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

Select the correct mirror image of the given figure when the mirror is placed at MN as shown.

Answer

Why

Correct — D. Rule: a vertical mirror reverses the order of the characters and flips each one left to right.

M J X W U read backwards is U, W, X, J, M.

U, W, X and M are each symmetric about a vertical axis, so they look unchanged.

Only J is asymmetric: its hook, which curves left at the foot, must now curve right.

Option (d) shows U, W, X, a J with the hook reversed, then M.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
It prints M where W belongs. M is W turned upside down — a top-to-bottom flip, which a vertical mirror never does. Its order and its reversed J are otherwise right.
(b)
It leaves the J as an ordinary J. J is the one asymmetric letter in the string, so it is the only place the answer can be decided, and this option leaves it untouched.
(c)
It makes both errors at once: W appears as M, a top-to-bottom flip, and the J is not reversed either.

Concept

A vertical mirror standing beside a string reflects it about that vertical line: the order reverses and every character is flipped left to right.

Capitals symmetric about a vertical axis — A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y — come out looking identical, so they can never separate the options.

The asymmetric letters are the only place an option can be caught out. Reverse the order first, then go straight to them.

MN is drawn to the right of the string, but for a vertical mirror the side the glass stands on does not change the image — only where it appears.

Key facts

Capitals unchanged by a vertical mirror: A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y.
A vertical mirror reverses character order.
A horizontal mirror — the water image — keeps the order and flips each character top to bottom.
M and W are top-to-bottom flips of each other, never left-to-right ones.

Study next

Water images, where the line MN is drawn horizontallyMirror images with the mirror set at 45° to the stringMirror images of clock times

Common traps

Reversing the order but leaving the one asymmetric letter untouched
Turning W into M, which belongs to water images, not mirror images
Comparing the option against the stem as printed instead of against the reversed stem

SSC prints the mirror as a line labelled MN beside a short string, and the options usually differ in only one or two characters. This shift asks it twice back to back: Reasoning Q.3 is the same item built from digits and operators.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.