SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 16 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.

Which of the following words is formed by changing exactly one letter at one place in the word “PROFESSION”?

(a)PROVISION
(b)POSSESSION
(c)PROCESSION
(d)PROGRESSION

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: same length, and exactly one position differs.

PROFESSION = P R O F E S S I O N (10 letters)
PROCESSION = P R O C E S S I O N (10 letters)

Positions 1–3 and 5–10 match. Only the 4th changes, F → C → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
PROVISION — PROVISION has 9 letters against PROFESSION's 10. Changing one letter in place keeps the length, so a shorter word is out at once.
(b)
POSSESSION — POSSESSION keeps all 10 letters but differs in three places: positions 2, 3 and 4 read O, S, S where PROFESSION has R, O, F.
(d)
PROGRESSION — PROGRESSION has 11 letters. It turns F into G and also inserts an R, two edits where the stem allows one.

Concept

One-letter-change items test careful comparison, not vocabulary. Check length first: a word longer or shorter than the given word cannot come from changing one letter in place.

Then compare position by position and count the differences. Exactly one is allowed. Here length removes the 9-letter and 11-letter options, and a letter-by-letter check separates the two 10-letter words.

Key facts

PROFESSION and PROCESSION differ only at position 4, F against C.
PROFESSION has 10 letters, PROVISION 9 and PROGRESSION 11.
POSSESSION differs from PROFESSION at positions 2, 3 and 4.

Study next

Word formation from the letters of a given wordSpotting the word that cannot be formed from a given wordArranging words in dictionary order

Common traps

Picking PROGRESSION because it looks closest, though it runs one letter longer
Matching the ending -SSION and not checking the start of the word

The neighbouring family compares a word against a source word letter by letter: 16 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.12 asks which word cannot be made from QUARRELSOME, keyed (a) AIR, because QUARRELSOME has no I.

Read this stem's two conditions first, exactly one letter and at one place. Length alone removes two of these options, so check it before comparing letters.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Word Building — all 14 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.