RAS question
The marked price of an article is ₹800. After successive discounts of 10% and 20%, the selling price is:
Correct answer: (C) ₹576.
After successive discounts of 10% and 20% on a marked price of ₹800, the selling price is ₹576.
Explanation
ORCHIDS defines marked price as the price before any reduction and selling price as the amount paid after the discount is applied; it also gives the discount-percentage form as SP = MP × (1 − Discount%/100). In successive discounts, the discounts are applied one after another, with the later discount calculated on the price left after the earlier discount. So the first 10% discount on ₹800 leaves ₹720. The second 20% discount is then applied to ₹720, not to ₹800, leaving ₹720 × 0.8 = ₹576. Equivalently, ₹800 × 90/100 × 80/100 = ₹576.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) ₹600 would leave 75% of the marked price, but successive discounts of 10% and 20% leave 90% × 80% = 72% of ₹800.
- (B) ₹560 is 70% of ₹800, which wrongly treats the two discounts as a simple 30% reduction on the original marked price.
- (D) ₹640 is only the price after a single 20% discount on ₹800 and ignores the earlier 10% discount.
Concept
This tests successive discounts under percentage applications in arithmetic. RAS reasoning papers use it because it checks whether the candidate applies each percentage to the updated base instead of mechanically adding percentages.