SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 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 5 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.

Identify the figure given in the options which when put in place of the question mark (?) will logically complete the series.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Rule: the whole arrow turns 45° anticlockwise each frame.

Frame 1 points up, frame 2 up-left, frame 3 left, frame 4 down-left.

Frame 5 continues the turn to straight down, with the double bar — which sits at the tail and rotates with the arrow — now at the top.

Option (b) shows exactly that. It is also frame 1 turned through 180°, which is what four steps of 45° must produce.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
It points right, which is 135° anticlockwise from frame 4 — three steps of the turn taken in one go instead of one.
(c)
It points down-right: the right rule applied one step too far. Down-right is the sixth figure of the series, not the fifth.
(d)
It points up with the double bar at the foot, which is frame 1 reproduced unchanged. The series has turned a full 180° since then.

Concept

Single-object figural series become easy once you decide what to measure.

Nothing here is added, removed or shaded — one rigid arrow turns, so the only quantity in play is its bearing.

Read the four given frames as a sequence — up, up-left, left, down-left — check that the step is constant at 45° anticlockwise, then extend it once.

The double bar turning with the arrow is what tells you the whole object rotates, not just the head.

A 45° step returns the object to its starting bearing after eight frames, so four steps from frame 1 puts frame 5 exactly upside down. That is faster to see than measuring angles.

Key facts

The turn is 45° anticlockwise per frame: up, up-left, left, down-left, down.
Frame 5 is frame 1 rotated 180°, because four steps of 45° make a half turn.
The double bar sits at the tail and rotates with the arrow, opposite the head in every frame.

Study next

Series where the rotation step itself grows: 45°, then 90°, then 135°Series where one element turns clockwise while another turns anticlockwiseSeries mixing rotation with a reflection on alternate frames

Common traps

Reading the turn as clockwise because the arrowhead is travelling down the page
Extending by 90° instead of 45° and landing on the wrong side of vertical
Taking the figure one step too far — down-right is the sixth term, not the fifth

SSC runs these as four frames and a question mark, with every wrong option the same arrow at a different bearing, so the item reduces to the step size and the direction of turn. The same shift runs a five-symbol, two-rule series at Reasoning Q.8.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.