SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 1 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 13 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 letter-cluster from among the given options that can replace the question mark (?) in the following series. B E K, D G M, F I O, H K Q, ?

(a)KSA
(b)JAS
(c)JMS
(d)KJS

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: +2 at every position from one cluster to the next.

1st letters: B, D, F, H → J
2nd letters: E, G, I, K → M
3rd letters: K, M, O, Q → S

The next cluster is JMS → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
KSA — KSA misses all three steps: H + 2 is J, not K, K + 2 is M, not S, and Q + 2 is S, not A.
(b)
JAS — JAS gets J and S right but puts A in the middle. The 2nd letters run E, G, I, K, so the next one is M.
(d)
KJS — KJS keeps only the S. Its K is H + 3 and its J is one step back from K, where both positions move +2.

Concept

Read a letter-cluster series column by column. Take the 1st letters of every cluster, then the 2nd, then the 3rd, and find the step in each column on its own.

Write letters as positions (A = 1 … Z = 26) when a step is unclear. B, D, F, H are 2, 4, 6, 8, so the step is +2, and the other two columns step the same way.

Inside each cluster the letters also keep a fixed spacing: B to E is +3 and E to K is +6. JMS keeps it too (J to M is +3, M to S is +6), a quick check on the answer.

Key facts

1st letters step +2: B, D, F, H, J.
2nd letters step +2: E, G, I, K, M.
3rd letters step +2: K, M, O, Q, S.

Study next

Letter-cluster series with a different step in each columnLetter-cluster series that wrap from Z back to AAlphabet positions of letters (A = 1 … Z = 26)

Common traps

Reading across one cluster (B, E, K) and continuing that, instead of reading down each column
Getting the 1st column right and taking the first option that starts with J, as JAS does

19 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.1 is built the same way with a bigger step: C F J, H K O, M P T, keyed RUY (option d), every column moving +5.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Series — all 125 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.