How many applicants need to apply in order to meet the hiring target? Cam needs to hire $30$ new employees. Ten percent $(10\%)$ of applicants do not meet the basic business requirements for the job, $12\%$ of the remaining applicants do not pass the pre-screening assessment, $23\%$ of those remaining applicants do not show up for the interview, and $5\%$ of those remaining applicants fail the background investigation. How many applicants need to apply in order to meet the hiring target?
$$A)\ 30\ \ \ \ \ \ B)\ 45\ \ \ \ \ \  C)\ 50\ \ \ \ \ \ D)\ 52\ \ \ \ \ \  E)\ 60$$
My answer:
I added $10+12+23+5=50$ 
That gave us $50\%$. I took a look at the answers and getting $50\%$ of $E)\ 60$ is $30.$
However, when I tried to solve it, I took $(0.50)(30)=15$ I then added $15$ to $30$ and it gave me $B)$ $45.$ Can someone please show me how to solve this?  

If you have studied successive discounts,
the question is exactly equivalent to finding the whole dollar marked price of something
that is sold for $\$30$ at successive discounts of $10\%, 12\%, 23\%\; and\; 5\%$ 
$N(1-0.1)(1-0.12)(1-0.23)(1-0.05) = 30\; \Rightarrow N = 52$
