Last visit was: 20 Nov 2025, 03:27 It is currently 20 Nov 2025, 03:27
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
avatar
fozzzy
Joined: 29 Nov 2012
Last visit: 17 May 2015
Posts: 574
Own Kudos:
6,801
 [53]
Given Kudos: 543
Posts: 574
Kudos: 6,801
 [53]
4
Kudos
Add Kudos
49
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Most Helpful Reply
User avatar
Bunuel
User avatar
Math Expert
Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Last visit: 20 Nov 2025
Posts: 105,408
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 99,987
Products:
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 105,408
Kudos: 778,460
 [25]
13
Kudos
Add Kudos
12
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
General Discussion
User avatar
MacFauz
Joined: 02 Jul 2012
Last visit: 19 Mar 2022
Posts: 996
Own Kudos:
3,360
 [2]
Given Kudos: 116
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy
GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V42
GPA: 3.8
WE:Engineering (Energy)
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avatar
fozzzy
Joined: 29 Nov 2012
Last visit: 17 May 2015
Posts: 574
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 543
Posts: 574
Kudos: 6,801
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
but don't we need to test values that satisfy both equations?
User avatar
MacFauz
Joined: 02 Jul 2012
Last visit: 19 Mar 2022
Posts: 996
Own Kudos:
3,360
 [3]
Given Kudos: 116
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy
GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V42
GPA: 3.8
WE:Engineering (Energy)
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Statement A openly tells us that the number is a multiple of 5. So regardless of what the number is, when we divide that number by 5, the remainder is going to be 0. We do not have to find the number itself.
avatar
fozzzy
Joined: 29 Nov 2012
Last visit: 17 May 2015
Posts: 574
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 543
Posts: 574
Kudos: 6,801
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
MacFauz
Statement A openly tells us that the number is a multiple of 5. So regardless of what the number is, when we divide that number by 5, the remainder is going to be 0. We do not have to find the number itself.

I realize my mistake, I misinterpreted the question. Thanks!
User avatar
minwoswoh
Joined: 10 May 2014
Last visit: 17 Nov 2021
Posts: 115
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 28
Posts: 115
Kudos: 392
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Bunuel
If a certain positive integer is divided by 9, the remainder is 3. What is the remainder when the integer is divided by 5?

Given that \(x=9q+3\). x could be: 3, 12, 21, 30, 39, 42, ...

(1) If the integer is divided by 45, the remainder is 30 --> \(x=45p+30=5(9p+6)\). So, x is a multiple of 5, which means that the remainder when x is divided by 5 is 0. Sufficient.

(2) The integer is divisible by 2 --> x is even. If x is 12, then the remainder is 2 but if x is 30, then the remainder is 0. Not sufficient.

Answer: A.

As for your doubt: the values of x which satisfies both equations are: 30, 75, 120, ...

Hope it helps.
Hi Bunuel,

One question. With statement 1, are the following inferences all valid?
- N is divisible by 5 since --> n = 5 (9q + 6)
- N is also divisible by 3 since --> n = 3 (15q + 10)
- N is therefore also divisible by 15 since --> n = 15 (3q + 2)

I know this goes beyond the scope of answering this question. I just wanna check if my reasoning is correct for future problems such as this one.

Thanks,
avatar
kashishnalwa
Joined: 24 Jan 2020
Last visit: 24 Dec 2020
Posts: 2
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 505
Posts: 2
Kudos: 1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Bunuel
If a certain positive integer is divided by 9, the remainder is 3. What is the remainder when the integer is divided by 5?

Given that \(x=9q+3\). x could be: 3, 12, 21, 30, 39, 48, ...

(1) If the integer is divided by 45, the remainder is 30 --> \(x=45p+30=5(9p+6)\). So, x is a multiple of 5, which means that the remainder when x is divided by 5 is 0. Sufficient.

(2) The integer is divisible by 2 --> x is even. If x is 12, then the remainder is 2 but if x is 30, then the remainder is 0. Not sufficient.

Answer: A.

As for your doubt: the values of x which satisfies both equations are: 30, 75, 120, ...

Hope it helps.


