SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 4 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.

The following contains two pairs of words which are related to each other in a certain way. Three of the following four word-pairs are alike as these have the same relationship and thus form a group. Which word-pair does NOT belong to that group? (The words must be considered as meaningful English words and must not be grouped based on the number of letters/number of consonants/vowels in the word)

(a)Joy - Peace
(b)Misery - Happiness
(c)Problem - Concern
(d)Worry - Fear

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Rule: three of the pairs put two same-direction words side by side; one puts a word next to its opposite.

Joy and peace are both agreeable states.
Problem and concern are both unwelcome.
Worry and fear are both forms of apprehension.

Misery is distress and happiness is its opposite, so option (b) is a contrast pair standing among three likeness pairs. That is the pair which does not belong.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Joy - Peace — Joy and peace are both agreeable states of mind, so the pair points one way and belongs with the group you are asked to keep.
(c)
Problem - Concern — Problem and concern both name something that troubles you, concern being the milder word. Same direction, so it sits inside the group.
(d)
Worry - Fear — Worry and fear are both apprehension, differing in intensity rather than in direction, which is exactly the relation the other grouped pairs share.

Concept

Odd-one-out over word pairs asks you to name the relation inside each pair, then find the pair whose relation differs. The relation is rarely shared topic. Here it is direction of meaning.

Three pairs hold two words that pull the same way. One pair holds a word and its antonym.

Nothing turns on how close the near-synonyms are. Joy and peace are not interchangeable, but both are pleasant, and same direction is the feature the group shares.

Grouping by pleasant against unpleasant splits these four differently and makes Joy - Peace look like the outsider, which is the wrong cut.

Key facts

Misery and happiness are antonyms, which is what separates option (b) from the group.
The other three pairs each hold two words of the same emotional direction.
The stem's rider bars grouping by letter, consonant or vowel counts.

Study next

Odd-one-out over pairs whose shared relation is part to wholeAntonym pairs hidden among near-synonymsAnalogies that test degree, such as worry against terror

Common traps

Hunting for exact synonyms and rejecting Joy - Peace because the words are not interchangeable
Grouping by pleasant against unpleasant, which cuts the four the wrong way
Deciding on the first pair you read instead of naming all four relations

SSC frames this as four pairs with a rider banning letter-count grouping. The same rider appears on the analogy items at Reasoning Q.2 and Q.6 of this shift.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.