SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 15 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.

If GANGA is coded as 711471, how will YAMUNA be coded?

(a)2511314211
(b)2511314214
(c)251113421
(d)2511321141

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: each letter becomes its position in the alphabet (A = 1 … Z = 26), written side by side.

Check: G = 7, A = 1, N = 14, G = 7, A = 1 → 711471 ✓

YAMUNA:
Y = 25, A = 1, M = 13
U = 21, N = 14, A = 1

Joined: 25 | 1 | 13 | 21 | 14 | 1 → 2511321141 → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
2511314211 — 2511314211 splits as 25 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 21 | 1. The letters are right but N's 14 comes before U's 21: U and N are swapped.
(b)
2511314214 — 2511314214 splits as 25 | 1 | 13 | 14 | 21 | 4. U and N are swapped, and the final A is coded 4 when A = 1.
(c)
251113421 — 251113421 has nine digits. YAMUNA needs ten: 25, 13, 21 and 14 take two digits each, and the two A's take one each.

Concept

Letter-to-number coding replaces each letter with a number fixed by the alphabet. Here it is the plain position value, A = 1 to Z = 26, joined with no separator.

Letters from J onward have two-digit positions, so the code's length depends on the word. GANGA's five letters give six digits, and YAMUNA's six letters give ten. Splitting an option back into letters is the quickest check.

Every option opens 2511 (Y = 25, A = 1), so the difference lies in the last four letters, M, U, N, A: 13, 21, 14, 1.

Key facts

Alphabet positions: M = 13, N = 14, U = 21, Y = 25.
Letters A to I have one-digit positions, and J (10) to Z (26) have two.
EJOTY marks every fifth letter: E = 5, J = 10, O = 15, T = 20, Y = 25.

Study next

Reverse-position coding (A = 26 … Z = 1)Codes built from the sum of letter positionsLetter-shift coding such as each letter +1

Common traps

Swapping two neighbouring letters' numbers while copying, as with U and N here
Dropping a digit of a two-digit position, which shortens the code

The item gives one coded word and asks for another, so the rule has to be recovered from GANGA alone and then checked by splitting the chosen code back into letters.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.