@bunnel
do we really need x = 9q+3 to get an answer ?
User avatar
MathRevolution
User avatar
Math Revolution GMAT Instructor
Joined: 16 Aug 2015
Last visit: 27 Sep 2022
Posts: 10,070
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 4
GMAT 1: 760 Q51 V42
GPA: 3.82
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 760 Q51 V42
Posts: 10,070
Kudos: 19,394
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Forget the conventional way to solve DS questions.

We will solve this DS question using the variable approach.

DS question with 2 variables and 1 equation: Let the original condition in a DS question contain 2 variables. Now, 2 variable and 1 equation would generally require 1 more equation for us to be able to solve for the value of the variable. We know that each condition would usually give us an equation and Since we need 1 equation to match the numbers of variables and equations in the original condition, the logical answer is D. The answer could be A, B, or D, but the default answer will be D.

To master the Variable Approach, visit https://www.mathrevolution.com and check our lessons and proven techniques to score high in DS questions.

Let’s apply the 3 steps suggested previously. [Watch lessons on our website to master these 3 steps]

Step 1 of the Variable Approach: Modifying and rechecking the original condition and the question.

=> Certain positive integer is divided by 9, the remainder is 3: Let the positive integer be 'x'. Then, x = 9p + 3 , where 'p' is the quotient.

We have to find remainder when 'x' is divided by '5'.

Second and the third step of Variable Approach: From the original condition, we have 2 variables (x and p) and 1 equation(x = 9p + 3).To match the number of variables with the number of equations, we need 1 more equation. Since conditions (1) and (2) will provide 1 equation each, D would most likely be the answer.

Let’s take a look at each condition.

Condition(1) tells us that If the integer is divided by 45, the remainder is 30.

=> x = 45p + 30

=> x = 5 (9p + 6).

=> Therefore, 'x' being multiple of '5', the remainder when divided by '5' will be '0'.

Since the answer is unique , condition(1) is sufficient by CMT 2.

Condition(2) tells us that 'x' is divisible by '2' - that means 'x' is an even number.

=> For x = 18: \(\frac{18 }{ 5}\) - remainder= 3

=> For x = 20: \(\frac{20 }{ 5}\) - remainder= 0

Since the answer is not unique , condition(2) is not sufficient by CMT 2.


Condition(1) is alone sufficient by CMT 2.

So, A is the correct answer.

Answer: A
User avatar
Sneha2021
Joined: 20 Dec 2020
Last visit: 10 Jun 2025
Posts: 314
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 522
Location: India
Posts: 314
Kudos: 38
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avigutman KarishmaB

How can I solve it logically for statement 2 without listing value of n (3,12,21,30...) and concluding that remainder could 2 (12) or 0 (30)?

Thank you for your help!
User avatar
gmatophobia
User avatar
Quant Chat Moderator
Joined: 22 Dec 2016
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 3,170
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 1,861
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy, Leadership
Posts: 3,170
Kudos: 10,433
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Sneha2021
avigutman KarishmaB

How can I solve it logically for statement 2 without listing value of n (3,12,21,30...) and concluding that remainder could 2 (12) or 0 (30)?

Thank you for your help!

While experts provide their reply, sharing my 2 cents if that helps.

Given: A certain positive integer is divided by 9, the remainder is 3.

Let's assume that number is x, therefore we can represent x as

x = 9*q + 3

In this representation, q is the quotient when x is divided by 9.

Statement 2 tells us "The integer is divisible by 2"

Hence, we can conclude that x is even.

Therefore 9q + 3 is even.

As 9q + 3 is an even integer we can reason out that 9q is odd (odd + odd = even) ⇒ which in turn tells us ⇒ q is odd.

Having done the analysis, let's move back to our equation

x = 9*q + 3

We know that q is odd, so q can be 5 (as 5 is odd) and if it were the case, the remainder, when 9q + 3 is divided by 5, would be 3.

Now, the other possibility is 9q is not divisible by 5. In that case, the remainder of \(\frac{9q}{5}\) will be between 1 and 4, both inclusive. While 9q is not divisible by 5, if the remainder is 2 then the net sum (9q+3) is divisible by 5.

