Aptitude Test Questions for Placements: 8 Solved Examples and a Strategy
For most freshers, the first round isn't an interview at all. It's an online aptitude test, and it filters out more candidates than any later round. It's also the same test whether you're applying for engineering, sales, banking, operations or HR, and the questions repeat their patterns. That makes it the most practisable round there is.
What placement aptitude tests cover
Formats differ between companies and test providers, but most tests mix three sections:
- Quantitative aptitude: percentages, profit and loss, ratios, averages, time and work, speed and distance, simple and compound interest.
- Logical reasoning: number and letter series, coding-decoding, blood relations, directions, seating arrangements, syllogisms.
- Verbal ability: reading comprehension, sentence correction, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms.
Questions are usually multiple choice, the whole test is timed (often around a minute per question), and some tests use negative marking. Read the instructions on the first screen: whether a wrong answer costs marks changes how you should treat a guess.
The eight questions below are typical of the quantitative and reasoning sections. Try each one before reading the solution.
1. Percentages: markup and discount
A shopkeeper buys an item for ₹800, marks it 25% above cost, then gives a 10% discount on the marked price. What is the selling price, and what is the profit percentage?
Marked price = 800 × 1.25 = ₹1,000. Selling price = 1,000 × 0.9 = ₹900. Profit = ₹100 on a cost of ₹800, which is 12.5%.
Answer: ₹900, a 12.5% profit. The trap is adding the percentages (25 − 10 = 15%). Successive percentage changes multiply; they don't add.
2. Profit and loss: buying and selling in different quantities
A trader buys 12 pens for ₹100 and sells 10 pens for ₹100. What is the profit percentage?
Cost of one pen = 100 ÷ 12. Selling price of one pen = 100 ÷ 10 = ₹10. Profit % = (10 ÷ (100/12) − 1) × 100 = (1.2 − 1) × 100 = 20%.
Answer: 20%. A quicker way: for the same ₹100 the trader gives away 10 pens but bought 12, so the profit is 2 pens on 10 sold, which is 20%.
3. Time and work
A can finish a job in 12 days and B can finish it in 18 days. How long will they take working together?
In one day A does 1/12 of the job and B does 1/18. Together: 1/12 + 1/18 = 3/36 + 2/36 = 5/36 of the job per day. Time = 36/5 days.
Answer: 7.2 days. Always add the rates (work per day), never the days. A useful shortcut for two workers: together = (a × b) ÷ (a + b) = 216 ÷ 30 = 7.2.
4. Speed, time and distance
A train 500 metres long runs at 72 km/h. How long does it take to pass a pole?
Convert the speed first: 72 km/h × 5/18 = 20 m/s. To pass a pole, the train covers its own length: 500 ÷ 20 = 25 seconds.
Answer: 25 seconds. Most mistakes in this topic are unit mistakes. Multiply by 5/18 to go from km/h to m/s, and by 18/5 to go back. To pass a platform, add the platform's length to the train's.
5. Averages
The average of five numbers is 40. When one number is removed, the average of the remaining four is 38. Which number was removed?
Total of five = 5 × 40 = 200. Total of four = 4 × 38 = 152. Removed number = 200 − 152 = 48.
Answer: 48. Almost every average question becomes easy once you convert averages to totals.
6. Simple and compound interest
What is the difference between compound interest and simple interest on ₹10,000 at 10% per year for 2 years?
Simple interest = 10,000 × 10% × 2 = ₹2,000. Compound interest = 10,000 × 1.1² − 10,000 = 12,100 − 10,000 = ₹2,100. Difference = ₹100.
Answer: ₹100. For two years there's a shortcut: the difference is P × (r/100)² = 10,000 × 0.01 = ₹100. It's the interest earned in year two on the first year's interest.
7. Number series
Find the next number: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, ?
The differences are 4, 6, 8, 10, so the next difference is 12 and the next number is 30 + 12 = 42. Another way to see it: each term is n × (n + 1): 1×2, 2×3, 3×4, 4×5, 5×6, so the next is 6×7.
Answer: 42. When a series isn't obvious, write the differences underneath. If those don't show a pattern, try the differences of the differences, then ratios, then squares and cubes.
8. Directions
Riya walks 3 km east, then 5 km north, then 9 km south. How far is she from where she started?
North and south cancel partly: 5 km north then 9 km south leaves her 4 km south. So she is 3 km east and 4 km south of the start. The straight-line distance is √(3² + 4²) = √25 = 5 km.
Answer: 5 km (to the south-east). Draw it. A ten-second sketch prevents nearly every direction mistake.
How to manage the clock
Knowing the methods is half of it. The other half is not losing the test to time:
- Don't solve in order if you don't have to. If the test lets you move between questions, take the ones you can do fast first, then come back.
- Set a limit per question. If you're stuck after about a minute and a half, mark it and move on. One stubborn question can cost you three easy ones.
- Use the options. In multiple choice, you can often eliminate two options by estimating, or check an answer by plugging it back in.
- Mind negative marking. Without it, never leave a question blank. With it, guess only when you've ruled out at least one or two options.
- Learn a few conversions by heart. Fractions as percentages (1/8 = 12.5%, 1/6 ≈ 16.67%), squares up to 30, and 5/18 for km/h to m/s save real seconds.
How to practise
Aptitude improves with short, regular practice far more than with a weekend of cramming. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day, on a timer, for a few weeks is enough to see a clear difference.
- Practise under time. Untimed practice teaches the method; timed practice teaches the test.
- Keep an error log. For each wrong answer, write down whether it was a concept you didn't know, a calculation slip or a misread question. Each needs a different fix.
- Revisit weak topics, not favourite ones. It's tempting to keep doing the topics you're good at.
SkillLynk is built around exactly this. The Daily Challenge has a reasoning set: five aptitude questions, the same for everyone that day, with a leaderboard and a streak to keep you coming back. The Aptitude track in Practice gives you quick questions with an explanation for every option and keeps returning to the topics you get wrong. Both are free.
Once you're through the test, the next rounds are usually interviews. Our guide to HR interview questions for freshers covers what comes next.
Five reasoning questions a day, on a streak, with a leaderboard.
Try today's Daily Challenge