SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 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 that is related to the fifth letter-cluster in the same way as the second letter-cluster is related to the first letter-cluster and the fourth letter-cluster is related to the third letter-cluster. OUR : NPTVQS : : BIG : ACHJFH : : FOR : ?

(a)EGNOQR
(b)GEPNSQ
(c)EGNPQS
(d)GENPRS

Answer

Why

Correct — C.

Rule: each letter becomes a pair, the letter before it then the letter after it, and the pairs are written in the order of the original letters.

OUR: O gives NP, U gives TV, R gives QS, so the code is NPTVQS
BIG: B gives AC, I gives HJ, G gives FH, so the code is ACHJFH

FOR: F gives EG, O gives NP, R gives QS.

Written end to end that is EGNPQS, option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
EGNOQR — EG is right, but NO and QR pair each letter with the one before it and then itself. The rule needs the letter before and the letter after — NP and QS.
(b)
GEPNSQ — Every pair is reversed: GE, PN and SQ put the later letter first. The order within each pair is part of the rule, not a detail.
(d)
GENPRS — It opens with GE, the first pair reversed, and closes with RS, which pairs R with itself and the next letter instead of with Q and S.

Concept

A letter-cluster analogy is solved by writing alphabet positions under the source word and reading the code against them.

O is 15 and the code opens 14, 16, the neighbours on either side. U is 21 and the code continues 20, 22. R is 18 and it ends 17, 19.

So each letter expands to minus one, then plus one, and the pairs are concatenated in order. The second worked example confirms it, which is why two examples are given.

A six-letter answer from a three-letter word is itself the clue that every letter has become two.

The two worked analogies agree, so there is no ambiguity about direction. Check both before trusting a rule read off the first alone.

Key facts

In this code every letter is replaced by its two alphabet neighbours, the earlier one first.
F is 6 and gives E and G, O is 15 and gives N and P, R is 18 and gives Q and S.
Option (b) uses exactly the letters of the keyed answer in a different order, so the order inside each pair is what is being tested.

Study next

Letter-cluster codes that shift each letter by a different amount, such as plus two then minus oneCodes applied to the word read backwards before the letters are changedAlphabet-position drill, since every item of this kind is faster with positions than with counting

Common traps

Writing each pair as plus one then minus one, which produces GEPNSQ
Slipping from the letter after to the letter itself, which gives NO and QR in place of NP and QS
Stumbling on letters near A or Z, where one neighbour does not exist

Two solved analogies are given rather than one, so the rule can be confirmed before it is applied. The same format is set at Reasoning Q.7 of the 11 Sep 2024, 09:00 shift and at Reasoning Q.8 of the 12 Sep 2024, 16:00 shift.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.