SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 9 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 "+" means division, "−" means multiplication, "×" means addition, and "÷" means subtraction, then what is: 24 − 6 + 3 ÷ 2 × 4 = ?

(a)14
(b)50
(c)20
(d)12

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: swap each sign for its meaning, then apply BODMAS.

Substitute: 24 − 6 + 3 ÷ 2 × 4 becomes 24 × 6 ÷ 3 − 2 + 4
Multiply: 24 × 6 = 144
Divide: 144 ÷ 3 = 48
Subtract and add, left to right: 48 − 2 + 4 = 50 → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
14 — 14 comes from reading the two meanings the wrong way round: − as division and + as multiplication gives 24 ÷ 6 × 3 − 2 + 4 = 14. The stem says − means multiplication.
(c)
20 — 20 is well short of the answer. The multiplication and division part alone, 24 × 6 ÷ 3, is already 48, and − 2 + 4 then adds 2.
(d)
12 — 12 is below even the first part of the working: 24 × 6 ÷ 3 = 48. The remaining − 2 + 4 raises that to 50, so the correct signs never reach 12.

Concept

Sign substitution has two stages. First rewrite the expression with the real operations, then evaluate with BODMAS: division and multiplication before addition and subtraction, each pair left to right.

Here + means ÷, − means ×, × means + and ÷ means −. Writing that list down before you start stops you reading a sign with its usual meaning halfway through the sum.

24 × 6 ÷ 3 can also be done as 24 × 2 = 48, because dividing 6 by 3 first gives the same result. The addition and subtraction at the end must still go left to right.

Key facts

In this item + means ÷, − means ×, × means + and ÷ means −.
Addition and subtraction share one priority and are done left to right: 48 − 2 + 4 = 50.
a × b ÷ c gives the same value as a × (b ÷ c).

Study next

Letter-coded operations, such as P for addition and V for divisionInterchanging two signs to make an equation correctSign substitution with brackets

Common traps

Reading − as division and + as multiplication, which gives 14
Doing 2 + 4 before the subtraction, 48 − 6 = 42, instead of working left to right

Tier-II uses this exact sign key at 19 Jan 2026, 11:00 AM, Reasoning Q.17: 36 − 2 + 4 × 10 ÷ 5 becomes 36 × 2 ÷ 4 + 10 − 5 = 23, keyed a.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.