SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 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.

Choose the correct option to complete the series. Create : Destroy :: Build : ?

(a)Design
(b)Construct
(c)Ruin
(d)Develop

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: the second word is the opposite of the first.

Create means to bring into being, and Destroy to put an end to it.
Build means to put together, so its opposite is to wreck: Ruin → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Design — Design is a step before building, planning what will be built. It is related to build, not opposite to it.
(b)
Construct — Construct means the same as build. The first pair is a pair of opposites, so a synonym runs the wrong way.
(d)
Develop — Develop means to grow or improve, which points the same way as build. The analogy needs the word that undoes it.

Concept

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

Create : Destroy is a pair of antonyms, so the answer must be the antonym of Build. Design, Construct and Develop all sit on the making side with build. Ruin reverses it.

The stem says 'complete the series', but the item is laid out as an analogy, A : B :: C : ?, and is solved as one.

Key facts

Create : Destroy is an antonym pair, so the answer is the antonym of Build.
Construct is a synonym of build, and design and develop are related steps, not opposites.
In A : B :: C : ?, the relation from A to B is applied from C to the answer.

Study next

Analogies built on synonyms, part and whole, or worker and toolAntonym questions in English: choosing the opposite of a given wordOdd-one-out word pairs, where one pair breaks the shared relation

Common traps

Choosing Construct because it sits closest to build in meaning
Choosing Design or Develop because they belong to the same topic as build

13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Reasoning Q.3 also keys an opposite: Frivolous : Big :: Deride : ? is keyed Encourage, with Taunt and Jeer, near-synonyms of deride, among the wrong options.

18 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.4 turns it round: Control : Domination is not an opposite pair, so Creation : Destruction is one of the wrong pairs there.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Number Series — all 112 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.