Calculate Interview Success Rate: Finding Percentage from 500 Candidates and 424 Failures

Q: Why do I subtract 424 from 500 first?

Because the problem gives you the number who failed (424), but asks for the percentage who passed. You need to find how many passed first: 500 - 424 = 76 candidates.

Q: Should I round 15.2% up or down to 15%?

The problem says "approximately" so either 15% or 15.2% works. In most contexts, 15.2% rounds to 15% since we typically round percentages to whole numbers.

Q: What if I accidentally calculated the failure rate instead?

If you got around 85%, you calculated the failure rate! Remember: failure rate + success rate = 100%. So 85% failing means 15% passing.

Q: Can I check my answer another way?

Yes! Calculate both rates: $ \frac{76}{500} = 15.2\% $ pass rate and $ \frac{424}{500} = 84.8\% $ fail rate. They should add up to 100%!

Q: Why is the answer 15% and not 12% or 85%?

Because 76 out of 500 candidates passed. 12% would be if only 60 passed85% is the failure rate (424 failed)15% correctly represents 76 successes out of 500 total

Percentage Calculations with Complementary Data

Approximately what percentage of job interview candidates pass, given that 500 were evaluated and 424 did not pass?

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Step-by-step written solution

Follow each step carefully to understand the complete solution

Understand the problem

Approximately what percentage of job interview candidates pass, given that 500 were evaluated and 424 did not pass?

Step-by-step solution

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

Step 1: Calculate the number of candidates who passed.
Step 2: Determine the percentage of candidates who passed.

Now, let's work through each step:
Step 1: First, we find the number of candidates who passed by subtracting the number who did not pass from the total number of evaluated candidates. This gives us:

\text{Number Passed} = 500 - 424 = 76

Step 2: Next, we calculate the percentage of candidates who passed by dividing the number who passed by the total number of candidates and multiplying by 100:

\text{Percentage Passed} = \left(\frac{76}{500}\right) \times 100\% = 15.2\%

Given the context of the problem, we round down to the nearest whole number for estimation, which results in $15\%$ .

Therefore, the solution to the problem is $15\%$ .

Final Answer

15%

Key Points to Remember

Essential concepts to master this topic

Subtraction Rule: Find passed candidates by subtracting failures from total
Percentage Formula: (Part ÷ Whole) × 100 = (76 ÷ 500) × 100
Check: Verify 76 + 424 = 500 total candidates ✓

Common Mistakes

Avoid these frequent errors

Using failures instead of successes for percentage
Don't calculate (424 ÷ 500) × 100 = 84.8% thinking this is the pass rate! This gives you the failure rate, not the success rate. Always identify what the question asks for - here it's the percentage who passed, so use the 76 who succeeded.

Practice Quiz

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Approximately what is $\frac{6}{25}$ as a percentage?

FAQ

Everything you need to know about this question

Why do I subtract 424 from 500 first?

Because the problem gives you the number who failed (424), but asks for the percentage who passed. You need to find how many passed first: 500 - 424 = 76 candidates.

Should I round 15.2% up or down to 15%?

The problem says "approximately" so either 15% or 15.2% works. In most contexts, 15.2% rounds to 15% since we typically round percentages to whole numbers.

What if I accidentally calculated the failure rate instead?

If you got around 85%, you calculated the failure rate! Remember: failure rate + success rate = 100%. So 85% failing means 15% passing.

Can I check my answer another way?

Yes! Calculate both rates: $\frac{76}{500} = 15.2\%$ pass rate and $\frac{424}{500} = 84.8\%$ fail rate. They should add up to 100%!

Why is the answer 15% and not 12% or 85%?

Because 76 out of 500 candidates passed.

12% would be if only 60 passed
85% is the failure rate (424 failed)
15% correctly represents 76 successes out of 500 total

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