SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 12 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.

The position of how many letters will remain unchanged if each of the letters in the word ‘SPIDER’ is arranged in the English alphabetical order?

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

Answer

Why

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

SPIDER sorted into alphabetical order is DEIPRS.

S P I D E R
D E I P R S

Rule: a letter counts only if it holds the same numbered slot in both strings.

Slot 1: S over D — moves. Slot 2: P over E — moves. Slot 3: I over I — unchanged. Slot 4: D over P — moves. Slot 5: E over R — moves. Slot 6: R over S — moves.

Exactly one position survives the sort — option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Three — Three would need two further fixed slots, and there are none. S over D, P over E, D over P, E over R and R over S all move.
(c)
None — None overlooks slot 3. I is the third letter of SPIDER and also the third letter of DEIPRS, so it does not move.
(d)
Two — Two would need a second letter to hold its slot. Line the strings up and the only matching column is the third.

Concept

This item is a two-line comparison, not a puzzle. Write the word, write its letters sorted alphabetically directly beneath, and read down each column asking whether the same letter appears twice.

The discipline that matters is sorting accurately. Most errors here are sorting errors rather than counting errors, so it is worth writing the alphabet out for the letters involved if two of them are close together.

Note what 'unchanged' means: the letter must occupy the same numbered slot in both strings. A letter that is still present but has moved does not count.

Key facts

Sort the word's letters alphabetically, then compare the two strings slot by slot.
SPIDER sorted is DEIPRS.
Only slot 3 holds the same letter in both strings, and that letter is I.
A letter counts only if its numbered position is the same, not merely if it still appears.

Study next

Positions unchanged when the word is written in reverse alphabetical orderItems asking which letter is third from the left after a rearrangementCounting letter pairs in a word that keep their alphabetical gap

Common traps

Sorting by eye and slipping on adjacent letters such as D and E.
Assuming the first or last letter is fixed without checking it.

SSC keeps the task and swaps the word: 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.12 uses SIGHTED and is keyed Two, and 25 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.2 uses DOWNSIZE and is also keyed Two.

The wording is not fixed either — that DOWNSIZE stem reads re-arranged in the English alphabetical order from left to right, where this one reads arranged in the English alphabetical order.

The task is the same. Longer words make the sort itself the hard part.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.