SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 16 of 98

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.

Study the given table and answer the question. The table displays the number of cars produced (in lakhs) by six different brands between 2018 and 2023. Brand 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 A 36 40 42 45 47 42 B 23 37 28 32 34 26 C 45 47 51 54 56 48 D 35 37 42 32 36 28 E 57 56 52 38 48 42 F 43 45 56 41 52 40 Which brand production is the highest, and in which year?

(a)C and 2022
(b)E and 2019
(c)F and 2020
(d)E and 2018

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The question wants the single largest cell in the table, so take each row's own maximum first and then compare six numbers instead of thirty-six.

A peaks at 47 in 2022, B at 37 in 2019, C at 56 in 2022
D peaks at 42 in 2020, E at 57 in 2018, F at 56 in 2020

The largest of those is 57, which sits in row E, column 2018 → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
C and 2022 — C in 2022 is 56, C's own best year and one short of E's 57. It is also the answer you give if "highest production" is read as the six-year total, where C leads on 301 lakh.
(b)
E and 2019 — E in 2019 is 56 — right brand, wrong year. E's peak is the year before, and its output then falls every year to 38 in 2021.
(c)
F and 2020 — F in 2020 is 56, F's own peak. The value 56 sits in three different cells of this table, so matching a 56 to an option is not enough — you need the largest number, not a large one.

Concept

A six-by-six table with a one-line question is a scanning exercise, not an arithmetic one. Nothing has to be calculated.

The reliable method is two passes: mark each row's maximum, then pick the maximum of those six marks. It is far harder to miss a cell that way than by sweeping the whole grid at once.

Read the question's noun carefully. "Which brand production is the highest, and in which year" asks for a brand-and-year pair, so the answer is one cell — not the brand with the best average or the best six-year total.

Three wrong options are all worth 56 and the keyed cell is 57. The margin is one lakh, so an approximate read of the table cannot separate them.

Key facts

The table's largest single entry is 57 lakh cars, brand E in 2018.
The value 56 appears in three cells — C in 2022, E in 2019 and F in 2020 — and each is one of the wrong options.
Brand E falls in every year from 57 in 2018 to 38 in 2021.
On six-year totals the order is different: C leads with 301 lakh, ahead of E on 293.

Study next

Row averages from the same table, and the difference between two brands' averagesPercentage change between two consecutive years within one rowRatio questions comparing two brands in a single chosen year

Common traps

Reading "highest production" as the six-year total, which points at C instead
Stopping at the first 56 you meet and matching it to whichever option carries it
Confusing E's 2018 and 2019 figures, which differ by one

A single table is reused with a different question attached to it.

This same cars-production table appears again on 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.5, there asking for the difference in the average production of B and D over 2018-2023 (key: 5 lakhs). Reading the whole table once serves both questions.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.