SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 5 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.

Read the given statement and conclusions carefully. Decide which of the given conclusions is/are definitely TRUE from the statement. Statement: P > Q < S > T = R ≥ U > V Conclusion I: V < S Conclusion II: P > T

(a)Only Conclusion II is True
(b)Both Conclusion I and Conclusion II are True
(c)Only Conclusion I is True
(d)Neither Conclusion I nor Conclusion II is True

Answer

Why

Correct — C.
Rule: two letters compare only if every sign between them points the same way.

Conclusion I: S > T = R ≥ U > V.
The signs all point one way and include a strict >, so S > V. I is true.

Conclusion II: P > Q < S > T.
The direction flips at Q, so P and T cannot be compared. II is not definite.

Only Conclusion I is true → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Only Conclusion II is True — P > T cannot be proved. P and S are both larger than Q, but nothing in the chain says which of them is larger, so P is not linked to T.
(b)
Both Conclusion I and Conclusion II are True — Conclusion II fails, so 'both' fails with it. P = 10, Q = 1, S = 20, T = R = 15, U = 12, V = 5 fits the chain and gives P < T.
(d)
Neither Conclusion I nor Conclusion II is True — Conclusion I is definite. From S down to V the signs are >, =, ≥, > — one direction throughout — so S > V always holds.

Concept

In an inequality chain, compare two letters along the stretch between them. If every sign on that stretch points one way (only >, ≥ and =, or only <, ≤ and =), the comparison holds, and one strict sign makes it strict.

If the direction flips anywhere between them, as it does at Q with > on one side and < on the other, the two letters cannot be compared.

Q is smaller than both P and S, which is exactly why it cannot link them. Two numbers that each exceed a third can stand in either order.

Key facts

Two letters compare only if every sign between them points the same way.
One strict sign (> or <) in an unbroken chain makes the result strict.
A dip like P > Q < S blocks any comparison across Q.

Study next

Coded inequalities where symbols such as @ and # stand for > and <Either-or conclusions from pairs such as P > T and P ≤ TCombining two inequality chains that share a letter

Common traps

Reading P > Q and Q < S as if they chained into P > S
Treating the ≥ in R ≥ U as a break, which wrongly throws out Conclusion I

Here the chain has seven letters with a dip at Q, and one conclusion reaches across it.

19 Sep 2025, 09:00, Reasoning Q.7 uses almost the same chain, P > Q < S ≤ T = R ≥ U > V, and keys Only Conclusion I: Q < R is definite, U > T is not.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Drawing inferences — all 90 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.