SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 18 of 99

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, 'TABU' is written as 'SBAV' and 'TANK’ is written as 'SBML'. How will 'TAIL’ be written in that language?

(a)SMBH
(b)SBMH
(c)SBHM
(d)SMHB

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Line each code up against its word, letter for letter.

Rule: odd positions step one letter back, even positions one letter forward.
T A B U → S B A V: T−1=S, A+1=B, B−1=A, U+1=V
T A N K → S B M L: T−1=S, A+1=B, N−1=M, K+1=L

Both examples share T A at the front, so it is the third and fourth letters that prove the alternation.

Apply it to TAIL.

T − 1 = S
A + 1 = B
I − 1 = H
L + 1 = M

TAIL becomes SBHM — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
SMBH — Option (a) puts M in second place. M is N−1, carried over from the TANK code; TAIL's second letter is A, and an even position steps forward, giving B.
(b)
SBMH — Option (b) has the first two letters right and then borrows M from the TANK code for third place. TAIL's third letter is I, and I−1 is H.
(d)
SMHB — Option (d) shifts the letters correctly and then reorders them, putting B last. The code never moves a letter out of its position, and L+1 = M ends the word.

Concept

This is a positional-shift code: how far a letter moves depends on where it sits in the word, not on which letter it is. Two worked examples are given precisely so the pattern can be separated from a coincidence.

Write the alphabet numbers if the shift is not obvious: T(20)→S(19), A(1)→B(2), N(14)→M(13), K(11)→L(12). Every odd slot drops by one and every even slot rises by one, with no wrap-around needed here.

The response-sheet text prints a stray closing quote mark after TANK and TAIL. That is a typesetting artefact of the source document, not part of the code.

Key facts

In TABU→SBAV and TANK→SBML the first and third letters fall one place while the second and fourth rise one place.
The output keeps the input's letter order — the code shifts letters in place and never rearranges them.
T→S and A→B appear in both examples, so the rule has to be confirmed on the third and fourth letters.

Study next

Positional letter codes where odd and even places take different shiftsCodes that shift each letter by its own position number rather than by a constantConfirming a coding rule on the letters where two given examples differ

Common traps

Reading the shift as +1 throughout because T→S looks like a step along the alphabet, when it is a step back.
Carrying M or L across from the TANK code instead of shifting TAIL's own letters.
Rearranging the output letters when the code only shifts them in place.

SSC supplies two coded words so the rule can be pinned down, then sets a third that shares its opening letters with both, which is what makes the borrowed-letter options tempting.

Alphabet-position work of the same kind decides the letter-cluster series at Reasoning Q.6 and the letter-cluster analogy at Reasoning Q.2 of this shift.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.