SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 20 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.

instruction: In a code language, “The tree grows tall” is coded as “so mo no lo”, “The tree grows short” is coded as “so mo po lo”, “The plant grows tall” is coded as “to mo no lo”. Question: What is the code for “The plant grows short”?

(a)to mo lo po
(b)so lo to fo
(c)po ko go jo
(d)no ko mo no

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: a word shared by two sentences takes the code their codes share.

Sentences 1 and 2 differ only in tall / short, and their codes only in no / po: tall = no, short = po.

Sentences 1 and 3 differ only in tree / plant, and their codes only in so / to: tree = so, plant = to.

The and grows take mo and lo.
The plant grows short = to + mo + lo + po → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
so lo to fo — so lo to fo contains so, the code for tree, which is not in the sentence. It also lacks po for short, and fo appears in none of the given codes.
(c)
po ko go jo — po ko go jo has po for short but nothing else that is known: ko, go and jo appear in none of the codes. The sentence also needs to, mo and lo.
(d)
no ko mo no — no ko mo no uses no, the code for tall, and uses it twice. It has no po for short and no to for plant.

Concept

In a sentence code each word has one code word, but the order of codes need not follow the order of words. So work by comparison, not by position.

Pair two sentences that differ in one word. The code that changes between them belongs to that word. Words common to every sentence take the codes common to every coded line.

Position is no guide here. Tall is the fourth word of The tree grows tall, but its code no sits third in so mo no lo. Which of mo and lo is The and which is grows cannot be settled from these lines, and the answer does not need it.

Key facts

tall = no, short = po
tree = so, plant = to
The and grows take mo and lo, in an order the lines cannot fix.

Study next

Sentence codes where one word changes between each pair of linesCodes where the order of code words does follow the word orderLetter-to-number codes for single words

Common traps

Matching codes by position, which would make The = so and tall = lo
Choosing an option that holds some known codes: the answer must carry a code for each of the four words

14 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.16 is the same item in other words: The music sounds sweet / loud and The song sounds sweet give ka ma ta pa for The song sounds loud.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Coding & de-coding — all 138 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.