SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 16 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.

In each of the following questions, the second word is formed by rearranging the letters of the first word according to a specific pattern. Identify the same rearrangement rule and apply it to the third word to choose the correct answer from the given alternatives. NATION : ANTINO :: HUNGRY : ?

(a)HNUGRY
(b)UNHGYR
(c)YRNGUH
(d)UHNGYR

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: swap letters 1 and 2, keep 3 and 4, swap 5 and 6.

NATION → NA | TI | ON → AN | TI | NO = ANTINO
HUNGRY → HU | NG | RY → UH | NG | YR

That reads UHNGYR → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
HNUGRY — HNUGRY swaps letters 2 and 3 (U and N) and leaves R and Y in place. The rule swaps the last two, as ON became NO.
(b)
UNHGYR — UNHGYR gets the second half right (GYR) but turns HUN into UNH, sending H to third place. The rule only swaps the first two: UHN.
(c)
YRNGUH — YRNGUH also moves the outer pairs to opposite ends. Applied to NATION, that gives NOTIAN, not ANTINO.

Concept

Read the map from positions, not letters. NATION is 1-2-3-4-5-6 and ANTINO is 2-1-3-4-6-5: the first two letters trade places, the middle pair stays, the last two trade places.

HUNGRY has six different letters, so the map applies cleanly: positions 2-1-3-4-6-5 give U, H, N, G, Y, R.

NATION has two Ns, so a second map, 2-6-3-4-1-5, also turns it into ANTINO. On HUNGRY that map gives UYNGHR, which is not an option, so the pair-swap reading stands.

Key facts

Map for this pair: 2-1-3-4-6-5.
A repeated letter can hide a second map that fits the given pair, so test each map on the new word.
T and I keep their places in NATION → ANTINO, which anchors the middle pair.

Study next

Maps that swap all three pairs (1↔2, 3↔4, 5↔6)Half-reversal maps such as 3-2-1-6-5-4Rearrangement analogies on words with repeated letters

Common traps

Reading the map from letter shapes when a letter repeats, as N does in NATION
Also moving the outer pairs to opposite ends, which gives YRNGUH

Reasoning Q.15 of this shift reverses each half instead: EIGHTY : GIEYTH.

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.12 puts the second half first and the first half reversed after it (KITCAT : CATTIK is CAT + TIK), keyed TOPNEP for PENTOP.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Problem Solving — all 74 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.