SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 9 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.

How many people like either only spicy or only sweet as per the given Venn diagram? Sweet only 55 | Sweet and Sour 11 | Sour only 45 | Sweet, Sour and Spicy 9 | Sweet and Spicy 15 | Sour and Spicy 13 | Spicy only 65

(a)144
(b)110
(c)135
(d)120

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The image carries the question as well as the diagram. It asks how many people like either only spicy or only sweet, over three overlapping circles labelled Sweet (upper left), Sour (upper right) and Spicy (bottom).

The seven regions read:
Sweet only 55, Sour only 45, Spicy only 65
Sweet and Sour but not Spicy 11, Sweet and Spicy but not Sour 15, Sour and Spicy but not Sweet 13
All three 9

Rule: only X means inside circle X and outside both the others — the number printed in that crescent, with nothing added to it.

Only spicy + only sweet = 65 + 55 = 120 → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
144 — 144 is 55 + 65 + 15 + 9, the two crescents plus the whole Sweet-and-Spicy overlap. The word only excludes every shared region.
(b)
110 — 110 is 45 + 65, the only-sour and only-spicy crescents. The stem asks for sweet, not sour.
(c)
135 — 135 is 55 + 65 + 15, the two crescents plus the 15 who like sweet and spicy, who are not in either only region.

Concept

A three-circle Venn diagram has seven regions: three crescents where a circle stands alone, three lens shapes where exactly two circles overlap, and one centre where all three meet.

Every number printed in the figure belongs to exactly one of those regions and is counted once. Nothing needs to be added or subtracted when the diagram is already filled in.

The whole question is a reading exercise, and the single word that decides it is only.

The stem and the picture are one image on the response sheet, so no text is printed above the diagram. Either only spicy or only sweet sounds exclusive, but the two crescents cannot overlap by definition, so plain addition is correct.

Key facts

In the diagram: Sweet only 55, Sour only 45, Spicy only 65, and the centre where all three meet is 9.
The two-circle regions are 11 for Sweet and Sour, 15 for Sweet and Spicy, and 13 for Sour and Spicy.
Everyone inside the Sweet circle totals 55 + 11 + 15 + 9 = 90, and the whole diagram totals 213.

Study next

Three-circle Venn diagrams, naming all seven regions before answering anythingThe difference between only A, A and B, and A in set languageVenn questions that give totals rather than region values, where subtraction is required

Common traps

Reading only sweet as everyone inside the Sweet circle, which is 90 rather than 55
Adding the centre value 9 once for each circle it sits in
Confusing Sour and Spicy, whose labels sit at opposite ends of the figure

Here every region of the diagram is already filled in, so the work is reading rather than solving. Reasoning Q.19 of this paper reads a filled-in diagram the same way, for tea and coffee. A Venn item of a different kind, choosing the diagram that fits three classes, is set on 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.1.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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