SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 3 of 97

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.

What is the duration of monsoon in India?

(a)100-120 days
(b)150-200 days
(c)40-60 days
(d)50-80 days

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The southwest monsoon lasts about 100 to 120 days, from its onset over the Kerala coast in early June to withdrawal beginning in September.

Count the calendar and the figure is obvious: June, July, August and part of September is roughly four months. That is the duration NCERT prints for the monsoon season, and option (a) is the only choice sitting in that range.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
150-200 days — 150-200 days would keep the rains running from June into November or December, long past the withdrawal that clears most of India by October.
(c)
40-60 days — 40-60 days is under two months, which would end the season in July. The monsoon is still active over most of the country through August.
(d)
50-80 days — 50-80 days falls short at the same end — it would close the season in August, before the September rains that make up the last stretch of the monsoon.

Concept

The southwest monsoon bursts over Kerala in the first week of June, advances across the country through June and July, and begins withdrawing from northwest India in September.

Its duration is conventionally given as 100 to 120 days, and that is the figure the school geography text uses and SSC quotes.

Withdrawal is slower than onset and runs from the northwest southwards. By October the retreating monsoon season has set in, bringing the hot, humid spell known as the 'October heat'.

The question says 'monsoon' without qualifying it, and the intended answer is the southwest monsoon season. The northeast monsoon, which waters the Coromandel coast between October and December, is a separate rainfall season and is not what is being counted here.

Key facts

The southwest monsoon in India lasts about 100 to 120 days.
Onset is over the Kerala coast in the first week of June, and withdrawal begins from northwest India in September.
The retreating monsoon period of October and November brings the oppressive spell called the 'October heat'.

Study next

Onset and withdrawal of the monsoon, and its Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal branchesThe retreating monsoon and the northeast monsoon over the Coromandel coastPre-monsoon local storms such as mango showers, Kaal Baisakhi and Nor'westers

Common traps

Counting the whole wet stretch from June to December. The question asks for the monsoon season, not for every rainy month.
Confusing the season's length with the sudden monsoon 'burst', which is a matter of days.

SSC asks the monsoon calendar from every side — its length, its local names and its retreat.

Retreating-monsoon items appear on 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.5 ('October heat') and on 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.12, and the pre-monsoon 'mango showers' on 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.