SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 19 of 99

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 figure from among the given options that can replace the question mark (?) in the following series.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Two things change from box to box, so track them apart.

Rule 1: the letter inside the circle runs through the vowels in order — A, E, I, O — so the fifth box takes U.

Rule 2: the small digit counts 1, 2, 3, 4 and moves one place anticlockwise round the edge of the box each time: top-left, then middle-left, then bottom-left, then bottom-centre.

The next place on that walk is the bottom-right corner, which is where the 5 belongs → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Places the 5 at middle-right. On this walk that is the stop after the bottom-right corner, so it is where a 6 would stand, not a 5.
(b)
Places the 5 at the top right, the far end of the walk. From bottom-centre the mark moves one place along the bottom edge, not up the opposite side.
(c)
Places the 5 back at middle-left, the position the 2 already used. The mark has since passed the bottom-left corner and does not return.

Concept

When a picture series changes two things at once, separate them and give each its own rule.

The letter follows a list you already know — the vowels — and its job is to tell you which term of the series you are on.

The digit carries the position rule. It steps one place anticlockwise around the border of the box for each new box, so where it lands is fixed by where it stood in box 4, not by where it started in box 1.

All four options print a U inside the circle and a 5 beside it, so neither the letter nor the number decides anything. The whole question turns on where the 5 is placed.

Key facts

The vowels in order are A, E, I, O, U, so the fifth term takes U.
The digit stands at top-left in box 1, middle-left in box 2, bottom-left in box 3 and bottom-centre in box 4.
Continuing one place anticlockwise, the fifth position is the bottom-right corner.

Study next

Series where a mark rotates through the corners of a box, clockwise or anticlockwiseSeries that pair a letter rule with a position rule in the same figureVowel sequences and alternate-letter sequences used inside figure series

Common traps

Solving the letter, feeling finished, and picking the first option showing U
Reading the walk as clockwise because its first three stops are all on the left edge

SSC prints the position marker small and off to one side, so it reads as decoration until you notice it has moved. Reasoning Q.18 of this paper runs the same picture-series frame with the change carried by the characters instead of by a position.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.