SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 6 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.

Fill in the blank: After defeating the Mughal emperor, _______ declared himself the ruler and founded the Second Afghan Empire.

(a)Humayun
(b)Sher Shah Suri
(c)Bahlul Lodi
(d)Sikandar Lodi

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Sher Shah Suri defeated the Mughal emperor Humayun at Chausa in 1539 and again at Kannauj in 1540, forcing him to flee.

Sher Shah was then crowned ruler of Hindustan and reigned until 1545.

The Afghan Lodis had been the last dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, so his Sur empire was the second Afghan power in Delhi, the stem's Second Afghan Empire: option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Humayun — Humayun is the defeated Mughal emperor of the stem. He lost at Chausa and Kannauj, fled, and founded no Afghan empire.
(c)
Bahlul Lodi — Bahlul Lodi founded the Afghan Lodi dynasty in 1451, the last line of the Delhi Sultanate. He died in 1489, decades before the Mughals arrived.
(d)
Sikandar Lodi — Sikandar Lodi, Bahlul's son, was crowned in 1489 and shifted the capital from Delhi to Agra. He ruled before the Mughals reached India.

Concept

North India changed hands between Afghans and Mughals in the 16th century. Babur ended the Lodi dynasty at Panipat in 1526, but his son Humayun lost the empire to Sher Shah.

Sher Shah's short reign is remembered for reforms: he issued the first rupiya and extended the Grand Trunk Road. The Sur dynasty he founded lasted until 1556.

The Battle of Kannauj, fought on 17 May 1540, is also known as the Battle of Bilgram.

Key facts

Battle of Chausa, 26 June 1539: Sher Shah defeated Humayun.
Battle of Kannauj (Bilgram), 17 May 1540: Humayun defeated again, and Sher Shah crowned.
Sher Shah ruled from 1540 until his death at Kalinjar on 22 May 1545.
Bahlul Lodi ascended the Delhi throne on 19 April 1451.

Study next

Sher Shah's reforms: the rupiya and the Grand Trunk RoadHumayun's exile and his return to DelhiThe Lodi sultans and the First Battle of Panipat, 1526

Common traps

Picking Humayun because the stem mentions a Mughal emperor: he is the one who was defeated.
Picking Bahlul Lodi because he founded an Afghan dynasty: the Lodis ruled before the Mughals, and the stem's empire was founded by defeating one.

Here the Sur empire is asked through its founder. The Battle of Chausa is asked at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.7 (keyed Sher Shah Suri), and the last Lodi sultan at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.19.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 154 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.