So we can have a scenario in which 9q+3 is divisible by 5, i.e. when \(\frac{9q}{5}\) leaves a remainder = 2 .

As we're getting two different answers, Statement 2 is insufficient on its own.
User avatar
avigutman
Joined: 17 Jul 2019
Last visit: 30 Sep 2025
Posts: 1,293
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 66
Location: Canada
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V45
GMAT 2: 780 Q50 V47
GMAT 3: 770 Q50 V45
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 3: 770 Q50 V45
Posts: 1,293
Kudos: 1,931
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Sneha2021
avigutman KarishmaB

How can I solve it logically for statement 2 without listing value of n (3,12,21,30...) and concluding that remainder could 2 (12) or 0 (30)?
Well, Sneha2021, let's try this: if I tell you that positive integer n is divisible by 7, can you tell me whether it's odd or even?
What if I tell you that positive integer k has a remainder of 3 when divided by 7, a remainder of 1 when divided by 5, and a remainder of 0 when divided by 3. Now can you tell me whether k is odd or even?
The answer to both questions above is no. We can't tell, because the terms odd and even exist only in the world of divisibility by 2, and the divisor '2' doesn't have any common factors with the divisors '3', '5', or '7'. These worlds of divisibility are completely separate from one another, so no inferences can be made about remainders going from one world to another.
By the way, my description of k is going to fit numbers that are (3*5*7 = ) 105 apart on the number line. So, if we find possible value of k, adding 105 over and over again will keep yielding possible values of k. And, of course, each time we add 105, we change the value of k back and forth between odd and even.
k could be 66, 171, 276, 381, 486, etc.
Back to your original question, Sneha2021: yes, we can evaluate statement (2) logically, without testing cases, and without pen and paper. The information we have about the divisibility of the "certain integer" is for divisors of 9 and 2, but the question has a divisor of 5, which has no common factors with 9 or 2. Therefore, we can't infer anything about the remainder in the world of divisibility by 5.
User avatar
KarishmaB
Joined: 16 Oct 2010
Last visit: 19 Nov 2025
Posts: 16,267
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 482
Location: Pune, India
Expert
Expert reply
Active GMAT Club Expert! Tag them with @ followed by their username for a faster response.
Posts: 16,267
Kudos: 77,002
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Sneha2021
avigutman KarishmaB

How can I solve it logically for statement 2 without listing value of n (3,12,21,30...) and concluding that remainder could 2 (12) or 0 (30)?

Thank you for your help!

Using the divisibility concept, we know that n leaves remainder 3 upon dividing by 9. So imagine groups of 9 and a lone group of 3 leftover.
If n is divisible by 2, it means it is an even number. So we will have odd number of groups of 9 (so that when we add them to 3, we get an even number).
So we will have 1 group of 9 or 3 groups of 9 etc.

When we divide this by 5, 4 is leftover from each group fo 9. So we will have 1 group of 4 or 3 groups of 4 etc and we will still have that 3 leftover.
So we will have 7 leftover (remainder 2) or 15 leftover (remainder 0) etc.

Hence statement 2 is not sufficient alone. (Since its not sufficient alone, you will need to make multiple cases so you cannot avoid that)
User avatar
jabhatta2
Joined: 15 Dec 2016
Last visit: 21 Apr 2023
Posts: 1,294
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 188
Posts: 1,294
Kudos: 317
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avigutman
Sneha2021
avigutman KarishmaB

