SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 8 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 option in which the numbers share the same relationship as that shared by the given pair of numbers. (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.) 186 : 103 156 : 73

(a)119 : 35
(b)208 : 127
(c)95 : 12
(d)83 : 1

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Rule: second = first − 83.

Check both given pairs:
186 − 103 = 83
156 − 73 = 83

The relation is a fixed subtraction, nothing more elaborate.

Now option (c): 95 − 12 = 83, the same gap.

No other pair on offer gives 83, so option (c) is the match.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
119 : 35 — 119 − 35 = 84, one more than the required 83. A gap that close survives an eyeball check, which is why the subtraction has to be done exactly.
(b)
208 : 127 — 208 − 127 = 81, two short of 83. The larger numbers make the pair look like the samples, but size is not the relation — the fixed difference is.
(d)
83 : 1 — 83 − 1 = 82. The number 83 sitting inside the pair is bait: 83 is the difference in the given pairs, never a member of them.

Concept

A number-pair analogy asks for one operation linking the two members, and the test is that it must hold on both samples before you touch the options.

Run the cheap probes in order: difference, sum, ratio, then squares and cubes. Here 186 − 103 and 156 − 73 both give 83, so the relation is settled at the first probe.

A constant difference is the easiest relation to spot and the easiest to misread. All three wrong options here land within two of 83, so nothing but exact subtraction will separate them.

The bracketed NOTE bars digit-level operations, so digit sums and reversals are off the table. That is a help rather than a restriction — it points straight at whole-number arithmetic.

Key facts

186 : 103 and 156 : 73 both show a difference of exactly 83.
95 − 12 = 83, which is why 95 : 12 is the matching pair.
The NOTE forbids splitting numbers into digits, confining the relation to whole-number operations.

Study next

Pairs linked by a ratio rather than a difference, such as 3 : 12 and 5 : 20Pairs built on squares or cubes, such as 13 : 169Three-term sets, where the relation ties the third number to the first two

Common traps

Subtracting one sample pair, matching an option by feel, and never checking the second sample
Reading the 83 in option (d) as confirmation, when 83 is the difference and not a term
Settling for a gap within one or two of 83 instead of exactly 83

SSC prints two solved pairs and four candidates, with the same digit-splitting NOTE every time. The 9 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper runs it at Reasoning Q.9 with (149, 213) and (168, 232), again on a constant difference.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.