SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 16 of 95

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 of the following pairs do NOT share any borders?

(a)Bhutan and West Bengal
(b)Bhutan and Meghalaya
(c)Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh
(d)Bhutan and Assam

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Bhutan touches four Indian states — Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Meghalaya is not among them, so option (b) is the pair that shares no border.

Meghalaya lies south of the Assam valley. The whole width of Assam runs between it and the Bhutan foothills, and Meghalaya's own international boundary is with Bangladesh, on its south and west.

Note the NOT in the stem: the three pairs that do share a border are the wrong answers here.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bhutan and West Bengal — Bhutan and West Bengal do meet — the Dooars belt of north Bengal runs along Bhutan's southern foothills. The pair shares a border, so it fails the NOT test.
(c)
Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh — Arunachal Pradesh adjoins Bhutan's eastern end, in the Tawang and West Kameng country. The two share a boundary.
(d)
Bhutan and Assam — Assam carries the longest stretch of the India-Bhutan border, along the districts of the Bodoland region. The pair shares a border.

Concept

Bhutan is landlocked between China to the north and India on its other three sides.

Going west to east, its Indian neighbours are Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura are all further south or east and touch Bangladesh or Myanmar instead.

The reliable way to answer any north-eastern border question is to fix which states are on the Brahmaputra plain and which sit on the hills south of it. Assam is the plain, and everything that borders Bhutan lies along its northern rim or west of it.

Key facts

Bhutan borders four Indian states: Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Meghalaya's only international boundary is with Bangladesh.
Meghalaya is enclosed on the north and east by Assam.
Bhutan's northern neighbour is China, which is its only other international boundary.

Study next

Which Indian states border each of Nepal, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and BangladeshThe Siliguri corridor and why it matters to north-eastern connectivityThe seven north-eastern states and their international boundaries

Common traps

Missing the NOT in the stem and marking a pair that does share a border.
Grouping all north-eastern states together and assuming any of them can touch Bhutan.

The same neighbourhood is asked in other shapes. On 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.16 matches neighbouring countries to their official languages, and GA Q.10 of that same paper asks which river marks the eastern-most boundary of the Himalayas.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.