SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 24 September 2025, Shift 2 · Quantitative Aptitude · Question 2 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.

Which of the following statement is TRUE for Whole Numbers?

(a)They include fractions.
(b)They include negative numbers.
(c)They include zero and positive integers.
(d)They start from 1.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Whole numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, …: the counting numbers with zero added.

Zero is neither positive nor negative, and 1, 2, 3, … are the positive integers.

So the set is exactly zero plus the positive integers → option (c)

Why the others are wrong

(a)
They include fractions. — No fractions. Every whole number is an integer, so values such as 1⁄2 or 3.5 are left out. Fractions belong to the rational numbers, which contain the whole numbers, not the reverse.
(b)
They include negative numbers. — No negatives. −1, −2 and −3 are integers but not whole numbers. On the number line the whole numbers stop at 0.
(d)
They start from 1. — Starting from 1 describes the natural (counting) numbers 1, 2, 3, …. The whole numbers add 0 to that list, so they start from 0.

Concept

The number sets nest inside one another.

Natural numbers are 1, 2, 3, …. Add 0 and you get the whole numbers. Add −1, −2, −3, … and you get the integers.

Integers sit inside the rational numbers, which also hold fractions such as 1⁄2 and terminating decimals such as 3.5.

Some mathematics texts count 0 as a natural number too, so the names can overlap outside the classroom. The key follows the school definition: whole numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, ….

Key facts

Whole numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, …, the non-negative integers.
In the school convention, natural numbers are 1, 2, 3, ….
0 is neither positive nor negative.
Every whole number is an integer, and every integer is a rational number.

Study next

Integers, rational and irrational numbers, and how the sets nestPlacing a given number such as 0, −4 or √2 in every set it belongs to

Common traps

Treating whole and natural numbers as the same set. They differ only by the number 0.
Calling 0 a positive integer. It is an integer and a whole number, but neither positive nor negative.

20 Sep 2025, 12:30, Quant Q.8 asks which of −4, 0, 3.5 and 1⁄2 is both an integer and a whole number, and keys 0.

23 Sep 2025, 16:00, Quant Q.2 asks for the number that is neither rational nor an integer, and keys the square root of 2.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Computation of whole numbers, decimals, fractions and relationships between numbers — all 62 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.