SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 18 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 17 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.

Find the odd one out from the given alternatives:

(a)Reuse
(b)Reduce
(c)Recycle
(d)Refuel

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: three are the 3 Rs of waste management; one has nothing to do with waste.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are the 3 Rs: use less, use things again, and turn used material into new products.

Refuel means filling up with fuel again. It is about fuel, not waste → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Reuse — Reuse, using an item again instead of throwing it away, is one of the 3 Rs. It belongs with Reduce and Recycle.
(b)
Reduce — Reduce, cutting down how much is used and thrown away, is one of the 3 Rs, so it is part of the group.
(c)
Recycle — Recycle, processing used material into new products, completes the 3 Rs with Reduce and Reuse. It is not the odd one.

Concept

This is a classification item: find the property three options share and the fourth lacks.

All four words begin with Re-, so the prefix cannot separate them. Meaning does: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are the 3 Rs of waste management, three ways to cut the waste that gets thrown away. Refuel belongs to vehicles and fuel.

The 3 Rs are ranked in the waste hierarchy: reducing avoids waste altogether, reusing keeps an item in use, and recycling recovers material from what is left.

Key facts

The 3 Rs of waste management are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
In the waste hierarchy, reducing comes before reusing, and reusing before recycling.
A shared prefix is not a shared meaning, so group the words by what they mean.

Study next

Odd one out by meaning when all options share a prefixClassification of environment terms (conservation areas, pollution control)Waste-management terms such as composting, landfill and segregation at source

Common traps

Grouping by the Re- prefix, which all four words share, so it cannot pick one out

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14 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.9 keys Linux among Photoshop, Illustrator and CorelDRAW.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Classification — all 26 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.