SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 20 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 14 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.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

A cyclone is itself a geographical phenomenon, so option (a), the umbrella term naming the class the other three belong to, is at least as defensible an odd one out; this card follows SSC's key, which marks Cyclone.

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

Find the odd one out from the given alternatives

(a)Geographical Phenomena
(b)Earthquake
(c)Cyclone
(d)Volcano

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: sort the events by where they start: inside the Earth, or in the atmosphere.

Earthquake and volcano both start below the ground. An earthquake is a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust, and a volcano is molten rock from inside the Earth reaching the surface.

A cyclone is a large low-pressure storm system in the atmosphere. On that split it stands apart → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Geographical Phenomena — Geographical Phenomena is a class name, not a fourth event. One possible rationale for the key treats it as the heading over the three events, so it is never sorted by origin and is not the misfit.
(b)
Earthquake — Earthquake starts inside the Earth, as a sudden release of energy in the crust. That pairs it with volcano on the solid-Earth side, so it is not the one that stands apart.
(d)
Volcano — Volcano is molten rock from inside the Earth reaching the surface. Like an earthquake, it is driven from below the ground, so it pairs with earthquake rather than standing alone.

Concept

An odd-one-out set is solved by finding one property that three options share and the fourth lacks. Here the property is origin.

Earthquakes and volcanoes are endogenic: driven by forces inside the Earth. A cyclone forms in the atmosphere, as a low-pressure system with winds spiralling round its centre.

The catch is option (a), a category name listed beside its own members. Whether you treat it as a fourth item or as the heading changes the answer.

SSC's key is a bare letter. The origin split is one possible rationale for it, taking option (a) as the heading over the three events rather than a fourth item.

But physical geography covers the atmosphere as well as the land, so a cyclone is a geographical phenomenon too, which is why this card carries a dispute note.

Key facts

Earthquakes and volcanoes are endogenic: driven by forces inside the Earth.
A cyclone is a low-pressure storm system in the atmosphere.
Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the north-west Pacific and willy-willies in Australia.

Study next

Endogenic and exogenic forces in physical geographyClassification sets that mix a category name with its membersTropical and temperate cyclones

Common traps

Grouping all three events as natural disasters, which leaves no misfit among them and misses the inside-the-Earth split that sets the cyclone apart.
Calling a volcano a weather event because an eruption throws ash into the air. It is driven from below the ground.

The same phenomena appear as General Awareness facts at 17 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.23 (tropical cyclones in Australia, keyed willy-willies) and 25 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.2 (the record of an earthquake, keyed seismogram).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Semantic Classification — all 59 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.