The CAT QA section requires speed and accuracy, along with a thorough understanding of the Arithmetic. This article provides a set of MCQs on Arithmetic to help you understand the topic and improve your problem-solving skills with the help of detailed solutions by ensuring conceptual clarity, which will help you in the CAT 2025 exam preparation
Whether you're revising the basics or testing your knowledge, these MCQs will serve as a valuable practice resource.
The CAT 2025 exam is expected to follow a similar trend to the CAT 2024, with 22 questions from the QA section out of a total of 68 questions.
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CAT MCQs on Arithmetic
1. The owner of a local jewellery store hired three watchmen to guard his diamonds, but a thief still got in and stole some diamonds. On the way out, the thief met each watchman, one at a time. To each he gave \( \frac{1}{2} \) of the diamonds he had then, and 2 more besides. He escaped with one diamond. How many did he steal originally?
A
40
B
36
C
25
D
None of these
2. Mayank, Mirza, Little and Jaspal bought a motorbike for rupee 60. Mayank paid one-half of the sum of the amounts paid by the other boys. Mirza paid one-third of the sum of the amounts paid by the other boys. Little paid one-fourth of the sum of the amounts paid by the other boys. How much did Jaspal have to pay?
A
\$15
B
\$13
C
\$17
D
None of these
3. Shyam visited Ram during his brief vacation. In the mornings they both would go for yoga. In the evenings they would play tennis. To have more fun, they indulge only in one activity per day, i.e. either they went for yoga or played tennis each day. There were days when they were lazy and stayed home all day long. There were 24 mornings when they did nothing, 14 evenings when they stayed at home, and a total of 22 days when they did yoga or played tennis. For how many days Shyam stayed with Ram?
A
32
B
24
C
30
D
None of these
4. A car rental agency has the following terms. If a car is rented for 5 hr or less, the charge is Rs. 60 per hour or Rs. 12 per kilometre whichever is more. On the other hand, if the car is rented for more than 5 hr, the charge is Rs. 50 per hour or Rs. 7.50 per kilometre whichever is more. Akil rented a car from this agency, drove it for 30 km and ended up paying Rs. 300. For how many hours did he rent the car?
A
4 hr
B
2.5 hr
C
6 hr
D
None of these
5. A child was asked to add first few natural numbers (i.e. \( 1 + 2 + 3 + \dots \)) so long his patience permitted. As he stopped, he gave the sum as 575. When the teacher declared the result wrong, the child discovered he had missed one number in the sequence during addition. The number he missed was:
A
less than 10
B
10
C
15
D
more than 15
6. At a bookstore, 'MODERN BOOK STORE' is flashed using neon lights. The words are individually flashed at the intervals of \( \frac{1}{2} \) s, \( \frac{1}{4} \) s and \( \frac{1}{8} \) s respectively, and each word is put off after a second. The least time after which the full name of the bookstore can be read again is:
A
49.5 s
B
73.5 s
C
1744.5 s
D
855 s
7. Three pieces of cakes of weights \( 4 \frac{1}{2} \) lb, \( 6 \frac{3}{4} \) lb and \( 7 \frac{1}{5} \) lb respectively are to be divided into parts of equal weight. Further, each part must be as heavy as possible. If one such part is served to each guest, then what is the maximum number of guests that could be entertained?
A
54
B
72
C
20
D
None of these
8. A piece of string is 40 cm long. It is cut into three pieces. The longest piece is three times as long as the middle-sized and the shortest piece is 23 cm shorter than the longest piece. Find the length of the shortest piece.
A
27
B
5
C
4
D
9
9. Three travellers are sitting around a fire, and are about to eat a meal. One of them has 5 small loaves of bread, the second has 3 small loaves of bread. The third has no food, but has 8 coins. He offers to pay for some bread. They agree to share the 8 loaves equally among the three travellers, and the third traveller will pay 8 coins for his share of the 8 loaves. All loaves were the same size. The second traveller (who had 3 loaves) suggests that he will be paid 3 coins, and that the first traveller be paid 5 coins. The first traveller says that he should get more than 5 coins. How much should the first traveller get?
A
5
B
7
C
3
D
None of these
10. Davji Shop sells samosas in boxes of different sizes. The samosas are priced at Rs. 2 per samosa up to 200 samosas. For every additional 20 samosas, the price of the whole lot goes down by 10 paise per samosa. What should be the maximum size of the box that would maximise the revenue?
A
240
B
300
C
400
D
None of these
11. A red light flashes three times per minute and a green light flashes five times in 2 min at regular intervals. If both lights start flashing at the same time, how many times do they flash together in each hour?
A
30
B
24
C
20
D
60
12. Of 128 boxes of oranges, each box contains at least 120 and at most 144 oranges. The number of boxes containing the same number of oranges is at least:
A
5
B
103
C
6
D
Cannot be determined
13. Anita had to do a multiplication. Instead of taking 35 as one of the multipliers, she took 53. As a result, the product went up by 540. What is the new product?
A
1050
B
540
C
1440
D
1590
14. Three friends, returning from a movie, stopped to eat at a restaurant. After dinner, they paid their bill and noticed a bowl of mints at the front counter. Sita took one-third of the mints, but returned four. Fatima then took one-fourth of what was left but returned three. Eswari then took half of the remainder but threw two back. The bowl had only 17 mints left. How many mints were originally in the bowl?
A
38
B
31
C
41
D
None of these
15. If 09/12/2001 happens to be Sunday, then 09/12/1971 would have been a:
A
Wednesday
B
Tuesday
C
Saturday
D
Thursday
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