SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · 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.

Which curve shows all combinations of two goods that give a consumer equal satisfaction?

(a)Indifference curve
(b)Budget constraint
(c)Isoquant curve
(d)Marginal cost curve

Answer

Why

Correct — A. An indifference curve joins bundles of two goods between which the consumer is indifferent: every point on it gives the same satisfaction.

The stem describes exactly that, two goods, one consumer, equal satisfaction → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Budget constraint — A budget line shows the bundles a consumer can afford at given prices and income. It marks what is affordable, not what is equally satisfying.
(c)
Isoquant curve — An isoquant belongs to production: it joins combinations of two inputs that yield the same output. The indifference curve is its consumer counterpart.
(d)
Marginal cost curve — The marginal cost curve shows the cost of producing an additional unit of output. It is a firm's cost curve, not a map of a consumer's tastes.

Concept

Consumer theory maps tastes with a family of indifference curves, one for each level of satisfaction.

Each curve slopes downward: more of one good must be offset by less of the other. Curves are convex to the origin, never cross, and a higher curve means greater satisfaction.

The consumer's best choice is where the budget line is tangent to the highest indifference curve it can reach.

The stem pairs two goods with a consumer. An isoquant pairs two inputs for a producer, so that pairing alone sorts the options.

Key facts

An indifference curve joins bundles of two goods that give a consumer equal satisfaction.
The slope of an indifference curve is the marginal rate of substitution (MRS).
An isoquant joins input combinations giving the same output, and its slope is the marginal rate of technical substitution.
The consumer's optimum is where the budget line is tangent to an indifference curve.

Study next

Marginal rate of substitution and the convexity of indifference curvesThe budget line and its slope, the price ratioIsoquants and isocost lines

Common traps

Swapping isoquant and indifference curve: one is about inputs and output, the other about goods and satisfaction.
Reading the budget line as a satisfaction curve: it shows only what the consumer can afford.

The item gives the definition and offers curves from production and cost theory as distractors, so first place each curve in consumer, producer or cost theory.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.