SSC CPO Reasoning Questions with Answers: Quick Answer
This page gives 20 original SSC CPO reasoning questions with answers and full step-by-step explanations. Every question is written for the General Intelligence and Reasoning part of SSC CPO Paper 1: 25 questions, 25 marks, 1 mark per question, 0.25 deducted for each wrong answer, with a 15-minute sectional timer inside a 60-minute paper of 100 questions and 100 marks. The set covers what the part actually tests — number and letter series, analogies, coding-decoding, blood relations, direction sense, odd one out, syllogisms, ranking, statement-based questions and a circular seating puzzle. The level matches the revised 2026 Paper 1.
Key takeaway: These 20 questions are original practice questions written for this page. They are not previous-year questions and are not copied from any paper, book or website. The circular seating puzzle in Question 16 was checked by brute force in code to confirm that exactly one arrangement fits the conditions. Work the set in about 15 minutes — that is 45 seconds per question, the pace the sectional timer forces — and read every explanation, including for the ones you got right.
How to Use This Set
CPO Paper 1 gives you 25 reasoning questions in 15 minutes: 36 seconds per question. That timer is the whole game. Three habits pay off. First, in series questions, check the difference between consecutive terms before anything else — most CPO series are difference patterns, and the difference pattern is usually simpler than the terms. Second, in puzzles, fix one person first and fill the rest around them; never hold the whole arrangement in your head. Third, in syllogisms, draw circles — "all" is one circle inside another, "some" is two overlapping circles — and a conclusion only follows if it is true in every drawing that fits the statements. The answer key is spread evenly across all four options, so no guessing pattern helps; only the explanations do.
SSC CPO Reasoning Method Box
- Series: check the difference first, then the ratio, then the pattern of the differences. The differences 3, 5, 7, 9 in Question 10 are the whole question.
- Coding by position: A = 1, B = 2, and so on. A code can be a sum of positions (CAT = 3 + 1 + 20 = 24) or a shift of each letter (WATER becomes XBUFS when every letter moves one step forward).
- Blood relations: draw the family tree from the oldest generation down. "The son of my father's only son" is your own son if you are speaking.
- Direction sense: draw the path as you read it. A right turn after walking north faces east; a second right turn faces south.
- Circular seating, facing the centre: a person's right hand points counter-clockwise and their left hand points clockwise. Fix one person first, then fill the rest around them, and check every condition against the finished circle.
- Ranking: position from the other end = total − position from this end + 1.
Question 1 — Number Series
Q1. What comes next in the series 3, 9, 27, 81, ?
(A) 243 (B) 189 (C) 162 (D) 324
Answer: (A) 243. Each term is 3 times the one before it: 3 × 3 = 9, 9 × 3 = 27, 27 × 3 = 81. The next term is 81 × 3 = 243. Check the options before you calculate — 189 and 162 are not multiples of 3 in this chain, and 324 is 81 × 4, which breaks the pattern.
Question 2 — Letter Series
Q2. What comes next in the series A, C, F, J, O, ?
(A) S (B) U (C) T (D) V
Answer: (B) U. Convert the letters to positions: A = 1, C = 3, F = 6, J = 10, O = 15. The gaps are 2, 3, 4, 5, increasing by 1 each time. The next gap is 6, so the next letter is O + 6 = U (15 + 6 = 21). This is the same idea as the n² + n pattern in numbers — the gaps themselves form a series.
Question 3 — Analogy
Q3. Doctor : Hospital :: Teacher : ?
(A) Student (B) Book (C) School (D) Lesson
Answer: (C) School. The relationship is a person and the place where they work: a doctor works in a hospital, and a teacher works in a school. A student is the person a teacher teaches, not the place; a book and a lesson are things a teacher uses, not where they work.
Question 4 — Coding-Decoding
Q4. If CAT is coded as 24 and DOG is coded as 26, what is RAT coded as?
(A) 36 (B) 38 (C) 40 (D) 39
Answer: (D) 39. The code is the sum of the alphabetical positions: CAT = 3 + 1 + 20 = 24, and DOG = 4 + 15 + 7 = 26. For RAT: R + A + T = 18 + 1 + 20 = 39. Always test the rule on both given examples before applying it — a rule that fits only one of them is a trap.
Question 5 — Blood Relation
Q5. Ravi is the brother of Sita. Sita is the mother of Anil. How is Ravi related to Anil?
(A) Uncle (B) Father (C) Brother (D) Grandfather
Answer: (A) Uncle. Sita is Anil's mother, and Ravi is Sita's brother, so Ravi is the brother of Anil's mother — Anil's maternal uncle. Draw the tree: Ravi and Sita on one level, Anil one level below Sita. The answer is the person one level up from Anil on his mother's side.
Question 6 — Direction Sense
Q6. A man walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, then turns right and walks 5 km. How far is he from his starting point?
