless told otherwise.
• Adding markup percent and discount percent directly to find net result — wrong. Always use the net formula a + b + ab/100.
• In faulty weight problems, dividing error by true weight instead of false weight — gives a slightly different and wrong answer.
• In the two-articles-same-SP problem, assuming the gains and losses cancel out because the percentage is equal — they never do.
• Forgetting that discount percent is on Marked Price, not on Cost Price — mixing up the base leads to wrong CP calculations.

• CP is the BASE: profit percent, loss percent — both always on CP. Think of CP as the ground floor, everything is measured from it.
• Same SP same percent: PROFIT and LOSS do not cancel — they COLLUDE to give you a loss. Remember: same SP = SAD (Same Always Deficit).
• Markup then discount with same number: think of a 20% raise then 20% pay cut — you do NOT come back to the same salary. You lose.
• Faulty weight shortcut: gain = what he keeps divided by what he gives, times 100. He keeps the difference, gives the false weight.

• SSC CHSL typically gives 2 to 3 questions from this topic. Expect one straightforward CP or SP finder, one discount or markup question, and sometimes one faulty weight or two-article trap.
• Questions are mostly 1-step or 2-step. If your calculation is going beyond 3 steps, re-read the question — you have likely misread it.
• The CP finder formula — CP = SP x 100 / (100 plus or minus percent) — is the single most used formula. Drill it until it is automatic.
• Fractions are faster than percentages for standard values: 25% profit means SP is 5/4 of CP. 20% loss means SP is 4/5 of CP. Learn these fraction equivalents for the 10 most common percentages.
• In the exam, if you see the words marked price and discount together, immediately write SP = MP x (100 - d)/100 and work from there. Do not confuse discount base with profit base.