SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · Reasoning and General Intelligence · Question 21 of 150

We transcribed this text from the pictures of a candidate's response sheet for this paper; the answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. This paper reaches us as a candidate's response sheet saved as pictures, so we transcribed the text from those pictures, and a second reader checked every question against them; where the layout carries meaning, we show the picture too. Each answer is the key SSC marked with a green tick 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. UnlockIAS wrote the solutions.

What is the mirror image of the given question figure , when mirror is placed at the right side of the question figure as shown in the figure?

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: a mirror at the right swaps left and right, keeps top and bottom, and never changes a hand's length or thickness.

In the question figure the long, thin hand points between 2 and 3, and the short, thick hand between 7 and 8.

The flip sends hour mark h to 12 − h: 2 → 10, 3 → 9, 7 → 5, 8 → 4.
So the long hand must point between 9 and 10, the short hand between 4 and 5.

Option (a) draws exactly that → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Figure (b) — Option (b) points the right ways but swaps the hands: the short, thick hand sits between 9 and 10 and the long, thin one between 4 and 5. A mirror moves a hand; it never changes its shape.
(c)
Figure (c) — Option (c) is not reflected at all. Its hands still point toward 2–3 and 7–8, as in the question figure, and the long and short hands have traded places as well.
(d)
Figure (d) — Option (d) puts the long hand between 10 and 11 and the short hand between 3 and 4. The flip of 2–3 is 9–10 and of 7–8 is 4–5, so both hands sit one gap off.

Concept

A mirror standing beside a figure, to its left or right, is a vertical mirror. It swaps left and right and leaves top and bottom where they are, so a hand pointing up-right points up-left in the image, and one pointing down-left points down-right.

On a clock face that sends each hour mark h to 12 − h, while the 12 and the 6 stay put. A hand keeps its length, its thickness and its arrowhead.

You do not need to read the time. Flip each hand on its own, then check two things in every option: where each hand points, and which hand is the long one. Option (b) passes the first check and fails the second.

Key facts

A mirror to the left or right of a figure swaps left and right but leaves top and bottom unchanged.
On a clock, a vertical mirror sends hour mark h to 12 − h: 2 → 10, 3 → 9, 7 → 5, 8 → 4.
In time terms the image shows 11:60 minus the real time, so 3:15 appears as 8:45.

Study next

Water images of clocks, with the mirror below the dialMirror images of letter and number stringsThe angle between the hour and minute hands

Common traps

Moving both hands correctly but swapping the long and short hands, as option (b) does
Picking the figure that looks like the original, which is not reflected at all
Flipping top to bottom, which is what a mirror below the clock would do

Here the mirror is drawn at the clock's right and the four options are clock faces.

A vertical mirror to the right of the figure is also set at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, Reasoning Q.19, on the string 5P6q7 rather than a clock.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Space Visualization — all 90 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.