SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 18 of 100

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 6 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 — B. Every box carries seven symbols in the same seven cells — four corners and a middle row of three — and two different moves alternate down the series.

Rule: the four corners turn one place clockwise, and the middle row shifts one place right with the right-hand symbol wrapping round to the left.

That is the move taking box 2 to box 3. Box 3 to box 4 used the other move, so this one is due now.

Box 4's corners read 7 and 3 across the top, N and P across the bottom. One place clockwise sends N up to the top-left, 7 to the top-right, 3 to the bottom-right and P to the bottom-left.

Box 4's middle row reads star, I, S. Shifting it right gives S, star, I.

Both match option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Option (a) has the middle row right but does not turn all four corners the same way. N finishes at the bottom-right, when the symbol at box 4's bottom-left is the one that has to climb to the top-left.
(c)
Option (c) moves symbols between the middle row and the corners, which neither move in this series does. It parks the star in the top-left corner, when the star has to slide from middle-left into the centre.
(d)
Option (d) puts 3 in the centre. The centre can only receive whatever stood at middle-left, and in box 4 that is the star.

Concept

These items are position puzzles, not picture puzzles. The same handful of symbols reappears box after box, and only the cell each one occupies changes.

The quickest method is to track a single symbol. The star is the easiest to spot: it runs bottom-left, top-left, top-right, middle-left and then the centre.

Because two moves alternate here, one pair of consecutive boxes is not enough. Compare box 2 with box 3 and box 3 with box 4 before predicting box 5.

The centre is the one cell that does not simply pass a symbol along at every step: box 1's O gives way to N, and box 3's V gives way to I. The step that decides this question is the other kind, in which the centre takes the middle-left symbol, so the answer does not depend on that oddity.

Key facts

The star occupies bottom-left, top-left, top-right, middle-left and then the centre across the five boxes.
In the answer box the corners read N at top-left, 7 at top-right, 3 at bottom-right and P at bottom-left.
The middle row of the answer reads S, star, I from left to right.

Study next

Figure series in which a shape rotates by a fixed angle in each boxSeries where one element is added or removed at every stepMatrix items that ask for a missing cell rather than the next box in a row

Common traps

Applying the move that took box 3 to box 4 a second time, when the two moves alternate
Turning the corners anticlockwise, which brings the wrong symbol to the top-left
Letting a symbol cross between the middle row and a corner on this step

This grid alternates two moves rather than repeating one, so read two consecutive steps before predicting the next box — one step alone will fit either move.

Another figure-series item runs at 11 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.23, and this shift has a figure-completion item at Reasoning Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.