SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 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.

Find the word which is between the 1st and 4th letters of the following word as per the English alphabet series. CUTE

(a)F
(b)D
(c)V
(d)Z

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: find the 1st and 4th letters, then the letter between them in the alphabet.

CUTE: the 1st letter is C(3) and the 4th is E(5).
The one position between 3 and 5 is 4, which is D.

D → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
F — F(6) comes after E(5), so it lies outside the stretch from C to E.
(c)
V — V(22) sits just after U, the 2nd letter of CUTE. The stem asks about the 1st and 4th letters, C and E.
(d)
Z — Z(26) is the last letter of the alphabet, far outside the stretch from C to E.

Concept

Number the letters of the word from the left: in CUTE, C is 1st, U 2nd, T 3rd and E 4th. Then turn the two named letters into alphabet positions, C = 3 and E = 5.

Between 3 and 5 lies exactly one position, 4, which is D. When the letters are farther apart, the number of letters between them is the difference minus one.

The English stem asks for the word between the two letters, but the answer is a single letter, and the Hindi version of the stem asks for a letter. Read 'word' as 'letter'.

Key facts

C = 3, D = 4 and E = 5 in the alphabet.
Letters between two alphabet positions = difference − 1.
In CUTE, the 1st letter is C and the 4th is E.

Study next

Counting the letters between two letters of a word after it is sorted alphabeticallyLetter positions counted from the right end of a wordLetters that keep their place when a word is sorted alphabetically

Common traps

Taking the 2nd or 3rd letter of the word, U or T, instead of the 1st and 4th
Reading 'word' in the stem literally and looking for a whole word among the options

15 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.9 also works between two letters of a word in the alphabet, but counts them: F and L of FAMILY, sorted, have five letters between them (keyed Five).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Number Series — all 178 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.