The position of how many letters will remain unchanged if all the letters in the word BINDER are arranged in English alphabetical order?

Correct — D. Write the word out with its positions, write the same six letters in alphabetical order underneath, and compare column by column.

BINDER = B I N D E R
Alphabetical = B D E I N R

Position 1: B against B — unchanged.
Position 6: R against R — unchanged.
Positions 2 to 5 hold I, N, D, E against D, E, I, N, and every one of them moves.

So two positions survive the sort → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  One — Undercounts. It catches B at position 1 and stops there, but R is also already last in alphabetical order, so a second position holds.
• (b)
  Three — Overcounts. Only the first and last positions match: position 4 holds D against I, and positions 2, 3 and 5 shift as well.
• (c)
  None — Ignores that B is both the first letter of BINDER and the first alphabetically, so at least one position is fixed before you check anything else.

SSC's position-unchanged item asks for the fixed points of a rearrangement. You are not asked whether a letter survives — you are asked whether it stays in the same slot.

The method is mechanical: number the letters of the original word 1 to n, sort the same letters alphabetically, and compare the two rows slot by slot.

A letter helps you only when its rank among the word's own letters equals its position in the word. Here B is first in both rows and R is sixth in both, and nothing else lines up.

Key facts

• BINDER sorted alphabetically is B, D, E, I, N, R.
• A position counts only when the same letter occupies that slot in both the word and its sorted form.
• B and R are the letters of BINDER already standing in their sorted slots.

Common traps

• Sorting the letters correctly and then comparing them as a set instead of slot by slot.
• Checking the front of the word and stopping, so the last letter is never tested.
• Reading position unchanged as letter still present.

No directly related past PYQ was found.