SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 19 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.

A patient with a contagious disease is admitted. What is your first step?

(a)Isolate the patient and inform the doctor
(b)Ask them to wait
(c)Inform the media
(d)Discharge them immediately

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: with an infectious patient, contain the spread first, then bring in the person responsible for care.

Isolate the patient keeps the disease away from other patients and staff.
Inform the doctor starts diagnosis and treatment without delay.

It is the response that both protects others and gets the patient treated → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Ask them to wait — Waiting leaves an infectious patient among others and delays care. Nothing is contained and nothing is treated.
(c)
Inform the media — The media can neither contain the disease nor treat the patient. Publicity is not a first step in patient care.
(d)
Discharge them immediately — Discharging sends an infectious, untreated patient back into the community, spreading the risk instead of containing it.

Concept

A situational item describes a real-world problem and asks for the best first response. The keyed answer is what a responsible professional would do: deal with the immediate risk and escalate to the right person.

Test each option with two questions. Does it reduce the danger, here the spread of infection? Does it bring in the right help, here a doctor? Option (a) is the one that does both.

The wrong options are recognisable types: delay, publicity, and pushing the problem away.

No rule of logic decides this item. It tests judgement, and the key follows the basic infection-control step of separating a contagious patient from others.

Key facts

The keyed response pairs containment (isolation) with escalation (informing the doctor).
Waiting, calling the media and discharging all leave the infection uncontained.

Study next

Workplace-ethics judgement items, such as spotting bias in recruitmentEliminating options that delay, publicise or push a problem away

Common traps

Choosing 'Ask them to wait' as the calm, procedural option, when it leaves an infectious patient among others.

The same 'what do you do' format is set at 20 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.19 (bias in staff recruitment, keyed 'Raise objection with evidence').

It is also set at 21 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.14 (a missed team deadline, keyed 'Analyze reasons and communicate next steps').

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.