SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 24 September 2025, Shift 2 · General Intelligence and Reasoning · Question 4 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.

If 11 − 3 = 5, 14 − 5 = 4, then 18 − 6 = ?

(a)12
(b)6
(c)10
(d)11

Answer

Why

Correct — B.
Rule: a − b means a − 2b (take the second number away twice).

11 − 2 × 3 = 11 − 6 = 5 ✓
14 − 2 × 5 = 14 − 10 = 4 ✓

18 − 2 × 6 = 18 − 12 = 6 → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
12 — 12 is 18 − 6 done as printed. Ordinary subtraction fails the examples: 11 − 3 is 8, but the question gives 5.
(c)
10 — 10 would mean taking 8 from 18. The rule takes the second number away twice, 2 × 6 = 12, which leaves 6.
(d)
11 — 11 would mean taking 7 from 18. The examples take away twice the second number, and 2 × 6 is 12, not 7.

Concept

When a familiar sign gives unfamiliar results, the worked lines define it. Compare each result with what the sign normally gives.

Here 11 − 3 would be 8 but is 5, three less. 14 − 5 would be 9 but is 4, five less. Each time the shortfall equals the second number, so the sign takes it away twice: a − 2b.

Both worked lines fit a − 2b exactly, and it gives 6, the keyed option. Test a rule on every example before applying it, since a rule fitted to one line can fail the next.

Key facts

11 − 2 × 3 = 5 and 14 − 2 × 5 = 4.
18 − 2 × 6 = 6.
The gap between ordinary subtraction and the printed result is the second number.

Study next

Sign-substitution equations where + stands for × and so onTwo-step number rules such as a × b + a or a² − bMissing numbers in number grids

Common traps

Answering 12 by subtracting as printed
Fitting a rule to the first line and not checking it on the second

Here SSC keeps the minus sign and changes what it does, giving two worked lines to decode it.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Symbolic/Number Analogy — all 210 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.