How can I solve it logically for statement 2 without listing value of n (3,12,21,30...) and concluding that remainder could 2 (12) or 0 (30)?
Well, Sneha2021, let's try this: if I tell you that positive integer n is divisible by 7, can you tell me whether it's odd or even?
What if I tell you that positive integer k has a remainder of 3 when divided by 7, a remainder of 1 when divided by 5, and a remainder of 0 when divided by 3. Now can you tell me whether k is odd or even?
The answer to both questions above is no. We can't tell, because the terms odd and even exist only in the world of divisibility by 2, and the divisor '2' doesn't have any common factors with the divisors '3', '5', or '7'. These worlds of divisibility are completely separate from one another, so no inferences can be made about remainders going from one world to another.
By the way, my description of k is going to fit numbers that are (3*5*7 = ) 105 apart on the number line. So, if we find possible value of k, adding 105 over and over again will keep yielding possible values of k. And, of course, each time we add 105, we change the value of k back and forth between odd and even.
k could be 66, 171, 276, 381, 486, etc.
Back to your original question, Sneha2021: yes, we can evaluate statement (2) logically, without testing cases, and without pen and paper. The information we have about the divisibility of the "certain integer" is for divisors of 9 and 2, but the question has a divisor of 5, which has no common factors with 9 or 2. Therefore, we can't infer anything about the remainder in the world of divisibility by 5.

hi avigutman HAPPY new years !

(1) do you do S1 w/o pen and paper too ? if so , what was your logic for S1

(2) could you perhaps link a video where the yellow topic is being exercised (perhaps in another OG problem or an AMA or perhaps your book).. the yellow is NOT "intuitive" for me unfortunately.

(3) just curious, how did you come up with "66" from the list in the green.
User avatar
avigutman
Joined: 17 Jul 2019
Last visit: 30 Sep 2025
Posts: 1,293
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 66
Location: Canada
GMAT 1: 780 Q51 V45
GMAT 2: 780 Q50 V47
GMAT 3: 770 Q50 V45
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 3: 770 Q50 V45
Posts: 1,293
Kudos: 1,931
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
jabhatta2
(1) do you do S1 w/o pen and paper too ? if so , what was your logic for S1
Yes, jabhatta2. The free info is a distraction when evaluating S1. A remainder of 30 when dividing some number by 45 means that the number is a multiple of 5 (consider the simpler case in which dividing by 10 yields an even remainder - since both 10 and the even remainder are each divisible by 2, the original number must be divisible by 2).
jabhatta2
(2) could you perhaps link a video where the yellow topic is being exercised (perhaps in another OG problem or an AMA or perhaps your book).. the yellow is NOT "intuitive" for me unfortunately.
https://youtu.be/_uwR9AZas9M?t=1813
jabhatta2
(3) just curious, how did you come up with "66" from the list in the green.
We know that k is a positive integer that has a remainder of 3 when divided by 7, a remainder of 1 when divided by 5, and a remainder of 0 when divided by 3.
So, I just looked at numbers that are 3 above a multiple of 7, that happen to also have a units digit of 1 or 6 (a.k.a. a remainder of 1 when divided by 5). And, I know that such numbers will be LCM(5,7) = 35 units away from one another on the number line. So I quickly wrote down 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 (I continued listing them until I got one with a units digit of 1 or 6). Once I found 31, I checked whether the sum of the digits is divisible by 3. It isn't, so I added 35 and checked again (and I would've kept adding 35 over and over until I got to a multiple of 3). Bingo. That's how I identified 66 as a number that fits the description of k.
User avatar
jabhatta2
Joined: 15 Dec 2016
Last visit: 21 Apr 2023
Posts: 1,294
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 188
Posts: 1,294
Kudos: 317
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
avigutman

We know that k is a positive integer that has a remainder of 3 when divided by 7, a remainder of 1 when divided by 5, and a remainder of 0 when divided by 3.
So, I just looked at numbers that are 3 above a multiple of 7, that happen to also have a units digit of 1 or 6 (a.k.a. a remainder of 1 when divided by 5). And, I know that such numbers will be LCM(5,7) = 35 units away from one another on the number line. So I quickly wrote down 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 (I continued listing them until I got one with a units digit of 1 or 6). Once I found 31, I checked whether the sum of the digits is divisible by 3. It isn't, so I added 35 and checked again (and I would've kept adding 35 over and over until I got to a multiple of 3). Bingo. That's how I identified 66 as a number that fits the description of k.

thank you so much avigutman
User avatar
bumpbot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 09 Sep 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 38,597
Own Kudos:
Posts: 38,597
Kudos: 1,079
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club BumpBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
Moderators:
Math Expert
105408 posts
496 posts