IPA FE Subject A 2025 Question 19
A question IPA Japan published in 令和７年度 基本情報技術者試験 科目A 公開問題 問19, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
A coffee shop is to be opened under the conditions in the table. In order to make a profit of 100,000 yen a month, how many customers on average per seat per day are required?
Explanation
5 customers per seat per day — find the customers needed in a month from the contribution margin, then divide by business days and seats.
- •Contribution margin per customer: 500 − 100 = 400 yen
- •Margin needed in a month: fixed cost + target profit = 300,000 + 100,000 = 400,000 yen
- •Customers per month: 400,000 ÷ 400 = 1,000
- •Customers per day: 1,000 ÷ 20 = 50
- •Customers per seat per day: 50 ÷ 10 = 5
Check: 1,000 customers bring 500,000 yen of sales; variable cost 100,000 yen and fixed cost 300,000 yen leave a profit of 100,000 yen.
Answer (d)
Why not others:
- •(a) 3.75 — the break-even point, 300,000 ÷ 400 ÷ 20 ÷ 10, which leaves out the 100,000 yen profit target
- •(b) 4 — divides the 400,000 yen by the 500 yen sales per customer, ignoring the 100 yen variable cost
- •(c) 4.2 — means 840 customers a month, whose margin of 336,000 yen leaves a profit of only 36,000 yen
Key rule: Required sales volume = (fixed cost + target profit) ÷ contribution margin per unit; with no target profit it is the break-even volume.
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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.