(A) 5 km (B) 3 km (C) 8 km (D) 13 km
Answer: (B) 3 km. Draw the path. He walks 5 km north, turns right (east) and walks 3 km, then turns right again (south) and walks 5 km. The 5 km north and the 5 km south cancel each other out exactly, leaving only the 3 km east. He is 3 km east of where he started. The trap is adding all three distances to get 13 km — distance walked is not distance from the start.
Question 7 — Odd One Out
Q7. Which number is different from the rest?
(A) 121 (B) 144 (C) 150 (D) 169
Answer: (C) 150. 121 = 11², 144 = 12² and 169 = 13² — all three are perfect squares. 150 is not a perfect square (12² = 144 and 13² = 169, and nothing between them squares to 150). When numbers are the options, check squares and cubes first.
Question 8 — Syllogism
Q8. Statements: All cats are animals. Some animals are black. Which conclusion follows?
(A) All black things are cats (B) Some cats are black (C) All animals are cats (D) None of the above follows
Answer: (D) None of the above follows. Draw the circles: the cats circle sits inside the animals circle, and the black-things circle overlaps the animals circle somewhere — but nothing says where. The overlap could be entirely outside the cats circle, so "some cats are black" is possible but not forced. A conclusion follows only if it is true in every drawing that fits the statements. "Some pens are erasers" does not follow from "All pens are pencils" and "Some pencils are erasers" for exactly the same reason.
Question 9 — Ranking
Q9. In a row of 40 students, Rahul is 12th from the left. What is his position from the right?
(A) 29th (B) 28th (C) 30th (D) 27th
Answer: (A) 29th. Position from the other end = total − position from this end + 1. So 40 − 12 + 1 = 29. The "+1" is the part everyone forgets: Rahul himself counts in both directions, so without it you would count him twice. Check with a small case: in a row of 5, the 2nd from the left is 5 − 2 + 1 = 4th from the right, which is correct.
Question 10 — Number Series
Q10. What comes next in the series 2, 5, 10, 17, 26, ?
(A) 35 (B) 37 (C) 39 (D) 41
Answer: (B) 37. The differences are 3, 5, 7, 9 — odd numbers increasing by 2. The next difference is 11, so the next term is 26 + 11 = 37. Equivalently, the terms are 1² + 1, 2² + 1, 3² + 1, 4² + 1, 5² + 1, so the next is 6² + 1 = 37.
Question 11 — Coding-Decoding
Q11. If DOG is coded as EPH, how is CAT coded?
(A) DCV (B) EBU (C) DBU (D) CBU
Answer: (C) DBU. The code shifts every letter one step forward: D → E, O → P, G → H. Apply the same shift to CAT: C → D, A → B, T → U, giving DBU. This is the simplest coding rule in the exam, and it is also the easiest to misread — check that every letter in the example shifts by the same amount before you apply it.
Question 12 — Analogy
Q12. Book : Read :: Pen : ?
(A) Paper (B) Ink (C) Draw (D) Write
Answer: (D) Write. The relationship is an object and the action it is used for: a book is for reading, and a pen is for writing. Paper and ink are things a pen needs, not what it is used to do. "Draw" is close, but a pen's primary action in this pairing is writing.
Question 13 — Direction Sense
Q13. Facing north, a girl turns 90° clockwise, then 180° anticlockwise. Which direction does she face now?
(A) West (B) East (C) North (D) South
Answer: (A) West. Facing north, a 90° clockwise turn faces east. A 180° anticlockwise turn from east faces west — a half-turn always reverses the direction. Track it step by step rather than adding the angles: 90° clockwise then 180° anticlockwise is a net 90° anticlockwise from north, which is west.
Question 14 — Blood Relation
Q14. Pointing to a photograph, Rohan says, "He is the son of my father's only son." Who is the person in the photograph?
(A) Rohan's brother (B) Rohan's son (C) Rohan's father (D) Rohan's nephew
Answer: (B) Rohan's son. Rohan's father's only son is Rohan himself — he has no brother to be the "only son". So "the son of my father's only son" is the son of Rohan: Rohan's son. The trick is the phrase "my father's only son", which is a roundabout way of saying "me". Once you decode that, the rest of the sentence reads itself.
Question 15 — Syllogism
Q15. Statements: All dogs are animals. All animals are living beings. Conclusions: I. All dogs are living beings. II. Some living beings are dogs. Which follows?
(A) Only I follows (B) Only II follows (C) Both I and II follow (D) Neither follows
Answer: (C) Both I and II follow. Draw three nested circles: dogs inside animals, animals inside living beings. Conclusion I follows, because everything inside the dogs circle is inside the living beings circle. Conclusion II follows too, because the dogs circle is a non-empty part of the living beings circle — some living beings are dogs. When both statements are "all", the chain carries through, and the "some" conclusion follows from the existence of the inner circle.
Question 16 — Circular Seating Puzzle
Q16. Six people — P, Q, R, S, T and U — sit around a circle facing the centre. P sits second to the right of Q. R sits immediately to the left of P. S sits opposite Q. T sits between S and U. U is not next to R. Who sits immediately to the right of U?
