SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 16 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.

Select the set in which the numbers are related in the same way as are the numbers of the following sets. (NOTE : Operations should be performed on the whole numbers, without breaking down the numbers into its constituent digits. E.g. 13 – Operations on 13 such as adding /deleting /multiplying etc., to 13 can be performed. Breaking down 13 into 1 and 3 and then performing mathematical operations on 1 and 3 is not allowed.) (108, 12, 9) (114, 19, 6)

(a)(144, 14, 8)
(b)(148, 16, 9)
(c)(156, 18, 5)
(d)(136, 17, 8)

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Rule: second number × third number = first number, or read the other way round, the first divided by the second gives the third.

108 ÷ 12 = 9
114 ÷ 19 = 6

Now test option (d): 17 × 8 = 136, which is its first number exactly, so 136 ÷ 17 = 8.

The bracketed NOTE settles the rest. You operate on 136 and 17 as whole numbers and never on the digits 1, 3 and 6, so a digit-level reading is out of bounds however neatly it fits.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(144, 14, 8) — 14 × 8 = 112, thirty-two short of 144. Nor does 144 divide by 14 to a whole number, so there is no way to read (a) as the same relation.
(b)
(148, 16, 9) — 16 × 9 = 144, four short of the 148 printed. (b) is the near miss of the set — change its first number to 144 and it would qualify.
(c)
(156, 18, 5) — 18 × 5 = 90, nowhere near 156. Dividing instead does not rescue it either, because 156 ÷ 18 is not a whole number.

Concept

A number-set analogy hands you two worked examples and asks which candidate obeys the same relation. With three numbers per set the usual suspects are a single operation between two of them producing the third.

Test the plainest relation first. Division fits both given sets here, and once you have it each option costs one multiplication to check.

The bracketed NOTE is not decoration. It bans digit-level work, and on this item that ban is load-bearing.

The banned reading really is available: 1 + 0 + 8 = 9 and 1 + 1 + 4 = 6, so digit sums fit both given sets perfectly. No option follows it — 1 + 3 + 6 is 10, not 8 — which is exactly why SSC prints the rider.

Key facts

The relation is a ÷ b = c, equivalently second times third equals first.
108 = 12 × 9 and 114 = 19 × 6, the two sets SSC gives you to infer from.
136 = 17 × 8, so option (d) reproduces the relation exactly.
The NOTE forbids splitting a number into its digits before operating on it.

Study next

Number-pair analogies, where one operation links two numbers rather than threeDivisibility tests for two-digit divisors, which make the option check instantOdd-one-out over number trios, which draws the same inference from examples

Common traps

Trying digit sums because they fit the examples, when the NOTE has already banned them
Checking the options against only one of the two given sets
Reading the relation in one direction only, when a ÷ b = c and b × c = a are the same rule

SSC gives two solved sets and four candidates, with the whole-numbers rider attached.

Number-set analogies also run at Reasoning Q.13 and Q.19 of this same 26 Sep 2024, 09:00 paper, and again 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, Reasoning Q.12 and 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.20.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.