SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 4 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.

In a certain code language, ‘MAN’ is coded as ‘15316’ and ‘SHE’ is coded as ‘21107’. How will ‘OUT’ be coded in that language?

(a)152222
(b)172121
(c)172322
(d)152120

Answer

Why

Correct — C.

Rule: replace each letter by its alphabet position plus 2, then write the numbers end to end.

M=13, A=1, N=14 give 15, 3, 16, which is 15316
S=19, H=8, E=5 give 21, 10, 7, which is 21107

O=15 becomes 17
U=21 becomes 23
T=20 becomes 22

Joined end to end that is 172322, option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
152222 — 152222 reads 15, 22, 22. It leaves O unchanged at 15 and moves U by only one place, while the rule adds two to every letter.
(b)
172121 — 172121 gets O right at 17 and then writes 21 for U, which is U's own position untouched, and 21 for T instead of 22.
(d)
152120 — 152120 is simply 15, 21, 20, the plain alphabet positions of O, U and T with no shift applied at all.

Concept

A numeric code gives two worked examples and asks you to reverse the map. Nearly all of them run through alphabet position, so write A=1 to Z=26 in the margin before anything else.

Then compare letter with digits. M is 13 and its code opens 15; S is 19 and its code opens 21. The shift is a constant +2.

The join is the second half of the rule. The numbers are concatenated, not added, so a two-digit result such as 16 contributes two characters and coded words differ in length.

Because the numbers run together, 15316 could in principle be split other ways. The three-letter word and the second example pin the split down.

Key facts

A=1 through Z=26 is the position table a letter-to-number code is read against.
In this code each letter's position is increased by 2 before the digits are written.
The results are concatenated, so MAN gives 15, 3, 16 written as 15316.

Study next

Codes that shift the letters themselves rather than their position numbersCodes applied to the word read backwards before the positions are takenCodes that reduce a whole word to a single number

Common traps

Splitting the coded number wrongly, for instance reading 15316 as 1, 53, 16
Adding the shift to the digits of the position instead of to the position itself
Working from an alphabet count that is off by one, usually by starting at zero

The same position table with the identical plus-two rule is set at Reasoning Q.20 of the 25 Sep 2024, 09:00 shift, where EXCESS becomes 726572121. Reasoning Q.14 of this shift numbers the letters of the word read backwards.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.