SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 26 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 21 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 option that is related to the fifth letter cluster in the same way as the second letter cluster is related to the first letter cluster and the fourth letter cluster is related to the third letter cluster. IMPROVE : RPMIEVO :: HISTORY : TSIHYRO :: JOURNEY : ?

(a)NEYJOUR
(b)YENRUOJ
(c)RUOJYEN
(d)JOURYEN

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Number the seven letters of the first cluster and read its partner as a permutation of those numbers.

IMPROVE = I1 M2 P3 R4 O5 V6 E7, and RPMIEVO = R4 P3 M2 I1 E7 V6 O5.

Rule: reverse the first four letters, then reverse the last three.

Confirm it on the second pair. HISTORY = H1 I2 S3 T4 O5 R6 Y7 gives T4 S3 I2 H1 Y7 R6 O5, which is TSIHYRO.

Apply it to JOURNEY = J1 O2 U3 R4 N5 E6 Y7: R4 U3 O2 J1 Y7 E6 N5 = RUOJYEN → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
NEYJOUR — NEYJOUR moves the last three letters to the front but keeps both blocks in their original order, NEY and JOUR. The rule reverses each block, which this option never does.
(b)
YENRUOJ — YENRUOJ is simply JOURNEY written backwards. Test that on the first pair: IMPROVE reversed is EVORPMI, not RPMIEVO, so whole-word reversal is not the transformation.
(d)
JOURYEN — JOURYEN reverses the last three letters only and leaves JOUR exactly as the question printed it. Both blocks have to be reversed, not one.

Concept

Letter-cluster analogies split into two families: those where letters move along the alphabet, and those where letters only change places.

Nothing shifts here. Every letter of the output is a letter of the input, so the transformation is a pure rearrangement.

The fastest way to read a rearrangement is to number the input letters and write the output as numbers. RPMIEVO reads 4 3 2 1 7 6 5.

That single row of numbers is the whole rule, and it applies to any seven-letter word without further thought about letters.

The stem supplies two worked pairs and both are worth using. Deriving the map from IMPROVE and then confirming it on HISTORY costs seconds and removes any doubt about where the blocks divide.

Key facts

The transformation is the position map 4 3 2 1 7 6 5.
IMPROVE becomes RPMIEVO and HISTORY becomes TSIHYRO under that same map.
JOURNEY under the map 4 3 2 1 7 6 5 gives RUOJYEN.
No letter changes identity, so alphabet shifts play no part in this item.

Study next

Letter-cluster analogies where each letter shifts a fixed number of placesAnalogies combining a shift with a rearrangement in the same clusterWriting position maps for clusters of four and five letters

Common traps

Reversing the whole cluster, which fits neither worked pair.
Splitting the seven letters as three and four instead of four and three.
Deriving the map from the first pair and never checking it against the second.

The stem — fifth cluster related as the second is to the first — recurs across CGL 2024 shifts, and the transformation has to be read off the worked pairs rather than assumed.

Reasoning Q.11 of this same 26 Sep 2024, 16:00 paper runs WEL : DVO on the opposite-letter map rather than a rearrangement, and 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.11 runs MEK : NVP on that same map.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.