SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 13 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 14 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Ten persons are sitting in two parallel rows containing five persons each, such that there is an equal distance between adjacent persons. Line 1: Five men (A-E) are seated and all of them are facing South. Line 2: Five women (M-Q) are seated and all of them are facing North. Based on the arrangement, answer the question: D is opposite to M. M is at one of the extreme ends of Line 2. O is at the center position of Line 2. Who is second to the right of M in Line 2 (facing North)?

(a)O
(b)M
(c)A
(d)N

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: the centre of a row of five is two seats from either end.

Line 2 faces North, so for every woman in it right means East. M sits at one end, and O sits at the centre, seat 3.

If M were at the East end, nobody would be to her right. So M is at the West end, and two seats to her right is the centre: O → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
M — M is the person the count starts from. Nobody can be second to the right of themselves, so M cannot answer a question about M's neighbours.
(c)
A — A is a man in Line 1. The question asks who sits in Line 2, the women's row, so no Line 1 name can be the answer.
(d)
N — N is never placed by the statements. The seat two to M's right is the centre, and the centre is fixed for O.

Concept

In this two-row puzzle the rows face each other, so left and right flip between them. Line 2 faces North, so each woman's right hand points East.

In a row of five the ends are seats 1 and 5 and the centre is seat 3, exactly two seats from each end. Once O is fixed at the centre and M at an end, the question answers itself.

D is opposite to M only places D, at the matching end of Line 1. It fixes no seat in Line 2, so it plays no part in this answer.

Key facts

A person facing North has East on the right and West on the left.
A person facing South has West on the right and East on the left.
In a row of five, the centre seat is two places from either end.
In two facing rows, 'opposite' means directly across, in the same seat position.

Study next

Two-row seating with one row facing South and the other facing NorthCounting 'second to the left' for a person who faces SouthLinear seating where the end positions are not given

Common traps

Reading 'right' as the right side of the printed page instead of the right hand of a woman facing North
Picking a Line 1 name such as A because the statements also mention the men's row

Here the paper gives three placement facts across two rows and asks about one row. Settle which row the question names before placing anyone: D's fact adds nothing to Line 2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Space Orientation — all 8 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.