The position of how many letters will remain unchanged if each of the letters in the word ‘SIGNATURE’ is re-arranged in the English alphabetical order from left to right?

Correct — A. Write the word above its sorted form and compare position by position.

Word: S I G N A T U R E
Sorted: A E G I N R S T U

Position 3 carries G in both rows. Every other position moves: S becomes A, I becomes E, N becomes I, A becomes N, T becomes R, U becomes S, R becomes T and E becomes U.

That is one unchanged position — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Two — Only position 3 agrees. Check position 4, the nearest candidate: the word has N there while the sorted form has I.
• (c)
  Four — Four would need most of the front of the word already in order. SIGNATURE opens with S, which is seventh in its own sorted list, so the opening cannot hold.
• (d)
  Three — Sorting moves every letter except G. Positions 6, 7 and 8 carry T, U, R against R, S, T, and none of those three agrees.

The question is mechanical: sort the letters, then compare the two strings position by position.

SIGNATURE sorts to A E G I N R S T U. All nine letters are distinct, so there is exactly one sorted order and no tie-breaking to think about.

The comparison is where marks are lost. Write the two strings one directly above the other rather than checking from memory — a letter that turns up somewhere in the sorted word is easy to score as unchanged when its position has in fact moved.

Key facts

• SIGNATURE sorted alphabetically is A E G I N R S T U.
• G stands at position 3 in both the word and its sorted form.
• All nine letters of SIGNATURE are distinct, so the sorted order is unique.
• The count asked for is of positions holding the same letter, not of letters still present in the word.

Common traps

• Sorting correctly and then comparing against a mis-copied version of the word
• Scoring a letter as unchanged because it appears in both strings rather than in the same position
• Dropping a letter while sorting, which shifts every position after it

No directly related past PYQ was found.