SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 14 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. FISH : DKQJ :: POND : NQLF :: SIZE : ?

(a)QGXG
(b)UGXC
(c)UKXC
(d)QKXG

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Read each pair position by position, not as a whole word.

Rule: −2, +2, −2, +2 across the four letters.

FISH → DKQJ: F−2=D, I+2=K, S−2=Q, H+2=J.
POND → NQLF: P−2=N, O+2=Q, N−2=L, D+2=F.

SIZE: S−2=Q, I+2=K, Z−2=X, E+2=G → QKXG, option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
QGXG — QGXG moves the second letter backward (I→G) where the pattern needs it forward to K. Its first, third and fourth letters are right, which is what makes it the closest wrong answer.
(b)
UGXC — UGXC gets only the third letter right (Z−2 = X) and flips the sign on the other three. It sends S up to U, I down to G and E down to C, when S must fall to Q, I must rise to K and E must rise to G.
(c)
UKXC — UKXC gets the middle two letters right but flips the first and the fourth: S rises to U instead of falling to Q, and E falls to C instead of rising to G.

Concept

A letter-cluster analogy asks for one operation that turns the first cluster into the second, then applies it to a new cluster. The operation here is positional — letter 1 does one thing, letter 2 another.

This stem gives two worked pairs rather than one. The second pair is a free check on the rule you read off the first, and a rule that survives both is safe to use.

Write the alphabet positions down. A=1 … Z=26 turns eyeballing into arithmetic.

Both shifts are small and in opposite directions, so reversing a sign anywhere still lands you on a printed option.

Option (a) has one letter's sign flipped, option (c) two and option (b) three. Every wrong answer here is QKXG with one or more signs reversed, which is why none of them looks obviously wrong.

Key facts

The shift pattern is −2, +2, −2, +2, read from the first letter of the cluster.
FISH → DKQJ and POND → NQLF both obey it, which is why the rule can be trusted.
SIZE under that rule gives Q, K, X, G.

Study next

Alternating letter shifts such as −2, +2 inside a three-cluster analogyReverse-alphabet coding, where A pairs with Z and B with YGrowing positional shifts such as +1, +2, +3, +4 across one cluster

Common traps

Carrying the first letter's −2 on through the cluster, which is where option (a) slips: it takes I down to G when the pattern sends it up to K.
Reading a backward shift as forward, which turns Q into U.

The identical three-cluster wording appears at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.8, where the rule is a flat +13 on every letter instead of an alternating pair. Alphabet-position arithmetic also decides Reasoning Q.1 and Q.5 of the same sitting.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.