SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 10 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 23 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.

Three of the following four are alike in a certain way and thus form a group. Which is the one that does NOT belong to that group? The odd one out is not based on the number of consonants/vowels or their position in the letter cluster

(a)DHK
(b)BFJ
(c)EIM
(d)IMQ

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Write the alphabet position under every letter, then take the gaps inside each cluster.

Rule: the group's clusters step +4 then +4.

BFJ: B(2) → F(6) → J(10), gaps +4, +4
EIM: E(5) → I(9) → M(13), gaps +4, +4
IMQ: I(9) → M(13) → Q(17), gaps +4, +4
DHK: D(4) → H(8) → K(11), gaps +4, +3

Three clusters share one interval throughout and the fourth breaks it at the second gap, so option (a) is the odd cluster.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
BFJ — B, F, J are 2, 6 and 10 — a clean +4 then +4. It sits with the group, so it cannot be the exception.
(c)
EIM — E, I, M are 5, 9 and 13, again +4 then +4. Same interval twice, exactly like the rest of the group.
(d)
IMQ — I, M, Q are 9, 13 and 17, +4 then +4. The question warns that the answer is not about vowels, so I opening the cluster changes nothing.

Concept

Letter-cluster odd-one-out is arithmetic in disguise. Write 1 to 26 under the letters, take the gaps within each cluster, and compare the gap patterns rather than the letters.

The rider printed with this question — that the answer is not based on the number of consonants or vowels or their position — closes off the vowel route, which in any case only splits these four into two pairs and produces no odd one at all.

All four clusters open with +4, so the first gap decides nothing and the second gap decides everything.

K is the 11th letter, not the 12th. Miscounting there is the single commonest way this question is lost, because it makes DHK look like +4, +4.

Key facts

B=2, F=6, J=10 and E=5, I=9, M=13 and I=9, M=13, Q=17 all step +4 then +4.
D=4, H=8, K=11 steps +4 then +3, which is the break.
Writing alphabet positions under the letters is the first move in a letter-cluster question.

Study next

Letter-cluster analogies of the form A : B :: C : ?Number-pair odd-one-out, as at Reasoning Q.7 in this shiftClusters where the gap changes in a set pattern instead of staying fixed

Common traps

Checking only the first gap, where all four clusters agree on +4
Sorting the clusters by whether they contain a vowel, which the question rules out in writing
Counting K as the 12th letter, when J is 10 and K is 11

Here three of the four clusters run on one interval and the fourth shifts a single letter, so every gap has to be checked and not just the first.

This shift asks a number-pair version of the same odd-one-out at Reasoning Q.7, and 10 Sep 2024, 16:00 opens with a number-triple version at Reasoning Q.1.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.