What SSC CGL Tier-1 Reasoning Actually Asks: The Question Mix from 2021–2025 Papers
"General Intelligence and Reasoning" sounds like one subject. In the paper it is about fifteen small, repeatable question formats, and the same fifteen come back year after year with new content. If you know the formats, the section is 25 questions of pattern-matching. If you don't, every question is a fresh puzzle.
We took the 13 SSC CGL Tier-1 papers from 2021 to 2025 in the EnsureU previous-year set, classified all 325 Reasoning questions by format, and counted. Below is what a typical paper contains.
Text questions: about 20 of 25
| Format | Per paper | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Coding–decoding | 2.4 | "In a certain code language, 'FUTURE' is written as 'IXWXUH' and 'ISLAND' is written as…" Letter shifts, reversals, sentence codes ("na pa ka" means…), numeric codes from letter positions. |
| Letter-cluster series | 1.8 | "Select the letter-cluster that can replace the question mark: TSF, RPJ, PMN, NJR, ?" Each position moves by its own fixed step. |
| Number series | 1.4 | "…replace the question mark: 5, 18, 70, 278, ?" Two-operation or alternating patterns, not simple progressions. |
| Mathematical operations / sign interchange | 1.5 | "Which two signs should be interchanged to make the equation correct?" or "If '+' means '×'…" Evaluate with BODMAS. |
| Syllogism | 1.2 | "Read the given statements and conclusions carefully…" Two or three statements, two conclusions, four standard options. |
| Odd one out | 1.2 | "Three of the following four number-pairs are alike in a certain way and one is different." |
| Number-set analogy | 1.2 | "Select the set in which the numbers are related in the same way as (8, 12, 20) and (6, 9, 15)." |
| Blood relations | 1.0 | Often in coded form: "'A + B' means A is the father of B…" |
| Letter-cluster analogy | 0.9 | "FRONTIER : GSNOUHDS :: CLOSING : ?" |
| Seating / ordering | 0.8 | Five to seven people in a row or around a table; who sits where. |
| Letter series with blanks | 0.7 | "Select the combination of letters that when sequentially placed in the blanks…" |
| Dictionary order | 0.5 | Arrange five words as they appear in a dictionary. |
| Word analogy | 0.4 | "Select the option related to the third word in the same way as…" |
| Direction sense, others | 0.5 | Walks and turns; occasional age or arithmetic puzzles. |
Two things stand out. Series questions, counting all three kinds, are about four per paper: the single most valuable format to master (and, with the section's 15-minute budget from the Tier-1 time split, the one where speed pays most). And "analogy" is not the word-pair type most textbooks lead with; in the real paper it is mostly number sets and letter clusters, which are pattern questions in disguise.
Figure questions: about 5 of 25
| Format | Per paper | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Number matrix | 1.2 | A grid of numbers with a "?"; find the rule across rows or columns. |
| Dice | 0.8 | Two or three positions of a dice; which face is opposite a given one. |
| Figure series | 0.8 | Four figures rotating or evolving in a strip; pick the fifth. |
| Mirror / water image | 0.7 | A string like "g 5 9 2 1 6 R m" reflected in a mirror or in water. |
| Embedded figure | 0.6 | Which option contains figure (X) unchanged. |
| Venn diagram | 0.5 | Which arrangement of three circles fits "Doctors, Men, Married people". |
| Paper folding and cutting | 0.4 | A sheet folded and punched; how it looks unfolded. |
| Counting figures | 0.2 | How many triangles in the figure. |
Figure questions are where time disappears. Mirror images and dice have fixed tricks (a mirror reverses left–right only; two dice positions sharing two faces reveal the third pair) and should take under 40 seconds. Paper folding and embedded figures are slower; if one is not obvious in a minute, mark it and move on.
How to use this table
- Master the four-per-paper formats first: number series, letter-cluster series, coding. Together with sign interchange and syllogism, that is roughly 10 questions, or 20 marks, from five techniques.
- Learn the SSC wording. Each format has a standard stem ("Select the number from among the given options that can replace the question mark…"). Recognising it saves reading time on every question.
- Practise figure formats in the printed style. The real paper shows one image with the four candidates numbered 1–4 inside it. Our SSC CGL practice sets and mock papers draw them the same way, so nothing looks unfamiliar on the day.
- Check your own mix. The results analysis after any paper on EnsureU shows accuracy by topic, weakest first, so you see "Syllogism 0/2" rather than "Reasoning 68%".
The Quant section has its own version of this table in Quant topic weightage from five years of papers. The previous-year papers this analysis is based on are available to attempt under exam timing, with the official key and a worked solution for every question.