SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 9 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.

Two different positions of the same dice are given below. Which is the number on the face opposite the face containing 5?

(a)3
(b)2
(c)1
(d)6

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Read what the two views share before hunting for the pair.

View 1: 2 on top, 1 on the left face, 3 on the right face.
View 2: 2 on top again, 5 on the left face, 4 on the right face.

Because 2 keeps its position, the die has only been spun about its vertical axis. A quarter-turn would carry either 1 or 3 into a visible position, and view 2 shows neither, so the spin is a half-turn.

A half-turn brings the two hidden side faces to the front. The face that was hidden behind 1 now stands where 1 stood, so 5 was behind 1. The face opposite 5 is 1 — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
3 — 3 occupies the right face in view 1. A half-turn carries that face out of sight and brings its opposite into the same position, and view 2 shows 4 there, so 3 pairs with 4.
(b)
2 — 2 is on top in both views, so it is seen alongside 1, 3, 5 and 4. A face is never opposite a face shown in the same picture as itself.
(d)
6 — 6 appears in neither view. It is the face hidden opposite the 2 that both views show on top, so it cannot also be opposite 5.

Concept

Two views of one die carry two different kinds of information: which faces touch, and how the die was turned between the pictures.

Take adjacency first. Every face seen with 2 in the same picture touches 2, so 1, 3, 5 and 4 are all adjacent to it. That leaves 6 opposite 2 with no further work.

Then take the turn. When a face keeps its position across both views, the die has been rotated about the axis through that face. Here 2 stays on top, so only the amount of spin remains to be settled, and the visible numbers settle it.

The argument for a half-turn is worth stating carefully: a quarter-turn in either direction leaves one of 1 and 3 on show, and view 2 shows neither.

Key facts

Faces seen together in one view are adjacent and can never be opposite.
2 is on top in both views, so 6, the face in neither view, is opposite 2.
A half-turn about the vertical axis brings both hidden side faces into view at once.
The pairs on this die are 2 with 6, 1 with 5, and 3 with 4.

Study next

Dice where the common face appears in different positions, needing the clockwise ruleDice carrying letters rather than numbers on the facesDice nets, where opposite faces are the ones separated by one square

Common traps

Assuming the two views must be a quarter-turn apart
Pairing 1 with 4 and 3 with 5, which is the split a quarter-turn would have produced
Treating the face common to both views as a candidate, when it is adjacent to everything shown beside it

The identical stem, with the die drawn in two isometric views, is used at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.21, which asks for the face opposite 1, and at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.25, which also asks for the face opposite 5.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.