SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 12 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.

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.

Each of the letters in the word DEVELOPMENT is arranged in alphabetical order. How many letters are there in the English alphabetical series between the letter that is third from the left and the one that is fourth from the right in the new letter-cluster formed?

(a)7
(b)9
(c)6
(d)8

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: sort the letters, repeats kept, then count the gap.

DEVELOPMENT sorted: D E E E L M N O P T V (11 letters).
Third from the left: E, the 5th letter of the alphabet.
Fourth from the right: V, T, P, O, the 15th letter.

Letters between E and O: F G H I J K L M N.
15 − 5 − 1 = 9 → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
7 — 7 is the gap from E to M. M is fourth from the right of DEVELOPMENT as printed, but the question counts in the sorted cluster, where it is O.
(c)
6 — 6 is the gap from E to L, the fifth letter of the sorted cluster. The question asks for the fourth from the right, which is O.
(d)
8 — 8 is what the unsorted word gives: third from the left of DEVELOPMENT is V, fourth from the right is M, and N to U is 8 letters.

Concept

Alphabetical-arrangement items run in three steps: sort the letters, repeats included, pick the two positions, and count the letters strictly between them.

Repeats matter. DEVELOPMENT has three E's and each keeps its own place, which is why the third letter from the left is still E. Between alphabet positions p and q lie q − p − 1 letters, since neither end is counted.

Each wrong option is a true count between two letters of DEVELOPMENT (E to M, E to L, M to V). Checking the subtraction alone will not catch a wrong pair of letters.

Key facts

DEVELOPMENT has 11 letters, with E three times.
Sorted, it reads D E E E L M N O P T V.
Letters strictly between alphabet positions p and q number q − p − 1: here 15 − 5 − 1 = 9.

Study next

Counting letters whose position is unchanged after sorting a wordLetter positions from anchors: E 5, J 10, O 15, T 20, Y 25Letters between two positions when the word is sorted in reverse alphabetical order

Common traps

Dropping the repeated E's, which moves the third letter from the left to L
Counting positions in DEVELOPMENT as printed instead of in the sorted cluster
Subtracting positions without the − 1 and getting 10

12 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.9 sets the same frame on STUDENT, where the repeated T must be kept when sorting (keyed 13).

14 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.8 uses UNIVERSAL, second from the left and fifth from the right, and keys 8.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Series — all 87 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.