SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 17 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.

Identify the figure from the given options, which when put in place of the question mark (?), will logically complete the series.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Each square holds five symbols in five slots: top-left, top-right, centre, bottom-left and bottom-right.

Rule: the arrow, the $ and the D cycle top-left → centre → bottom-left, while + and the triangle swap between the two right-hand corners.

Square 4 is arrow top-left, triangle top-right, $ centre, D bottom-left, + bottom-right.

Advance it one step: the arrow moves to the centre, the $ to bottom-left, the D to top-left, and + and the triangle trade corners.

That gives D top-left, + top-right, arrow centre, $ bottom-left, triangle bottom-right — option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
This repeats square 3's placement of $, D and the arrow with only + and the triangle swapped. The three-symbol cycle has not advanced at all.
(c)
It drops the arrow into the bottom-right corner and puts + at bottom-left. The arrow never leaves the top-left / centre / bottom-left cycle.
(d)
D and the arrow land correctly, but this sends the $ to the top-right corner — a slot that belongs to + and the triangle throughout the series.

Concept

A five-slot figure series where two independent motions run at once, on disjoint sets of slots.

Three symbols rotate through three slots, so that part of the picture repeats every three squares. Two symbols swap between two slots, so that part repeats every two squares. The whole picture therefore repeats only every six.

That is why square 4 looks like square 1 at first glance: the three-symbol group has come back round, but + and the triangle have not.

Track one symbol at a time and write its slot under each square. Trying to read a whole square as a unit is what makes this look harder than it is.

Key facts

Square 1 is arrow top-left, + top-right, $ centre, D bottom-left, triangle bottom-right.
Square 2 is D top-left, triangle top-right, arrow centre, $ bottom-left, + bottom-right.
Square 3 is $ top-left, + top-right, D centre, arrow bottom-left, triangle bottom-right.
Square 4 repeats square 1's letters and symbols in the same three slots, with + and the triangle exchanged.

Study next

Figure series where different elements carry different cycle lengthsWriting a position table, one row per symbol, before looking at the optionsSeries that rotate a whole figure rather than moving its parts

Common traps

Assuming square 4 is a repeat of square 1 and copying square 2 as the answer.
Reading only the corners and missing the centre slot.
Advancing the three-symbol cycle but forgetting to swap + and the triangle.

SSC gives four squares and asks for the fifth, so the pattern must be fixed from three steps. A figure series in the same format is at Reasoning Q.3 of this 12 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.