SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 of 95

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.

Choose the correct option to complete the series. Growth : Stagnation :: Success : ?

(a)Achievement
(b)Failure
(c)Progress
(d)Gain

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: the first pair joins a word to its opposite.

Stagnation means a lack of growth, so Growth : Stagnation sets growth against its absence.
The opposite of success is Failure → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Achievement — Achievement is close in meaning to success. The first pair joins opposites, not near-synonyms.
(c)
Progress — Progress is a near-synonym of growth, the first word of the pair. It is not the opposite of success.
(d)
Gain — Gain is a positive outcome like success, not its opposite. Gain pairs with loss, and the analogy needs the opposite of success.

Concept

A word analogy asks you to name the relation in the first pair, then find the word that stands in the same relation to the third term.

State the relation as a sentence: stagnation is the absence of growth. Then test each option in the same sentence: failure is the absence of success, while achievement, progress and gain are not.

The instruction says 'complete the series', but the colon layout (A : B :: C : ?) is an analogy, and it is solved as one.

Key facts

Stagnation means a lack of growth, movement or development.
The antonym of success is failure.
Achievement, progress and gain all share the positive sense of success or growth.

Study next

Word analogies by relation type: synonym, antonym, part-whole, cause-effectAntonym questions in the English section

Common traps

Picking Progress because it links to Growth, the first word, instead of matching the relation
Choosing a synonym of success when the first pair holds opposites

11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.8 tests the same opposite directly: it asks for an antonym in the sentence beginning 'Success is not a destination', and its key is Failure.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Number Series — all 178 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.