SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 19 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 word cannot be formed from the letters of the word ADMINISTRATION using each letter only once?

(a)SITUATION
(b)TRADITION
(c)RATION
(d)STRAIN

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: every letter the option needs must be in the given word, as many times as it is needed.

ADMINISTRATION holds A 2, D 1, M 1, I 3, N 2, S 1, T 2, R 1, O 1.
SITUATION needs a U, and ADMINISTRATION has no U.
So SITUATION cannot be formed → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
TRADITION — TRADITION needs two Ts and two Is, plus R, A, D, O, N. ADMINISTRATION has two Ts and three Is, so every letter is covered.
(c)
RATION — RATION uses R, A, T, I, O, N once each, and every one of them is in ADMINISTRATION.
(d)
STRAIN — STRAIN uses S, T, R, A, I, N once each, and every one of them is in ADMINISTRATION.

Concept

A word-formation item checks two things for each option: every letter must be in the given word, and no letter may be used more often than the given word has it.

Test for a missing letter first, because it is quicker than counting. Here U is absent from ADMINISTRATION, which settles SITUATION before any count.

Apart from the U, SITUATION's letters would fit: it needs two Ts and two Is, and the given word has two Ts and three Is. The U alone rules it out.

Key facts

ADMINISTRATION has 14 letters: A 2, D 1, M 1, I 3, N 2, S 1, T 2, R 1, O 1.
A word fails if it needs a letter the given word lacks, or needs a letter more often than it appears.
SITUATION needs a U, which ADMINISTRATION lacks.

Study next

Forming words from a given word when letters repeatArranging jumbled letters into a meaningful wordArranging words in dictionary order

Common traps

Checking only whether each letter appears, not how many times: TRADITION needs two Ts and two Is.
Scanning a long word by eye and missing that it has no U.

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.9 asks the same of INTELLIGENCE and keys CANCEL: INTELLIGENCE has no A, and one C against CANCEL's two.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.