SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 14 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.

Select the correct option: By the time the audit concludes, the firm ___ its compliance report.

(a)files
(b)will file
(c)will have filed
(d)had filed

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The trigger is By the time the audit concludes. The verb concludes is present simple but points to the future, because a time clause about the future takes the present, not will.

The filing must be finished before that future point. An action complete before a future moment takes the future perfect, will have + past participle: will have filed → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
files — Files is the present simple, which states a habit or a present fact. The main clause must show the filing already complete when the audit ends, and that needs will have filed.
(b)
will file — Will file places the filing somewhere in the future, possibly after the audit ends. By the time asks for an action completed by that point, which is what the future perfect says.
(d)
had filed — Had filed is the past perfect and needs a past reference point: 'By the time the audit concluded, the firm had filed'. Here concludes is present with future meaning, so the frame is future.

Concept

By the time sets a deadline. The main clause says what will already be complete when that deadline comes.

The main verb follows the time frame of the by-the-time clause:
By the time + present simple (future meaning) → will have + past participle
By the time + simple past → had + past participle

The time clause itself does not take will: 'By the time the audit will conclude' is wrong.

Both halves of the sentence decide it. The present concludes rules out had filed, and by the time asks for completion, which rules out files and will file.

Key facts

Future perfect: will have + past participle, for an action complete before a future moment.
A time clause about the future takes the present simple: by the time it concludes, when it ends.
By the time + simple past pairs with the past perfect: By the time we arrived, the film had started.

Study next

Future perfect continuous: will have been + -ing, for a duration up to a future pointTenses in time clauses after when, until, as soon as and beforePast perfect with by the time in past narratives

Common traps

Choosing will file because the event lies in the future, missing that by the time asks for completion before a point.
Choosing had filed because by the time is linked with the past perfect, without checking that concludes is present.

The past version is 19 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.9: 'They _____ their objections by the time the committee convened', keyed had raised.

The future perfect with a deadline is also keyed at 23 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11: 'By next December, I will have completed six years in this home.'

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

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