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

Study the given diagram carefully and answer the question that follows. The numbers in different sections indicate the number of persons who have applied for different posts. What is the total number of persons who have applied for more than one post?

(a)21
(b)15
(c)113
(d)18

Answer

Why

Correct — A. 'More than one post' means every region where two or three circles overlap, and only those.

Teacher and Engineer only: 4
Teacher and Accountant only: 6
Engineer and Accountant only: 8
All three: 3

4 + 6 + 8 + 3 = 21

The three outer numbers, 35, 42 and 56, are the people sitting in one circle alone, so they are left out entirely. That leaves 21, which is option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
15 — 15 is 4 + 8 + 3. It leaves out the 6 in the Teacher and Accountant overlap, which is a two-post region and belongs in the total like the other two.
(c)
113 — 113 is larger than any single circle in the diagram. Accountant is the biggest at 56 + 6 + 3 + 8 = 73, and an overlap count can never exceed the circle it lies inside.
(d)
18 — 18 is 4 + 6 + 8, the people in exactly two posts. The 3 in the centre applied for three posts, which is also more than one, so they belong in the total.

Concept

A three-circle Venn diagram has seven regions, and each printed number belongs to exactly one region. None of them is a running total.

Sort the seven before you add:
three only regions, one per circle; three exactly two regions; and one all three region at the centre.

'More than one' collects the last four — the three pairwise overlaps plus the centre. 'Exactly two' collects only the three pairwise overlaps. The two phrases differ by the centre number alone.

Read the wording twice. 'More than one', 'exactly two', 'at least two' and 'only one' each select a different set of regions from the same picture.

Key facts

The numbers printed in this diagram are region counts, not circle totals.
'More than one post' is 4 + 6 + 8 + 3 = 21.
'Exactly two posts' would be 4 + 6 + 8 = 18, leaving the centre out.
The Accountant circle totals 56 + 6 + 3 + 8 = 73, the largest of the three.

Study next

Venn wording: 'at least two' against 'exactly two' against 'only one'Reading a circle total off its four regionsTwo-set problems using n(A or B) = n(A) + n(B) − n(A and B)

Common traps

Adding the centre number into each overlap region, when every printed number already excludes the others.
Forgetting the centre 3 on a question that says 'more than one'.
Choosing a number larger than the biggest circle in the diagram.

This Reasoning section also sets a Venn item at Q.11 of the same shift (9 Sep 2024, 16:00).

It asks how many men are doctors, and it turns on the same habit: adding the centre region to the pairwise one.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.