SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 8 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.

The position of how many letters will remain unchanged if all the letters in the word RICKET are arranged in English alphabetical order?

(a)One
(b)None
(c)Three
(d)Two

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Write the two rows one above the other and read down the columns.

Original: R I C K E T
Sorted: C E I K R T

Rule: a letter counts only if it occupies the same numbered slot in both rows.

Slot 4 holds K in both rows and slot 6 holds T in both. R, I, C and E all move.

That is two unchanged positions, which is option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
One — One is the score if you spot K in slot 4 and stop. T holds slot 6 as well, because it is both the last letter of RICKET and the last of its letters alphabetically.
(b)
None — None would require every letter to move. K and T do not, so the rearrangement is not a complete displacement.
(c)
Three — Three counts a letter that in fact shifts — E moves from slot 5 to slot 2 and I from slot 2 to slot 3, leaving only K and T fixed.

Concept

These items ask for the fixed points of a rearrangement, and the method never varies: write the word, write its letters in alphabetical order underneath, compare slot by slot.

One shortcut is worth carrying. A letter lands in slot n after sorting exactly when n − 1 of the word's letters come before it in the alphabet. K in RICKET has C, E and I before it, so it belongs in slot 4 — which is where it already sits.

SSC prints the answer in words here — One, None, Three, Two — so the option list gives no numeric ordering to lean on.

Key facts

RICKET in alphabetical order is C, E, I, K, R, T.
K stays in slot 4 and T stays in slot 6, while R, I, C and E all move.
A letter occupies slot n after sorting exactly when n − 1 of the word's letters precede it alphabetically.

Study next

The same item with the letters sorted in reverse alphabetical orderCounting the letters whose position changes rather than those that staySeven- and eight-letter versions, where writing the sorted row out is faster than reasoning

Common traps

Sorting correctly and then comparing the rows letter by letter instead of slot by slot
In a word with a repeated letter, checking only the first copy
Answering with the number of letters that moved

The stem runs with 'all the letters' and with 'each of the letters' and the answer is always given in words: BINDER at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.1 is keyed Two, and JEALOUS at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.1 is keyed Three.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.