SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 3 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Which figure should replace the question mark (?) if the following series were to be continued?

Answer

Why

Correct — D.

Rule: two different moves alternate, so the step from box 4 to the answer repeats the step from box 2 to box 3.

Box 2 to box 3: the bottom-right symbol went to the top-left, the top-left went to the bottom-centre, the bottom-centre went to the bottom-right, the two middle-row symbols swapped places, and the bottom-left symbol was replaced by a new one.

Box 4 is top-left T, middle row 8 and L, bottom row W, 2, X. Apply the move:
top-left takes X, bottom-centre takes T, bottom-right takes 2
middle row swaps to L, 8
bottom-left takes a fresh symbol, 9

That is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Its top-left is 2. At this step the top-left cell takes the previous box's bottom-right symbol, and box 4's bottom-right is X, so the corner has to read X.
(b)
Its middle row reads L, T. The middle row only ever swaps the two symbols already sitting in it, so box 4's 8 and L must become L and 8 — a T cannot arrive there.
(c)
It keeps W, which is box 4's bottom-left symbol and therefore the one dropped at this step, exactly as K was dropped between box 2 and box 3.

Concept

Alternating figure series are common, and they look broken until you compare step 1 with step 3 and step 2 with step 4 rather than each step with the next.

Here the six symbols occupy the same six cells in every box: the top-left corner, the two right-hand cells of the middle row, and all three cells of the bottom row.

One transformation carries box 1 to box 2 and again carries box 3 to box 4. A different one carries box 2 to box 3, and that is the one still owed. The missing figure is that second transformation applied once more.

Boxes 1 and 2 hold the same six symbols, and so do boxes 3 and 4, so the substitution happens on the even step alone.

The new symbol at the bottom-left cannot be predicted from the series — 9 has not appeared before. That is why the question is settled by the five determined cells, and why two options can be eliminated on the dropped W alone.

Key facts

In an alternating series the fifth figure repeats the move that produced the third.
Boxes 1 and 2 carry the same six symbols, and boxes 3 and 4 carry the same six as each other.
Box 2's bottom-left K is absent from box 3, which is what shows a symbol is dropped on the even step.

Study next

Alternating figure series where odd and even steps obey different rulesTracking one symbol through every box instead of reading whole figuresSeries in which an element leaves the figure and a new element enters

Common traps

Comparing only consecutive boxes and abandoning the question when box 1 to box 2 does not match box 2 to box 3.
Choosing an option that still carries a symbol the series has already dropped.

Four boxes then a question mark, with four candidate boxes below. Also asked 9 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.22 and 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.18.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.