SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Awareness · Question 1 of 99

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.

Which of the following is a notable architectural feature of Notre Dame des Anges Church in Puducherry?

(a)Shikhara with amalaka
(b)Transparent enclosure with piers
(c)Minaret with balcony
(d)Corbelled arch with lattice work

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Notre Dame des Anges (Our Lady of Angels) is a French colonial church in Puducherry, built in 1855 in the Greco-Roman style to a design by Louis Guerre.

The other three options describe Hindu temples and Indo-Islamic buildings, not a European church. That leaves the enclosure set on piers → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Shikhara with amalaka — A shikhara crowned by an amalaka, the ribbed stone disc on top, is the tower of a Nagara-style Hindu temple. A Greco-Roman church has no shikhara.
(c)
Minaret with balcony — A minaret with a balcony belongs to a mosque, where the call to prayer was given. This church's tower is a bell tower.
(d)
Corbelled arch with lattice work — Corbelled arches and lattice (jali) screens belong to Indian and Indo-Islamic building. Neither is part of a church built on Greco-Roman lines.

Concept

Puducherry was the capital of French India, and its colonial churches follow European models.

Notre Dame des Anges was first painted white inside and out, which earned it the name White Chapel. Incredible India says its walls were a mix of limestone and eggshell, made to resemble white marble.

Its twin towers carry stained-glass windows in red, blue and yellow, and it is believed to be modelled on Notre-Dame in Paris and the Basilica at Lourdes.

The keyed wording, transparent enclosure with piers, is the question's own. Neither Incredible India nor the church's Wikipedia entry uses it, so this card reaches the key by ruling out the temple and mosque features rather than by quoting a source.

Key facts

Notre Dame des Anges, Puducherry, was built in 1855 to a design by the architect Louis Guerre.
Its architecture is Greco-Roman.
Painted white inside and out, it was once called the White Chapel.
An amalaka is the ribbed stone disc that crowns the shikhara of a Nagara temple.

Study next

Churches of Puducherry's French quarter, such as the Sacred Heart ChurchParts of a Nagara temple: shikhara, amalaka and kalashaFeatures of Indo-Islamic architecture: the true arch, the dome and jali screens

Common traps

Hunting for a remembered feature of this church. The wrong options are borrowed from Hindu temples and Indo-Islamic buildings, and ruling them out reaches the key.
Taking corbelled arches with lattice work for a European feature because the terms sound technical. They belong to Indian and Indo-Islamic building.

Here a colonial church is tested through one feature of its design, and the wrong options are features of temples and mosques.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 246 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.