SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 9 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 14 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.

Select the combination of letters that when sequentially placed in the blanks of the given series will complete the series. P _ A A _ _ Z A _V _ _ A _ _

(a)ZVPAPZAV
(b)ZPVVAPVZ
(c)VZAAPVPZ
(d)VPZZPVAP

Answer

Why

Correct — A. Rule: the five-letter block P Z A A V repeats three times across the fifteen slots.

Number the slots: P(1) _(2) A(3) A(4) _(5) _(6) Z(7) A(8) _(9) V(10) _(11) _(12) A(13) _(14) _(15).

The given A's sit at slots 3, 8 and 13 — five apart — so the repeating unit is five letters long. Slots 1, 3 and 4 give P _ A A, and slot 7 is a given Z, which fixes the second letter of the unit as Z.

Filling the eight blanks in order needs Z, V, P, A, P, Z, A, V. That is ZVPAPZAV, option (a), and the completed string reads PZAAV PZAAV PZAAV.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
ZPVVAPVZ — Its second letter P falls into slot 5. Slots 1 to 4 already read P Z A A, so slot 5 has to close the unit with V.
(c)
VZAAPVPZ — It opens with V, which lands in slot 2. Slot 7 is a given Z sitting exactly one unit later, so slot 2 can only be Z.
(d)
VPZZPVAP — It ends with P, which lands in slot 15. Slot 10 is a given V and slot 15 is one full unit further on, so the string must close on V.

Concept

This is a repeating-block series, not a shifting-letter series. SSC hides a short unit inside a long string of blanks and asks you to rebuild it.

The method is mechanical. Number every slot, read off the letters you were handed, and look for the smallest gap at which a given letter repeats.

Here that gap is five, so the unit is five letters. Once the length is fixed, each given letter names one letter of the unit and the rest of the fill is copying.

With fifteen slots and a five-letter unit you only ever have to identify five letters. Checking the first two blanks alone kills three of the four options here.

Key facts

The series has fifteen slots and eight blanks, so every option is eight letters long.
Slots 3, 8 and 13 all carry a given A, five apart, which fixes the unit length at five.
The completed string is PZAAV PZAAV PZAAV.

Study next

Repeating-block letter series with units of four, five and six lettersAlphabetical-gap series, where the letters shift instead of repeating

Common traps

Filling the blanks out of order, when the option string is consumed strictly left to right.
Miscounting the blanks where two underscores sit next to each other.

SSC sets this beside shift-based letter series in the same paper. 09 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.2 asks for the next term of MFT, NIS, PLQ, SON, WRJ, where the letters move rather than repeat. Deciding which of the two you are looking at is most of the work.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.