Staff in an office — Caselets Aptitude Question
Staff in an office: An office employs 240 people. 60% work in engineering, and of those, one quarter are women. Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Caselets
- Section: Data Interpretation
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 90 seconds
Question
An office employs 240 people. 60% work in engineering, and of those, one quarter are women. Among the remaining staff, half are women.
How many women work in the office altogether?
Options
- 72
- 84
- 90
- 96
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. 84
Worked solution
- Engineering = 60% of 240 = 144; the rest = 96.
- Women in engineering = 144 / 4 = 36.
- Women elsewhere = 96 / 2 = 48.
- Total women = 36 + 48 = 84.
Answer: 84.
The idea
Split a caselet into a small table as you read: group, headcount, then the breakdown. Percentages of subgroups must be applied to that subgroup's headcount, never to the whole.
Shortcut. Women are 60% × 1/4 + 40% × 1/2 = 15% + 20% = 35% of the staff, and 35% of 240 = 84.
Common trap. 96 comes from swapping the fractions — half of engineering (72) plus a quarter of the rest (24); it is also the non-engineering headcount, which makes it look familiar.