SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 10 of 100

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.

Select the option that is related to the fifth letter cluster in the same way as the second letter cluster is related to the first letter cluster and the fourth letter cluster is related to the third letter cluster. EXPENSE : EPXEESN :: FASHION : HSAFNOI :: FORTUNE : ?

(a)TROFENU
(b)ENUTROF
(c)TUNEFOR
(d)ROFNUTE

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Number the seven letters of each word and track where each one lands.

EXPENSE = E1 X2 P3 E4 N5 S6 E7, and EPXEESN reads E4 P3 X2 E1 E7 S6 N5.
FASHION = F1 A2 S3 H4 I5 O6 N7, and HSAFNOI reads H4 S3 A2 F1 N7 O6 I5.

Rule: reverse the first four letters, then reverse the last three — the output order is 4 3 2 1, 7 6 5.

FORTUNE splits as FORT and UNE.
FORT reversed = TROF. UNE reversed = ENU.

Joined, that is TROFENU — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
ENUTROF — ENUTROF is FORTUNE spelled backwards, a whole-word reversal. The rule reverses the two blocks separately, which keeps FORT's letters ahead of UNE's.
(c)
TUNEFOR — Splits the word as FOR and TUNE and swaps the halves without reversing either. Applied to EXPENSE that gives ENSEEXP, not EPXEESN.
(d)
ROFNUTE — Reverses only the first three letters, FOR to ROF, instead of the first four. The tail it prints, NUTE, is not the reversal of TUNE either — that would be ENUT.

Concept

This analogy is not a shift or a code. It is a fixed positional map: output slot 1 always takes input slot 4, output slot 2 takes input slot 3, and so on.

The map here is 4 3 2 1, 7 6 5 — a four-letter block reversed, then a three-letter block reversed.

Because the map is its own inverse, applying it to EPXEESN gives EXPENSE straight back, which is a free way to check you have read it correctly.

EXPENSE is a poor pair to learn the map from, because its three E's make several different maps fit. FASHION, with seven distinct letters, is the one that pins the map down — which is why the second worked pair matters.

Key facts

The map is output positions 4 3 2 1 7 6 5, taken from the input word.
Applying the map twice returns the original word, so EPXEESN maps back to EXPENSE.
FASHION has seven distinct letters, which is what makes it the pair that identifies the map.

Study next

Letter-cluster analogies driven by a fixed positional map rather than an alphabet shiftConfirming a derived map against the second worked pair before applying itBlock splits other than 4 and 3, such as 3 and 4 or two blocks of three with a fixed middle

Common traps

Deriving the map from EXPENSE alone, where the repeated E's let several maps look consistent
Splitting the word 3 and 4 instead of 4 and 3
Reversing the whole word, which produces ENUTROF and is sitting on the option list

Here the first worked pair is ambiguous on its own and the second resolves it. Positional letter work also appears at Reasoning Q.4 and Q.7 of this paper.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Symbolic/Number Analogy — all 145 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.