SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 20 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.

What does a lower score on the Corruption Perception Index (e.g., closer to 0) indicate?

(a)Less corruption
(b)More corruption
(c)Higher transparency
(d)Better governance

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Transparency International gives Corruption Perceptions Index results "on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean)".

The lower the score, the more corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be. A score near 0 therefore signals more corruption: option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Less corruption — This reverses the scale. 0 is the highly corrupt end and 100 the very clean end, so a low score cannot mean less corruption.
(c)
Higher transparency — A score near 0 is labelled highly corrupt. The publisher is called Transparency International, but a low score marks the opposite of a clean public sector.
(d)
Better governance — The CPI measures perceived public-sector corruption, and its low end reads highly corrupt. A score near 0 cannot signal better governance.

Concept

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, and it is published by Transparency International.

The scale runs upward towards clean: a country that gains points is seen as less corrupt, and one that loses points as more corrupt.

The stem writes "Corruption Perception Index". The index's own name is Corruption Perceptions Index, and what the question tests is the direction of its scale.

Key facts

CPI scale: 0 = highly corrupt, 100 = very clean.
The CPI 2024 ranks 180 countries and territories by perceived public sector corruption.
The CPI is published by Transparency International.

Study next

The 2024 CPI's findings on corruption and climate actionThe Human Development Index and other indices where a higher score is betterThe Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013

Common traps

Assuming a high score is bad because the index is about corruption: on the CPI, high means clean.
Reading "Transparency" in the publisher's name as what a low score measures.

Here the CPI is tested on the direction of its scale. The 2024 CPI's findings are asked at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.20 (how corruption undermines climate action).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: General Policy — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.