SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 6 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.

10 is related to 15 following certain logic. Following the same logic, 42 is related to 63. To which of the following numbers is 22 related, following the same logic? (NOTE : Operations should be performed on the whole numbers, without breaking down the numbers into its constituent digits. E.g. 13 – Operations on 13 such as adding /deleting /multiplying etc., to 13 can be performed. Breaking down 13 into 1 and 3 and then performing mathematical operations on 1 and 3 is not allowed.)

(a)31
(b)33
(c)28
(d)30

Answer

Why

Correct — B.

Rule: the second number is 3/2 of the first.

10 x 3/2 = 15
42 x 3/2 = 63
22 x 3/2 = 33

Done in whole numbers: halve, then multiply by three. Half of 22 is 11, and 11 x 3 = 33, which is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
31 — 31 is not a multiple of 3. Every output here is three times half its input, so it must be divisible by three, and 31 fails that test at a glance.
(c)
28 — 28 is 22 + 6, an addition. The pairs are multiplicative: 15 is 1.5 times 10 and 63 is 1.5 times 42, while 28 is only about 1.27 times 22.
(d)
30 — 30 is 3/2 of 20, not of 22. It is the right answer to a question about 20, and 22 lands two higher, at 33.

Concept

Number analogies of this shape are tested by ratio first, difference second.

15 divided by 10 and 63 divided by 42 both come to 1.5, so the map is a clean multiplication by 3/2 rather than a fixed addition.

Both readings happen to agree here, because adding half a number is the same as multiplying it by 3/2. What matters is that the amount added is not constant: it is 5 for 10 and 21 for 42, each half of the first number.

The stem's NOTE bars digit-level tricks, so whatever the operation is, it acts on 10, 42 and 22 as whole numbers.

A ratio of 3/2 also means the pair can be read as 2 parts to 3 parts: 10 is 2 x 5 and 15 is 3 x 5, 42 is 2 x 21 and 63 is 3 x 21, so 22 is 2 x 11 and the answer is 3 x 11.

Key facts

15 divided by 10 and 63 divided by 42 both equal 1.5, which fixes the rule as multiplication by 3/2.
22 multiplied by 3/2 is 33.
The stem's NOTE forbids splitting a number into its digits, so only whole-number operations are allowed.

Study next

Ratio-based number analogies against difference-based onesAnalogies built on n squared or n cubed plus a constantReading the whole-numbers-only NOTE and knowing what it removes

Common traps

Fixing on the differences (+5 and +21) and hunting for one number to add to 22.
Splitting 22 into 2 and 2, which the stem's NOTE forbids outright.

Two worked relations, then a third number to complete. Also asked 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.2 (31 to 152) and Q.24 (19 to 209), both printed with the same whole-numbers-only NOTE.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.