SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 1 of 99

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.

In a certain code language, 'GLOBAL' is written as '221714272817', 'FOREST' is written as '23141124109', how will 'IMPACT' be written in that language?

(a)20161328269
(b)18141126247
(c)20161226259
(d)20161327259

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: each letter is replaced by 29 minus its alphabet position.

Test it on GLOBAL:
G(7) → 22, L(12) → 17, O(15) → 14, B(2) → 27, A(1) → 28, L(12) → 17 = 221714272817.

FOREST agrees:
F(6) → 23, O(15) → 14, R(18) → 11, E(5) → 24, S(19) → 10, T(20) → 9 = 23141124109.

IMPACT:
I(9) → 20, M(13) → 16, P(16) → 13, A(1) → 28, C(3) → 26, T(20) → 9 = 20161328269, option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
18141126247 — 18141126247 is the plain reverse alphabet, 27 minus the position: I → 18, M → 14, P → 11, A → 26, C → 24, T → 7. Every value lands two short of what GLOBAL and FOREST actually use.
(c)
20161226259 — 20161226259 reads I → 20 and M → 16 correctly and then drifts. P comes out 12 instead of 13, A comes out 26 instead of 28, and C comes out 25 instead of 26.
(d)
20161327259 — The near miss. I, M, P and T are right, but A reads 27 and C reads 25 — those follow from 28 minus the position, while GLOBAL fixes the constant at 29, since A is coded 28.

Concept

A letters-to-numbers code is settled by one constant once you spot the direction. This one runs backwards through the alphabet, so early letters carry big numbers: A is 28 and Z is 3.

The tidy check is that a letter's position and its code always add to 29. G sits at 7, its code is 22, and 7 + 22 = 29.

That gives you a one-letter test. Decode the A in GLOBAL, see 28, and the scheme is fixed without walking the alphabet for every letter in the answer options.

The code string has no separators, so the split matters as much as the arithmetic. Codes above 9 take two digits and codes below 10 take one, which is why GLOBAL runs to 12 digits and FOREST to 11.

Key facts

A letter's alphabet position plus its code equals 29 here, so A is 28 and Z is 3.
GLOBAL codes as 22-17-14-27-28-17, all two-digit values, giving a 12-digit string.
IMPACT codes as 20-16-13-28-26-9, printed without separators as 20161328269.

Study next

Reverse-alphabet position (A = 26 down to Z = 1) and the shifted schemes built on itFixing a code from a single decoded letter instead of testing all four optionsSplitting an unseparated digit string when one-digit and two-digit codes are mixed

Common traps

Stopping at the plain reverse alphabet and forgetting the constant, which produces option (b).
Checking only the first two letters, where options (a), (c) and (d) all agree.
Mis-splitting the digit string once a single-digit code such as 9 appears.

SSC dresses the letters-to-numbers idea differently from paper to paper.

At 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.7 the word is reversed first and then written as plain alphabet positions, so MUTUAL becomes 12121202113.

Alphabet-position work also drives Reasoning Q.14 and Q.23 of the 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.