SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 23 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 11 September 2026.

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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.

Find y-intercept of 4x + 5y = 20.

(a)3
(b)4
(c)5
(d)6

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The y-intercept is where the line meets the y-axis, and every point on that axis has x = 0.

Put x = 0: 4(0) + 5y = 20, so 5y = 20
Divide both sides by 5: y = 4

The line crosses the y-axis at (0, 4) → option (b)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
3 — y = 3 fails the equation: at x = 0 it gives 5 × 3 = 15, not 20, so (0, 3) is not on the line.
(c)
5 — 5 is the x-intercept, found by putting y = 0: 4x = 20, so x = 5. The question asks where the line meets the y-axis.
(d)
6 — y = 6 overshoots: at x = 0 it gives 5 × 6 = 30, not 20, so (0, 6) is not on the line.

Concept

An intercept is where a line cuts an axis. On the y-axis x = 0, and on the x-axis y = 0, so each intercept comes from setting the other variable to zero.

Dividing 4x + 5y = 20 through by 20 gives the intercept form x⁄5 + y⁄4 = 1. The denominators are the intercepts: 5 on the x-axis, 4 on the y-axis.

Key facts

For ax + by = k, the y-intercept is k⁄b and the x-intercept is k⁄a, when a and b are not zero.
The intercept form x⁄p + y⁄q = 1 describes a line with x-intercept p and y-intercept q.
In slope form, 4x + 5y = 20 becomes y = −(4⁄5)x + 4, where the constant term 4 is the y-intercept.

Study next

Slope of a line from ax + by = k, which is −a⁄bArea of the triangle a line makes with the axes, ½ × x-intercept × y-interceptPoint of intersection of two lines

Common traps

Swapping the intercepts: 20 ÷ 4 = 5 is where the line meets the x-axis, and 5 is also an option.
Reading the right-hand 20 as the y-intercept: the constant term is the intercept only after solving for y, which gives y = −(4⁄5)x + 4.

The mirror question is at 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, Quant Q.20: the x-intercept of 5x + 2y = 10 comes from putting y = 0, so 5x = 10 and x = 2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Graphs of Linear Equations — all 16 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.