SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 5 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.

Select the option that is related to the fifth term in the same way as the second term is related to the first term and the fourth term is related to the third term. READER : ERZWRE :: SERIAL : ESIRLA :: JINGLE : ?

(a)JIGNEL
(b)IJGNEL
(c)JIMTEL
(d)IJMTEL

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Rule: letters 1 and 2 swap, letters 3 and 4 are replaced by their opposite letters, letters 5 and 6 swap.
An opposite letter is its partner counted from the other end of the alphabet, so A pairs with Z, G with T and N with M.

SERIAL: SE swaps to ES, R and I become I and R, AL swaps to LA — ESIRLA.

READER: RE swaps to ER, A and D become Z and W, ER swaps to RE — ERZWRE.

JINGLE: JI swaps to IJ, N and G become M and T, LE swaps to EL — IJMTEL, option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
JIGNEL — JIGNEL leaves the first pair as JI when it should swap to IJ, then swaps N and G instead of replacing them with their opposites M and T. Only the closing pair, LE → EL, is handled correctly.
(b)
IJGNEL — IJGNEL swaps the outer pairs correctly and then swaps the middle pair too, giving GN. Letters 3 and 4 are replaced by their opposites, M and T, not exchanged.
(c)
JIMTEL — JIMTEL gets the middle pair MT and the last pair EL right, then leaves the first pair as JI. Letters 1 and 2 must swap, exactly as READER opens with ER.

Concept

An analogy with two worked examples is really two independent tests of one rule. A rule that fits SERIAL but not READER is the wrong rule.

SERIAL on its own looks like a plain pairwise swap, and that reading survives because its middle pair, R and I, happens to be an opposite pair as well.

READER breaks the tie. Its middle letters A and D come out as Z and W, which no swap can produce, so the middle pair must be running on opposite letters.

This is why SSC supplies two worked examples rather than one. Fitting the first and stopping is the quickest route to option (b), which is otherwise a perfectly sensible answer.

Key facts

Opposite letters add to 27, so A pairs with Z, G with T and N with M.
In SERIAL the middle pair R and I is both a swap and an opposite pair, so that example alone cannot separate the two rules.
In READER the middle letters A and D become Z and W, which only the opposite-letter rule explains.

Study next

Opposite-letter pairs and the sum-to-27 checkTesting a candidate rule against every worked example before applying itMixed rules that treat different letter positions differently

Common traps

Applying a single operation to all six letters.
Fitting the rule to SERIAL only, which yields option (b).
Swapping letters 3 and 4 because SERIAL makes that look correct.

Letter operations appear in several guises across these papers. Reasoning Q.7 of the same 13 Sep 2024, 12:30 paper reverses a block of letters and freezes the last one, and Reasoning Q.14 of that paper steps every letter back by two.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.