SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 18 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.

In a certain code, MOBILE is written as NQCKNG. How will TABLET be written?

(a)UDCMFU
(b)UECMDS
(c)UCCNGV
(d)UFCMGV

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: copy the shift at each position: +1, +2, +1, +2, +2, +2.

Read the shifts from MOBILE → NQCKNG:
M + 1 = N, O + 2 = Q, B + 1 = C,
I + 2 = K, L + 2 = N, E + 2 = G.

Apply them to TABLET:
T + 1 = U, A + 2 = C, B + 1 = C,
L + 2 = N, E + 2 = G, T + 2 = V → UCCNGV → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
UDCMFU — It goes wrong at the second letter: A + 2 = C, not D. Its last three letters also move by 1 (M, F, U) where the example moves those positions by 2.
(b)
UECMDS — E in second place is A + 4, not A + 2. Its last two letters even move backwards (E → D, T → S), while every shift in the example is forward.
(d)
UFCMGV — The ends fit, the middle does not: A + 2 = C, not F, and L + 2 = N, not M.

Concept

In a letter-shift code, write the word and its code one above the other and read the shift at each position.

If the shifts are all equal, one number is the rule. If they differ, the rule is the sequence of shifts, applied position by position to the new word.

The shifts here do not alternate cleanly. A strict +1, +2 alternation would turn L into M and code MOBILE as NQCKMG, not the printed NQCKNG.

So read each position's shift from the example rather than guessing a pattern. Copied exactly, the shifts match option (c) and no other.

Key facts

MOBILE → NQCKNG uses shifts +1, +2, +1, +2, +2, +2 at positions 1 to 6.
TABLET with the same shifts gives UCCNGV.
A vowel/consonant rule does not fit: the consonant L moves +2 while the consonants M and B move +1.

Study next

Letter codes that shift each letter by its own position numberCodes that reverse the word before shiftingDecoding: working back from a code to the word

Common traps

Assuming a neat +1, +2 alternation, which codes TABLET as UCCNFV — not among the options.
Reading the shift from the first two letters and applying it to the whole word.

Letter-shift coding also appears at Reasoning Q.24 of this shift, where every letter moves +1, and at Q.25, where the word is reversed before a −1 shift.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Coding & de-coding — all 138 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.