SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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.

Select the correct option: If the security protocol ___ breached, the system alerts administrators instantly.

(a)were
(b)is
(c)has
(d)had been

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The trigger is the main clause, the system alerts administrators instantly. That is the present simple, describing what always happens when the condition is met: a zero conditional.

A zero conditional takes the present simple in the if-clause too. The protocol is what gets breached, so the verb is passive: is breached → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
were — were gives 'were breached', the hypothetical form of a second conditional. That pairs with would alert, not with the present-tense alerts the sentence prints.
(c)
has — has gives 'has breached', active voice, which makes the protocol the intruder. The protocol is what gets breached, so a passive is needed.
(d)
had been — had been gives the past perfect of a third conditional, which pairs with would have alerted. It clashes with the present-tense alerts.

Concept

Conditionals are matched by tense pairs. Read the clause you are given, then build the other half to match.

Zero: if + present simple, present simple, for rules and automatic results.
First: if + present simple, will + verb, for a likely future.
Second: if + past simple or were, would + verb, for an unreal present.
Third: if + past perfect, would have + past participle, for an unreal past.

Here the main clause prints alerts and instantly: a system rule, not a guess or a regret. That is the zero pattern.

The zero and first conditionals share the same if-clause. 'If the protocol is breached, the system will alert administrators' would also be correct. Either way the if-clause takes is.

Key facts

Zero conditional: if + present simple, present simple, for rules and automatic results.
Second conditional: if + past simple or were, would + base verb.
Third conditional: if + past perfect, would have + past participle.
A subject that receives the action takes the passive: the protocol is breached.

Study next

Mixed conditionals, where the if-clause and the main clause refer to different timesInverted conditionals such as Had they known and Were it possiblePassive forms after if, such as is breached, were breached and had been breached

Common traps

Reaching for were because it sounds formal, without checking that the main clause has no would
Choosing has because breached looks like a finished action, and missing that the protocol cannot do the breaching

Here the tense of the main clause fixes the verb in the if-clause.

18 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.9 tests the third conditional in inverted form: 'Had they submitted the proposal earlier, they ___ the funding', keyed would have received.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Fill in the blank — all 58 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.