SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 7 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 10 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.

Each of the letters in the word ‘SLANTED’ is arranged in the English alphabetical order. How many letters are there in the English alphabetical series between the letter which is fourth from the left end and the one which is second from the right end in the new letter-cluster thus formed?

(a)Six
(b)Eight
(c)Five
(d)Seven

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: alphabetise the letters of SLANTED first, then count strictly between the two named positions.

S L A N T E D sorted gives A D E L N S T.

Fourth from the left end: A, D, E, L.
Second from the right end: T, S.

L is the 12th letter and S the 19th, so the letters strictly between them are M, N, O, P, Q and R — six, which is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Eight — Eight is what you get by never alphabetising. In SLANTED itself the fourth letter is N and the second from the right is E, and F to M is eight letters.
(c)
Five — Five is one short of the list. Write it out — M, N, O, P, Q, R is six letters — rather than subtracting in your head.
(d)
Seven — Seven is 19 − 12, the number of steps from L to S. The letters lying between them are always one fewer than the step count.

Concept

Two things are tested at once here, and the marks sit in the second.

First the rearrangement: sort the seven letters into alphabetical order and write the new cluster down as A D E L N S T.

Then the position language. Fourth from the LEFT counts from the start, second from the RIGHT counts from the end, and each counts the letter it lands on.

Finally the gap. For letters at alphabet values p and q, the number lying strictly between them is the difference minus one.

SLANTED has seven distinct letters, so the sorted cluster is unambiguous and each named position lands on a single letter. Write that cluster out before counting — doing both steps in your head is where the marks go.

Key facts

SLANTED alphabetised is A D E L N S T.
L is the 12th letter of the alphabet and S is the 19th.
The count strictly between two positions is the difference minus one, so 19 − 12 − 1 = 6.

Study next

Alphabet position values from A=1 to Z=26 and their oppositesCluster items asking for the middle letter after sortingCounting letters between two positions in the reversed alphabet

Common traps

Counting positions in the original word instead of the sorted cluster.
Counting from the wrong end for the second-from-the-right position.
Reporting the gap of 7 instead of the six letters that lie inside it.

The same stem with a different word is asked on 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.2 (MUSICAL), on 17 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.23 (LASTING), and on 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.9 (REDUCTION).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.