SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 18 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.

Select the figure from among the given option that can replace the question mark (?) in the following series.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Box 1→2 and box 3→4 do the same thing, the middle step does another, so the series alternates: box 4→5 repeats box 2→3.

Rule: the corners each move one place clockwise, and the four marks between the top-left and bottom-right corners reverse their order.

Box 4 down the diagonal: arrow, square, S, T, O, P. L sits top-right, the triangle bottom-left.

Corners clockwise: triangle to top-left, arrow to top-right, L to bottom-right, P to bottom-left.

Middle four reversed: square, S, T, O becomes O, T, S, square.

The diagonal now reads triangle, O, T, S, square, L — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The corners are placed correctly, but the four middle marks are rotated one place, not reversed — O, square, S, T. Reversing box 4's square, S, T, O gives O, T, S, square, which puts the square fifth, not third.
(c)
The triangle appears at the top-right. It sits at box 4's bottom-left, and one clockwise step from the bottom-left corner lands on the top-left.
(d)
The diagonal is right but the corners turn anticlockwise: the triangle ends bottom-right and L top-left. Clockwise puts the triangle top-left and L bottom-right.

Concept

A four-box picture series does not have to move by the same step every time. Compare box 1 to box 2 with box 3 to box 4 before you commit to a rule.

Here those two agree with each other and the middle step differs, so the series alternates and the step you need for box 5 is the middle one.

Once you know which step to copy, work it in two independent halves: what the corners do, and what the marks between them do.

Every box holds the same eight marks — the letters L, O, P, S, T and a triangle, a square and an arrow. Nothing is ever added or removed, so only positions can change.

Key facts

Every box carries the same eight marks in eight places: four corners and four points along the diagonal.
The box 2 to box 3 step turns each of the four corner marks one place clockwise.
That same step reverses the four marks lying between the top-left and bottom-right corners.
Box 1 to box 2 and box 3 to box 4 use a different step, which is why box 4 to box 5 copies box 2 to box 3.

Study next

Picture series whose transformation alternates between two different stepsSplitting a crowded figure into an outer part and an inner part and tracking each separatelySeries where the elements are fixed and only their positions change

Common traps

Reading the rule off box 1 to box 2 alone and applying it to box 4.
Turning the corners anticlockwise, which exchanges the triangle and the L.
Rotating the four inner marks instead of reversing them.

A picture series also runs at Reasoning Q.20 of this shift, where the rule is a mirror rather than a rotation. Both reward writing each box out position by position before hunting for the change.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.