SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 15 of 98

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.

The sum of three consecutive even numbers is 72. What is the largest of these three numbers?

(a)22
(b)24
(c)26
(d)28

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: three consecutive even numbers are x − 2, x and x + 2, so their sum is 3x.

3x = 72
x = 72 ÷ 3 = 24, the middle number
The numbers are 22, 24, 26 (check: 22 + 24 + 26 = 72)
Largest = 24 + 2 = 26 → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
22 — 22 is the smallest of the three: 22 + 24 + 26 = 72. The question asks for the largest.
(b)
24 — 24 is the middle number, 72 ÷ 3. The largest sits one even step above it, at 26.
(d)
28 — Taking 28 as the largest gives 24 + 26 + 28 = 78, which overshoots 72 by 6.

Concept

Consecutive even numbers step by 2: 22, 24, 26. Calling the middle one x makes the others x − 2 and x + 2, and the −2 and +2 cancel when you add them.

So the sum of three consecutive even numbers is 3 × the middle number, and the middle number is the sum ÷ 3.

The same centring works for any odd count of equally spaced numbers: five of them sum to 5 × the middle one.

Key facts

Three consecutive even numbers can be written x − 2, x, x + 2, with sum 3x.
Here the middle number is 72 ÷ 3 = 24, so the numbers are 22, 24 and 26.
In an equally spaced set, the average equals the average of the first and last terms.

Study next

Consecutive odd numbers, which also step by 2Sums of n consecutive numbers found from their averageAverages of equally spaced sets

Common traps

Answering the middle number (sum ÷ 3) when the question asks for the largest.
Writing the numbers as x, x + 1, x + 2, which describes consecutive integers, not consecutive even numbers.

Consecutive even numbers also appear at 26 Sep 2024, 12:30, Quant Q.17 (two numbers summing to 174, smaller keyed 86) and 20 Sep 2025, 09:00, Quant Q.14 (eight numbers averaging 41, smallest plus largest keyed 82).

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