Final answer:
Bernie can pay off his $2500 coding course in 9 months by making monthly payments of $300. The initial $200 and additional $100 added to his savings each month are used to calculate this duration, but are not depleted because his monthly savings additions cover the monthly course payments.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine how many months it will take Bernie to pay off the coding course using his savings, we first need to calculate the total amount available initially and the additional amount added to his savings each month. Bernie starts with $200 in his bank account and adds $100 each month. Simultaneously, he makes monthly payments of $300 for the course.
Let's denote the number of months it takes to pay off the course as n. Our equation will account for the initial savings, the total savings added over time (n months), and the total payments made (n months). Thus, the equation is:
200 + 100n = 300n
By solving the equation, we get:
200 = 300n - 100n
200 = 200n
n = 1
So, Bernie will essentially pay off the course from his monthly contributions without tapping into his initial savings. Now we need to calculate how many months of $300 payments it requires to pay off the $2500 course.
$2500 ÷ $300 = 8.333 months
Since Bernie cannot make a partial payment in the middle of a month, we'll round up to the nearest whole number, which gives us 9 months.
Therefore, the correct answer is not provided among the options A through E, since it will take Bernie 9 months to pay for the coding course.