CAT 2025 Slot 2 · Quant · Question 22

CAT 2025 Slot 2 previous year question on Percentage, with the answer and a step-by-step solution.

PercentageArithmeticMultiple choiceMedium
A certain amount of money was divided among Pinu, Meena, Rinu and Seema. Pinu received 20% of the total amount and Meena received 40% of the remaining amount. If Seema received 20% less than Pinu, the ratio of the amounts received by Pinu and Rinu is
  1. A
    8 : 5
  2. B
    5 : 8
  3. C
    2 : 1
  4. D
    1 : 2
Pick an option, then check.
Answer & solution

Answer: Option B

Take the whole amount as 100 units.

Pinu receives 20% of 100, that is 20 units.

That leaves 100-20=80 units.

Meena receives 40% of the remaining 80, not of the total: 0.40\times 80=32 units.

Seema receives 20% less than Pinu: 0.80\times 20=16 units.

Rinu takes whatever is left: 100-20-32-16=32 units.

Pinu to Rinu is 20:32=5:8.

Shortcut. The trap is reading Meena's 40% as 40% of the total, which would give 40 and leave Rinu 24, i.e. 20:24=5:6 — not an option, which is itself a signal you have misread it. Taking the total as 100 makes every share a whole number and the error easy to catch.

More Percentage questions

All Percentage PYQs →

Take this paper as a timed test
Real exam timing, instant score, rank and topic-wise analysis.

Practice timed →