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

Identify the figure given in the options which when put in place of ? will logically complete the series.

Answer

Why

Correct — B.

Rule: every arm turns 45 degrees clockwise and one new arm is added, always standing vertical.

Frame 1 has a single arm pointing straight up, labelled A.
Frame 2: that arm has swung to the upper right, and a fresh arm stands vertical (L).

Frame 3: the vertical arm is again new (K), L has dropped to the upper right and A to the horizontal.
Frame 4 carries four arms — vertical M, upper-right K, horizontal L, lower-right A.

So the missing frame needs five arms, spread from vertical through upper right, horizontal and lower right to straight down, with the new label on the vertical one.

Option (b) is the figure with five arms: H vertical, then M, K, L and A stepping round to straight down.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Four arms, not five. Option (a) reaches straight down at the bottom, so its outer spread is right, but the upper-right arm is missing and the total has stopped growing.
(c)
No new arm. Option (c) turns all four of frame 4's arms 45 degrees clockwise, which is correct as far as it goes, then leaves the vertical position empty — it still shows only four.
(d)
Nothing has happened. Option (d) reproduces frame 4 exactly — M vertical, K upper right, L horizontal, A lower right — with neither the rotation nor the extra arm.

Concept

Two rules run at once here: a growth rule that adds an element, and a motion rule that moves everything already present. Series like this are quickest when you separate them.

Count first. The arm totals go 1, 2, 3, 4, so the answer must show 5, and that alone settles three of the four options.

Check the angles second. Each arm drops one eighth of a turn clockwise, and the vacated vertical slot is where the new arm appears.

The labels A, L, K, M and then H follow no alphabetical rule you can read off the figures.

They are tags that travel with their arms, so do not try to predict the new letter — the arm count and the angles decide the answer.

Key facts

The arm count runs 1, 2, 3, 4 across the four given frames, so the missing frame carries 5.
One step of the rotation is 45 degrees, an eighth of a full turn.
Each existing label stays on its own arm as that arm swings round.
Only the newly added arm receives a fresh letter.

Study next

Figural series that add an element at a fixed position every step45-degree rotation steps in figural series and matricesSeparating a growth rule from a motion rule inside one figure

Common traps

Checking the angles before the count, when the count alone rules out three of the four options.
Reading the arm labels as an alphabet series and choosing on that.
Turning the arms anticlockwise — they fall towards the horizontal, they do not rise.

The same stem returns at Reasoning Q.10 of 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, and at 9 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.13.

Whenever a figural series grows, count the elements before you look at anything else.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.