SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 15 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 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.

In a certain code language, ‘A + B’ means ‘A is the mother of B’; ‘A − B’ means ‘A is the brother of B’; ‘A × B’ means ‘A is the wife of B’ and ‘A ÷ B’ means ‘A is the father of B’. Based on the above, how is 5 related to 2 if ‘5 ÷ 1 × 3 ÷ 4 − 2’?

(a)Mother’s mother
(b)Father’s father
(c)Mother’s father
(d)Father’s mother

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Read the chain left to right and mark each person's sex the moment a symbol fixes it.

Rule: + is mother of, − is brother of, × is wife of, ÷ is father of.

5 ÷ 1 → 5 is the father of 1.
1 × 3 → 1 is the wife of 3, so 1 is female.
3 ÷ 4 → 3 is the father of 4, and 1 is his wife, so 1 is the mother of 4.
4 − 2 → 4 is the brother of 2, so 2 is 1's child too.

So 2's mother is 1 and 1's father is 5: 5 is 2's mother's father → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Mother’s mother — Mother's mother needs 5 to be female. But 5 ÷ 1 makes 5 the father of 1, and no symbol in the chain ever puts 5 on the female side.
(b)
Father’s father — Father's father would be the father of 3, who is 2's father. The chain never names 3's parents, and 5 is attached to 1, not to 3.
(d)
Father’s mother — Father's mother fails twice: 5 is male, and the parent 5 is linked to is 1, who is 2's mother rather than 2's father.

Concept

Coded blood relations give you four symbols and a chain, and the work is a diagram, not a memory feat.

Two of the four symbols also fix a person's sex. × (wife of) makes the left person female and the right person male, and ÷ (father of) makes the left person male.

Once 1 is female and married to 3, every child of 3 is also 1's child, which is the bridge that connects 5 at the top to 2 at the bottom. Draw two levels, put 5 alone on the first, 1 and 3 on the second, and 4 and 2 on the third.

The relation always runs from the term on the left of the symbol to the term on the right. Reading 5 ÷ 1 as 1 is the father of 5 inverts the whole family and still produces a plausible-looking option.

Key facts

A ÷ B means A is the father of B, so ÷ fixes the left term as male.
A × B means A is the wife of B, so × fixes the left term as female and the right term as male.
In 5 ÷ 1 × 3 ÷ 4 − 2 the people are 5 (1's father), 1 and 3 (a married couple) and 4 and 2 (their children).

Study next

Coded blood relations where the stem redefines the same four symbols differentlyTurning a symbol chain into a two-generation or three-generation diagramNaming indirect relations such as maternal grandfather, nephew and brother-in-law from a finished diagram

Common traps

Reading the chain right to left. The relation runs from the left term to the right term.
Trying to fix 2's sex. The symbol − (brother of) tells you about 4, not about 2, and the answer never needs it.
Forgetting that being 3's wife makes 1 the mother of 3's children, which is the only step joining 5 to 2.

The four definitions used here are reused word for word with a different chain on 10 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.2, where 5 − 2 × 4 ÷ 3 makes 5 the mother's brother of 3.

So the symbol table is worth learning as a shape rather than as a fact, because the chain changes and the reading procedure does not.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.