SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 13 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.

Find the odd one out from the given alternatives

(a)Bhajan
(b)Qawwali
(c)Ghazal
(d)Rangoli

Answer

Why

Correct — D.
Rule: three of the four are forms of song, and one is a visual art.

Bhajan, Qawwali and Ghazal are all sung, which makes them vocal music.
Rangoli is a pattern made on the floor with coloured powder, rice flour or petals, a visual art rather than music.

Rangoli is the odd one out → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Bhajan — Bhajan is a Hindu devotional song. It is sung, like qawwali and ghazal, so it belongs to the music group.
(b)
Qawwali — Qawwali is Sufi devotional music, performed by singers at shrines and gatherings. Being sung, it groups with bhajan and ghazal.
(c)
Ghazal — Ghazal is a poetic form in rhyming couplets, widely sung in Urdu. As sung poetry it sits with bhajan and qawwali, not with a floor art.

Concept

An odd-one-out item asks for the category three options share. Name that category as narrowly as it will go, then check the fourth against it.

Bhajan, qawwali and ghazal are all vocal music: a Hindu devotional song, Sufi devotional music, and sung Urdu poetry. Rangoli is a decorative floor design, a visual art made especially at festivals.

Bhajan and qawwali are both devotional, but 'devotional' is too narrow a group, since the ghazal is traditionally a poem of love and longing. Sung music is the category that holds all three.

Key facts

Bhajan: a Hindu devotional song.
Qawwali: Sufi devotional music, whose present form is traditionally credited to Amir Khusrau.
Ghazal: a poetic form in rhyming couplets, sung widely in Urdu.
Rangoli: decorative designs made on the floor with coloured powder, rice flour or flower petals.

Study next

Odd-one-out sets of Indian dance forms, classical against folkOdd-one-out sets of musical instruments by typeIndian folk painting styles such as Madhubani and Warli

Common traps

Grouping by 'devotional' and singling out the ghazal
Grouping by region or language instead of by what each thing is

15 Sep 2025, 12:30, Reasoning Q.19 sets a culture odd-one-out on dance: Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Odissi against Kalbelia, a folk dance, keyed Kalbelia.

18 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.17 does it with instruments: three drums against a stringed one, keyed Sitar.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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