In a class there are 80 students and 5 teachers. Each student receives sweets equal to 15% of the total number of students and each teacher receives sweets equal to 25% of the total number of students. How many sweets are distributed in total?

Difficulty: Easy

Correct Answer: 1060

Explanation:


Introduction / Context:
This percentage based aptitude question checks whether you can correctly convert percentage information into actual quantities and then aggregate them. The situation describes a school with students and teachers, where sweets are distributed according to a rule based on the total number of students. Such questions are very common in quantitative aptitude tests, banking exams and campus recruitment tests, because they test conceptual clarity of percentages and careful reading of the conditions.


Given Data / Assumptions:

    There are 80 students in the class.
    There are 5 teachers in the class.
    Each student gets sweets equal to 15% of the total number of students.
    Each teacher gets sweets equal to 25% of the total number of students.
    The total number of sweets distributed equals sweets given to all students plus sweets given to all teachers.


Concept / Approach:
The key idea is that the number of sweets per person is defined as a percentage of the total number of students, not of the total number of people. First we convert the given percentages into actual counts of sweets for one student and for one teacher. Then we multiply by the number of students and teachers respectively. Finally, we add both results to obtain the overall total. This uses the basic percentage formula value = (percentage / 100) * base.


Step-by-Step Solution:
Total number of students = 80.Total number of teachers = 5.Sweets given to one student = 15% of 80 = (15 / 100) * 80 = 12 sweets.Sweets given to one teacher = 25% of 80 = (25 / 100) * 80 = 20 sweets.Total sweets for all students = 80 * 12 = 960 sweets.Total sweets for all teachers = 5 * 20 = 100 sweets.Total sweets distributed = 960 + 100 = 1060 sweets.


Verification / Alternative check:
We can quickly check the reasonableness of the answer. Since each student gets 12 sweets and there are 80 students, that part alone is 960 sweets. Teachers each receive more sweets (20), but there are only 5 of them, so that adds 100 sweets. The overall total is in the same magnitude as 1000, which is reasonable for these numbers. No arithmetic step gives a fractional sweet, so the result 1060 is consistent and clean.


Why Other Options Are Wrong:

    960 ignores sweets given to teachers and counts only student sweets, so it is incomplete.
    860 is lower than the student total itself and cannot be correct once teacher sweets are added.
    760 also ignores a large part of the distribution and does not match any logical combination of counts.
    1000 is a rounded guess and does not come from the exact calculations based on 15% and 25% of 80.


Common Pitfalls:
A very common mistake is to assume that the percentages are taken on the total number of people (students plus teachers) instead of only on the number of students. Another error is to miscalculate 15% or 25% of 80 or to forget to multiply by the number of persons in each group. Some learners also stop after calculating the sweets for students and forget to include teachers, leading to an underestimation.


Final Answer:
Using correct percentage calculations and adding sweets for both students and teachers, the total number of sweets distributed is 1060.

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