SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 17 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 9 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 term from among the given options that can replace the question mark (?) in the following series. YL 93, XK 88, WJ 83, VI 78, ?

(a)VI 74
(b)UH 72
(c)VG 74
(d)UH 73

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Split the term into three strands and continue each one separately.

Rule: first letter −1, second letter −1, number −5.

First letters: Y → X → W → V → U
Second letters: L → K → J → I → H
Numbers: 93 → 88 → 83 → 78 → 73

Putting the three strands back together gives UH 73, option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
VI 74 — VI simply repeats the fourth term's letters instead of stepping them back, and 78 − 74 = 4 breaks the constant fall of 5 in the numbers.
(b)
UH 72 — The letters UH are right, but 78 − 72 = 6. The numbers drop by exactly 5 each time, so the fifth number is 73.
(c)
VG 74 — VG leaves the first letter at V instead of stepping it to U, and drops the second by two (I → G) where the rule drops it by one. The number 74 is wrong as well.

Concept

An alpha-numeric series is several independent series printed as one term.

Write the strands out in columns before looking at the options: the first letters in one column, the second letters in another, the numbers in a third. Each column then has an obvious step.

A useful check: the gap between the two letters inside a term stays fixed when both letters move by the same amount, and here that gap is 13 in every term.

Option (b) carries the right letters, UH, with the wrong number. No option carries the right number with the wrong letters.

So solving the letter strand alone narrows the field to (b) and (d) and stops there — the number strand is what actually decides the question.

Key facts

The letter pairs run YL, XK, WJ, VI, UH — both letters fall by one at each step.
The numbers run 93, 88, 83, 78, 73 — a constant fall of 5.
Y = 25 and L = 12, a gap of 13 that holds in every term of the series.

Study next

Alpha-numeric series solved strand by strandUsing the fixed letter-to-letter gap inside a term as a check on the chosen optionLetter series whose strands step by different amounts, as at Reasoning Q.24 in this shift (JKT, LJR, NIP) where the three strands run +2, −1 and −2

Common traps

Solving the letters and picking the first option that shows them, when two options do.
Subtracting 4 or 6 from 78 in a hurry when the step is a constant 5.
Moving only one of the two letters back, which is what VG does.

The same select-the-term stem is set at Reasoning Q.8 on 17 Sep 2024, 09:00 and Q.1 on 25 Sep 2024, 09:00. Whether the term carries letters, numbers or both, the method is the same: split the term into strands first.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.