SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 3 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.

Which figure should replace the question mark (?) if the following series were to be continued?

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Rule: the frames run in pairs, and each pair carries two symbols more than the pair before it. Within a pair, the second frame is the first with its three rows cycled up one place.

Frame 1: B / OOO / XX — 6 symbols
Frame 2: OOO / XX / B — the same 6, rows cycled up
Frame 3: OO / XXXX / BB — 8 symbols
Frame 4: XXXX / BB / OO — the same 8, rows cycled up

Frame 5 opens the next pair, so it must carry 10 symbols.
Option (d) shows XXX above BBBB above OOO: 3 + 4 + 3 = 10, and it keeps the X, B, O row order frame 4 ended on.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
XXX / BBB / OOO is 9 symbols, not 10. Its row order is correct, so counting the marks is the only thing that separates it from the answer.
(b)
XXXXX / BBBB / OOO is 12 symbols, which overshoots by a whole step of the count.
(c)
XXXX / BBB / OO is 9 symbols as well. It repeats frame 4's top row of four and bottom row of two unchanged, so the running count never reaches 10.

Concept

A symbol-series frame hides two independent patterns: what the rows contain, and where the rows sit.

Separate them. The row order here simply cycles up one place at every second step, and all four option pictures already show the same order, so it decides nothing.

The count is what discriminates: 6, 6, 8, 8, 10 across the five frames. When the arrangement fails to separate the options, count the marks.

The options are pictures, not text. Each shows three rows of repeated X, B and O characters, and they differ only in how many characters sit in each row.

Key facts

The five frames carry 6, 6, 8, 8 and 10 symbols in order.
Inside a pair, the second frame repeats the first frame's rows cycled up one place.
All four option pictures print the rows in the order X, B, O, so row order cannot decide the answer.
Option (d) reads XXX, BBBB, OOO from the top, which is 3 + 4 + 3 = 10.

Study next

Symbol-count series, where the arrangement is decoration and the totals carry the ruleRow-cycling patterns inside three-by-three figure matricesFigure series that combine a rotation with an added element

Common traps

Matching the row order and stopping there, when every option matches it
Reading the five frames as one running sequence and expecting a change at every step
Counting rows instead of counting symbols

Figure series with this exact stem is asked at 10 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.3 and at 23 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.3. Picture-completion items in the same family are asked at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.17 and Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.