SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 3 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.

Select the set in which the numbers are related in the same way as are the numbers of the following set. (34, 15, 64) (29, 17, 63) (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)(25, 14, 53)
(b)(24, 28, 76)
(c)(44, 32, 98)
(d)(31, 23, 54)

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: third = first + (2 × second).

Check it on both given sets:
34 + (2 × 15) = 34 + 30 = 64
29 + (2 × 17) = 29 + 34 = 63

Both land exactly, so the rule is settled.

Now test option (a): 25 + (2 × 14) = 25 + 28 = 53, which is precisely its third number.

Only option (a) reproduces the relation.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
(24, 28, 76) — 24 + (2 × 28) = 80, but the set prints 76. What makes it tempting is the swap: 28 + (2 × 24) = 76, so the doubling has been applied to the wrong member.
(c)
(44, 32, 98) — 44 + (2 × 32) = 108, ten above the 98 printed. The swap does not rescue it either, since 32 + (2 × 44) = 120.
(d)
(31, 23, 54) — 31 + (2 × 23) = 77, far above 54. This set works only on plain addition, 31 + 23 = 54, and plain addition fails on the samples: 34 + 15 = 49, not 64.

Concept

A number-set analogy asks for one arithmetic relation that both sample sets obey, which you then test on the four candidates.

Do not stop at the first relation that fits one sample. Fit it to the second before you touch the options — a rule that explains only (34, 15, 64) will send you to the wrong choice.

Cheap probes, in order: difference, sum, sum with one term doubled, product, product plus a small constant. Here 34 + 15 = 49 misses 64 by 15, which is the second number over again. That gap is the whole clue.

The bracketed NOTE forbids splitting a number into its digits. That rules out digit-sum and digit-reversal tricks and confines the search to whole-number arithmetic, which narrows it a great deal.

Key facts

In (34, 15, 64) and (29, 17, 63) the third number equals the first plus twice the second.
The gap between the third number and the sum of the first two equals the second number itself.
The NOTE bars breaking a number into digits, so only whole-number operations are permitted.

Study next

Number-pair analogies, where a single operation links just two numbersSets built on squares or cubes, such as third equals first squared minus secondOdd-one-out sets, where three of four candidates share the relation

Common traps

Confirming a rule on the first sample set and never testing it on the second
Doubling the wrong member, which is exactly what makes option (b) look right
Breaking numbers into digits despite the NOTE forbidding it

SSC prints two sample sets and four candidates, always with the same bracketed NOTE against digit-splitting. The 10 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper runs the identical format at Reasoning Q.9 with (79, 58, 62) and (54, 33, 37).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.