SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 19 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.

The following Venn diagram shows people’s liking for Tea, Coffee and Soup. Tea only 30 | Tea and Coffee 13 | Coffee only 29 | Tea, Coffee and Soup 8 | Tea and Soup 14 | Coffee and Soup 12 | Soup only 20 How many people like tea and coffee both?

(a)43
(b)13
(c)29
(d)21

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The figure carries the question: a three-circle Venn diagram for Tea, Coffee and Soup, asking how many people like tea and coffee both.

Rule: both means every region inside both circles, whether or not soup is also liked.

Two regions qualify — the 13 in the tea-coffee overlap that lies outside soup, and the 8 at the centre where all three circles meet.

13 + 8 = 21, which is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
43 — 43 is 30 + 13, the tea-only region added to the overlap. Those 30 sit outside the coffee circle altogether, so they cannot count as liking both.
(b)
13 — 13 answers a different question — tea and coffee but not soup. The stem carries no such rider, so the central 8 has to be added in.
(c)
29 — 29 is the coffee-only region, lying outside the tea circle entirely. It answers 'coffee alone', not 'tea and coffee'.

Concept

A three-circle Venn diagram has seven regions, and the entire skill is deciding which of them a phrase covers.

'Tea and coffee both' is an intersection: every region inside the tea circle and inside the coffee circle. That is the two-way overlap plus the centre.

'Tea and coffee only', or 'tea and coffee but not soup', would drop the centre. One word moves the answer by the size of the central region, which is why these questions are read twice before they are counted.

Totals follow the same discipline: everyone who likes tea is 30 + 13 + 8 + 14 = 65.

The diagram is fully numbered, so nothing has to be deduced.

Every mark here is lost in the reading of the phrase, not in the arithmetic.

Key facts

In this diagram 13 people like tea and coffee but not soup, and 8 like all three.
People liking both tea and coffee therefore number 13 + 8 = 21.
The tea circle holds 30 + 13 + 8 + 14 = 65 people altogether.
The word 'only' in a Venn question excludes the central region.

Study next

Reading 'at least two' and 'exactly two' off a three-circle diagramFilling an empty Venn diagram from totals given in wordsTwo-set counting with n(A or B) = n(A) + n(B) − n(A and B)

Common traps

Answering 13 because the central 8 was mentally handed to soup
Adding the tea-only region to the overlap
Reading 'both' as though it meant 'these two and nothing else'

Here every region is already numbered and one counting question is asked in words, so the work is in the phrasing rather than the arithmetic. Reasoning Q.9 of this paper turns on the word only in the same way.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Venn Diagrams — all 15 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.