SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · 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 6 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 letter in the word ‘JANITOR’ is arranged in English alphabetical order?

(a)Zero
(b)Three
(c)One
(d)Two

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Write the word out, then write the same seven letters in alphabetical order underneath.

JANITOR gives J A N I T O R
sorted gives A I J N O R T

Rule: a letter counts only if it holds the same numbered place in both rows.

Place by place: 1 is J against A, 2 is A against I, 3 is N against J, 4 is I against N, 5 is T against O, 6 is O against R, 7 is R against T.

Every one of the seven places differs, so the count is zero, which is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Three — Three is what N, O and R look like at a glance, because each moves only a single place: N from 3rd to 4th, O from 6th to 5th, R from 7th to 6th. Moving one place is still moving.
(c)
One — One usually rests on R, the last letter of JANITOR. After sorting, the last letter is T, and R slides back to sixth.
(d)
Two — Two confuses order with position. A does come before I in the word and in the alphabet, but A still moves from 2nd to 1st and I from 4th to 2nd.

Concept

These items ask for fixed points: letters holding the same numbered position after the word is rearranged alphabetically. Nothing else counts, not a letter that stays in the same half of the word and not one that keeps its neighbour.

The safe method is mechanical. Write the word, number the places 1 to 7, write the sorted letters underneath, and tick only exact column matches.

Sorting is quicker if you scan the alphabet rather than the word: A first, then I, then J, and so on.

JANITOR has no repeated letters, so the alphabetical order is unambiguous and every comparison is a clean yes or no.

Key facts

JANITOR sorted alphabetically reads AIJNORT.
A fixed point is the same letter standing in the same numbered position in both rows.
No letter of JANITOR is a fixed point, so the answer is zero.

Study next

Fixed-point questions on longer words and on words with repeated lettersCounting how many letters shift by exactly one placeSorting a word alphabetically by scanning the alphabet instead of the word

Common traps

Counting a letter that shifts by one place as unchanged.
Sorting by eye and mis-ordering I and J.
Answering from the look of the word instead of writing both rows out.

Alphabet positions also decide the analogy at Reasoning Q.1, the series at Q.2 and the odd-one-out at Q.13 (9 Sep 2024, 16:00).

Writing positions under the letters is the habit that carries all of them.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.