MH Police Bharti · Bite-size lessons
Profit & Loss
About 6 min · Mathematics · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 355 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Profit & Loss is a topic in the Mathematics section of Maharashtra Police Bharti exam. Questions may involve calculating profit percentage, loss percentage, selling price, or finding the cost price when other values are given. You will also encounter problems combining marked price, discount, and successive discounts.
Key ideas
- Cost Price (CP) is the price at which a trader buys goods. This is your base for calculating profit or loss.
- Selling Price (SP) is the price at which goods are sold to the customer. SP > CP means profit; SP < CP means loss.
- Marked Price (MP) is the price written on the product label (also called list price or tag price). Discount is always calculated on MP, not on CP.
- Profit or Loss is always calculated on CP — this is the universal rule unless the question explicitly states otherwise.
- Discount is always calculated on MP — the reduction given from the labelled price before arriving at SP.
Watch out for
- Calculating profit % on SP instead of CP → Always remember: profit and loss percentages are calculated on Cost Price, not Selling Price.
- Applying discount on CP → Discount is always on Marked Price. First find SP using discount on MP, then compare with CP for profit/loss.
- Adding successive discounts directly → Two discounts of 20% and 10% do NOT equal 30%. Use the formula: d₁ + d₂ − (d₁ × d₂)/100.
Quick reference
- Profit % = (Profit/CP) × 100 — always on CP.
- SP with profit = CP × (100 + P%)/100
- SP with loss = CP × (100 − L%)/100
- SP after discount = MP × (100 − D%)/100
- Successive discounts a% and b% = a + b − ab/100
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. A shopkeeper buys a shirt for Rs 400 and sells it for Rs 480. What is his profit percentage?
2. A trader marks his goods 40% above the cost price and gives a discount of 20%. What is his overall profit percentage?
3. By selling an article for Rs 1680, a man loses 16%. At what price should he sell it to gain 20%?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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