SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 2 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.

Arrange the following historical structures in chronological order of their completion (earliest to latest): (a) Red Fort, Delhi (b) Jahangir Mahal, Orchha (c) Agra Fort (Akbar)

(a)(a) → (b) → (c)
(b)(c) → (b) → (a)
(c)(b) → (c) → (a)
(d)(c) → (a) → (b)

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Date each building, then sort.

Agra Fort, item (c): Akbar's rebuilding was completed in 1573.
Jahangir Mahal, Orchha, item (b): built by Bir Singh Deo in the early 17th century to receive Jahangir.
Red Fort, Delhi, item (a): Shah Jahan's fort was completed in 1648.

Earliest to latest is (c) → (b) → (a), which is option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
(a) → (b) → (c) — This runs the list backwards. The Red Fort, completed in 1648, is the latest of the three, and Akbar's Agra Fort, completed in 1573, the earliest.
(c)
(b) → (c) → (a) — It puts the Jahangir Mahal first. Akbar finished Agra Fort in 1573, and the Orchha palace is a 17th-century building, so it comes second.
(d)
(c) → (a) → (b) — It swaps the last two. The Red Fort was completed only in 1648, under Shah Jahan, after the Orchha palace raised for his father Jahangir.

Concept

The three buildings belong to three Mughal reigns, which is the quickest way to order them.

Akbar rebuilt Agra Fort in red sandstone and finished it in 1573. Jahangir (1605–1627) was honoured at Orchha by the Bundela ruler Bir Singh Deo with the Jahangir Mahal. Shah Jahan built the Red Fort as the palace-fort of his new capital at Delhi, completing it in 1648.

Sources date the Jahangir Mahal loosely, to the early 17th century, and one gives 1605. Any early-17th-century date keeps it between 1573 and 1648, so the order does not depend on the exact year.

Key facts

Akbar's rebuilding of Agra Fort was completed in 1573.
The Jahangir Mahal at Orchha was built by the Bundela ruler Bir Singh Deo for Jahangir's visit.
Shah Jahan's Red Fort in Delhi was completed in 1648.
Agra Fort was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, the Red Fort Complex in 2007.

Study next

Fatehpur Sikri and Akbar's red-sandstone buildingThe Bundela rulers of Orchha and their monumentsShah Jahan's buildings at Agra and Delhi

Common traps

Placing the Jahangir Mahal before Agra Fort: it was built in the early 17th century for Jahangir, Akbar's son, decades after Akbar finished Agra Fort in 1573.
Mixing up the two forts: Agra Fort is Akbar's, the Red Fort at Delhi is Shah Jahan's.

Here monuments are ordered by date, so tie each one to a reign. Mughal architecture is also tested through statements at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, GA Q.3.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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