SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 22 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 5 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 − B means A is the sister of BA × B means A is the mother of BA ÷ B means A is the father of BA + B means A is the brother of B What is the relation in A × B + C?

(a)A is the mother of C
(b)B is the father of C
(c)C is the mother of B
(d)B is the brother of A

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: decode each symbol, then join the pairs through the letter they share.

A × B: A is the mother of B.
B + C: B is the brother of C.

B and C are siblings, so they share a mother. A is B's mother, so A is also C's mother → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
B is the father of C — B is C's brother, not father: + stands for brother. B and C sit in the same generation, both children of A.
(c)
C is the mother of B — C is B's sibling, a generation below A. B's mother is A, decoded from A × B, so C cannot be B's mother.
(d)
B is the brother of A — B is A's son, not brother. A × B makes A the mother of B, and B is male because he is C's brother.

Concept

In a coded blood relation each symbol stands for one relation, read left to right: in A × B the first letter is the mother of the second.

Split the expression into pairs that share a letter. A × B + C gives A × B and B + C, joined at B. Then read across the join: the mother of one sibling is the mother of the other, so the answer runs from A to C.

The stem prints the four definitions with no break, so 'of BA × B' is 'of B' followed by the next definition, 'A × B'. The × and + definitions are all this expression uses.

Key facts

A × B + C splits into A × B and B + C, which share B.
The key reads B and C as full siblings, so B's mother is also C's mother.
C's gender is not given, so the relation is stated from A's side: A is the mother of C.

Study next

Coded relations with three symbols, such as P × Q + R − SCoded relations that produce in-law relations

Common traps

Mixing up the + (brother) and ÷ (father) definitions and choosing B is the father of C
Losing a definition in the run-together stem and decoding × as sister

14 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.18 asks the same expression, A × B + C, with + meaning husband. There B is C's husband, so its key is A is mother-in-law of C.

The letters and signs can repeat while the definitions change, so decode from the stem each time.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Problem Solving — all 123 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.