SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 7 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 10 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.

The position(s) of how many letters will remain unchanged if all the letters in the word ‘GRIMACE’ are arranged in English alphabetical order?

(a)Zero
(b)One
(c)Two
(d)Three

Answer

Why

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

GRIMACE reads G, R, I, M, A, C, E.
Sorted, it reads A, C, E, G, I, M, R.

Column by column that is G against A, R against C, I against E, M against G, A against I, C against M, E against R.

No column holds the same letter twice, so no position survives the sort — Zero, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
One — One is what you get by stopping at the first near match. Run all seven columns and none of them agree, so there is no single letter holding its slot.
(c)
Two — Two needs two letters to stay put. I and M come closest, since they stay neighbours, but they move from slots 3 and 4 to slots 5 and 6.
(d)
Three — Three is far past what this word can give. Sorting shifts every one of the seven letters of GRIMACE to a different numbered slot.

Concept

The task is mechanical, and the mistake is nearly always in the writing-out rather than the thinking.

Number the printed letters 1 to 7. Sort the same letters alphabetically and number them 1 to 7 again. A position counts only when the same letter holds the same number in both rows.

Two things trip people. Sorting is judged against the alphabet, not against how far a letter travelled. And a letter can keep the same neighbour and still have moved, which is exactly what I and M do here.

Seven letters, all different, is the friendly case. When a word repeats a letter you have to decide before starting that equal letters keep their printed order, or the two rows will not line up.

Key facts

GRIMACE in alphabetical order is ACEGIMR.
As printed, the letters sit as G1 R2 I3 M4 A5 C6 E7.
After sorting they sit as A1 C2 E3 G4 I5 M6 R7, so no letter keeps its number.

Study next

Sorting a word alphabetically under time pressure by writing both rows outCounting how many letters lie between two given letters of a wordWords that repeat a letter, where the tie-break has to be fixed first

Common traps

Checking a few columns and answering One because a letter looks familiar
Judging movement by distance travelled rather than by alphabet position

SSC asks this either as a count of unchanged positions or as which letter stands third from the left after sorting. Letter-cluster handling also appears in this shift at Reasoning Q.18.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.