SSC CGL 2025 Tier-II · Paper-I, 19 January 2026 · Reasoning and General Intelligence · Question 6 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.

Identify the word that cannot be constructed using the letters of the given word. PROCRASTINATE

(a)PRINTED
(b)PAINTER
(c)TRACTOR
(d)PATTERN

Answer

Why

Correct — A.
Rule: every letter of the new word must be in the given word, as many times as it is used.

PROCRASTINATE holds P, R, R, O, C, A, A, S, T, T, I, N, E.

PRINTED needs a D, and PROCRASTINATE has none.
So PRINTED cannot be made → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
PAINTER — PAINTER uses P, A, I, N, T, E and R once each, and PROCRASTINATE has all seven. It can be made.
(c)
TRACTOR — TRACTOR needs two Ts and two Rs, and PROCRASTINATE has exactly two of each, plus the A, C and O. It can be made.
(d)
PATTERN — PATTERN needs two Ts, which PROCRASTINATE has, and P, A, E, R and N once each. It can be made.

Concept

Word-formation items test letters and their counts, never their order. List the given word's letters with how often each appears, then test each option against that list.

The quickest check is a letter the given word lacks — here D. When no option has one, compare counts: a word needing three Ts cannot come from a word with two.

PRINTED and PAINTER share six letters: P, R, I, N, T and E. The seventh decides it — PROCRASTINATE has the A of PAINTER but not the D of PRINTED.

Key facts

PROCRASTINATE has 13 letters, with R, A and T appearing twice each.
It has no D, so no word containing D can be formed from it.
A letter can be used only as many times as it appears in the given word.

Study next

Word formation when each letter may be used only onceLetter-count checks for doubled letters such as TT or RRArranging jumbled letters into a meaningful word

Common traps

Checking which letters appear but not how many times, when TRACTOR and PATTERN each need two Ts
Reading PRINTED as PAINTER, which shares six of its seven letters

12 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.9 asks the same of INTELLIGENCE, which cannot make CANCEL: it has no A and a single C.

At 21 Sep 2025, 16:00, Reasoning Q.19 the word that cannot be made from ADMINISTRATION is SITUATION, which needs a U.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.