SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 7 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.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

Deny III (people are not willing to leave their private vehicles) and new public transport cannot cut congestion, so by the negation test III is implicit too and option (c) is at least as defensible; this card follows SSC's key.

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

Instruction: Identify the assumptions that must hold for the statement to be valid, then choose the correct option. Statement: To reduce traffic congestion in urban areas, cities should invest in public transportation infrastructure, even though it requires significant initial investments. Assumptions: I. Public transportation can effectively reduce traffic congestion. II. The initial cost of building transportation infrastructure is high. III. People are willing to shift from private vehicles to public transportation.

(a)Only I and II are implicit
(b)Only II and III are implicit
(c)All I, II and III are implicit
(d)Only I is implicit

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: an assumption is what must hold for the statement to be valid, including what the statement itself asserts.

I holds. Investing to reduce traffic congestion makes sense only if public transport can reduce it.

II holds. The statement says the plan 'requires significant initial investments', and it cannot be valid if that is false.

III is left out by the key: the statement is about what cities should build, not what commuters want now. See the dispute note.

I and II → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Only II and III are implicit — Only II and III drops I, the belief the whole plan rests on: public transport can reduce congestion. Without it there is no reason to invest.
(c)
All I, II and III are implicit — All I, II and III adds III. The key reads III as a claim about commuters' present willingness, which the statement never makes. See the dispute note.
(d)
Only I is implicit — Only I leaves out II, which the statement states outright: it 'requires significant initial investments'. What a statement asserts must hold for it to be valid.

Concept

This instruction asks what must hold for the statement to be valid, which is wider than the usual unstated assumption. A point the statement makes itself, such as the high initial cost here, counts, because the statement cannot be valid while it is false.

What fails is a claim the statement does not need. The key treats III that way: the advice is about building infrastructure, not about commuters' present attitudes.

The usual negation test puts pressure on III. If people will not leave their private vehicles, new public transport cannot ease congestion, so the plan does lean on some willingness to switch.

The key still marks Only I and II, and this card is written to the key. The dispute note records the other reading.

Key facts

Under 'must hold for the statement to be valid', a point the statement itself makes counts as an assumption.
The negation test: deny the assumption and see whether the statement still stands.
A claim the statement never makes and does not need is not an assumption of it.

Study next

Statement–assumption items with two assumptions and Only I / Only II / Both / Neither optionsCourse-of-action items built on policy statementsCause-and-effect items, where two statements are linked as cause and result

Common traps

Rejecting II because the statement says it outright, when this instruction counts what the statement itself asserts
Treating an assumption as implicit because it is true in real life rather than because this statement needs it

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.6 uses the same instruction and keys Only I and II, where II restates the statement's own claim that ethical frameworks must keep pace with technology.

14 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.8 does the same with the Himalayas: I and II restate the statement and are keyed implicit, while III, monsoon winds as the sole cause of rain, is left out.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Critical thinking — all 23 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.

Instruction: Identify the assumptions that must hold for the statement to be valid, then choose the correct option. Statement: To reduce traffic congestion in urban areas, cities should invest in public transportation infrastructure, even though it requires significant initial investments. Assumptions: I. Public transportation can effectively reduce traffic congestion. II. The initial cost of building transportation infrastructure is high. III. People are willing to shift from private vehicles to public transportation.

(a)Only I and II are implicit
(b)Only II and III are implicit
(c)All I, II and III are implicit
(d)Only I is implicit