(A) P (B) R (C) T (D) Q
Answer: (D) Q. Work it out step by step. Facing the centre, a person's right hand points counter-clockwise and their left hand points clockwise. Fix Q first. P is second to the right of Q, so P is two places counter-clockwise from Q. R is immediately to the left of P, so R is one place clockwise from P. S is opposite Q, three places away. That leaves two places for T and U, and T must sit between S and U — so going round the circle the order is P, R, Q, U, T, S. Check the last condition: U is not next to R, and in this arrangement U sits between Q and T, so the condition holds. The arrangement is unique — it was checked by brute force over all 720 seatings, and exactly one arrangement (up to rotation) satisfies all five conditions. U's immediate right — one place counter-clockwise from U — is Q.
Question 17 — Odd One Out
Q17. Which group of letters is different from the rest?
(A) ABE (B) BCD (C) CDE (D) DEF
Answer: (A) ABE. In BCD, CDE and DEF, each letter follows the previous one by exactly one step: B → C → D, C → D → E, D → E → F. In ABE, the first step is one (A → B) but the second step is three (B → E). Convert letters to positions and check the gaps — the odd one out is the group whose gaps do not match.
Question 18 — Number Series
Q18. What comes next in the series 5, 11, 23, 47, ?
(A) 94 (B) 95 (C) 96 (D) 97
Answer: (B) 95. Each term is twice the previous term plus 1: 5 × 2 + 1 = 11, 11 × 2 + 1 = 23, 23 × 2 + 1 = 47. The next term is 47 × 2 + 1 = 95. When the terms roughly double, try "multiply and add" before trying differences — the differences here are 6, 12, 24, which double, and that is the same pattern seen from the other side.
Question 19 — Venn Diagram
Q19. Which statement best describes the relationship between Men, Fathers and Brothers?
(A) Three separate groups with no overlap (B) Three groups that overlap but none contains another (C) All fathers are men; some brothers are fathers and some men are brothers (D) All men are fathers
Answer: (C) All fathers are men; some brothers are fathers and some men are brothers. Every father is a man, so the fathers circle sits inside the men circle. Brothers overlap both: some brothers are fathers, some brothers are not, and some men are brothers while others are not. Option (D) is the classic error — not every man is a father.
Question 20 — Coding-Decoding
Q20. If WATER is coded as XBUFS, how is MILK coded?
(A) MJML (B) NKML (C) NJNL (D) NJML
Answer: (D) NJML. The code shifts every letter one step forward: W → X, A → B, T → U, E → F, R → S. Apply the same shift to MILK: M → N, I → J, L → M, K → L, giving NJML. Option (B) NKML shifts the second letter by two, and option (C) NJNL shifts the third letter by two — both are traps for readers who stop checking after the first letter.
Common Mistakes in CPO Reasoning
- Adding distances instead of drawing the path. In direction questions, the distance walked is not the distance from the start. The 5 km north and 5 km south in Question 6 cancel out.
- Accepting a syllogism conclusion that is merely possible. "Some cats are black" might be true, but it does not follow from the statements. A conclusion must hold in every possible drawing.
- Forgetting the +1 in ranking. Position from the right is total − position from the left + 1. Without the +1, Rahul would be 28th, which is one place out.
- Holding a seating puzzle in your head. Fix one person, write the circle down, and check every condition against the finished arrangement. The brute-force check on Question 16 confirms there is exactly one arrangement — if your arrangement breaks any condition, it is wrong.
- Stopping the code check after one letter. In Question 20, two of the wrong options shift only one letter differently. Check every letter of the example before applying the rule.
Memory Tricks for CPO Reasoning
- Series: differences first. If the differences form a pattern, the question is solved. Only look at ratios when the differences do not.
- Circles for syllogisms. "All" is one circle inside another; "some" is two circles overlapping. If the conclusion is not true in every drawing, it does not follow.
- Ranking: total minus position plus one. Say it as a sentence: "40 minus 12 plus 1 is 29."
- Facing the centre: right is counter-clockwise. Your right hand points the way the clock does not go. Left is clockwise. Write it on your rough sheet before the puzzle.
- Coding: test the rule on every given example. A rule that fits CAT but not DOG is not the rule.
SSC CPO Reasoning FAQs
How many reasoning questions are there in CPO Paper 1?
25 questions for 25 marks, with a 15-minute sectional timer. Each question carries 1 mark and 0.25 is deducted for a wrong answer.
Are these CPO reasoning questions from previous year papers?
No. All 20 questions on this page are original practice questions written for this page. They are modelled on the Paper 1 General Intelligence section's style and difficulty. For real previous year papers, see the CPO previous year paper note linked below.
Is the seating puzzle in this set verified?
Yes. The circular seating puzzle in Question 16 was checked by brute force over all 720 possible seatings: exactly one arrangement (up to rotation) satisfies all five conditions, so the answer is forced and there is no second arrangement that fits.
Does Paper 1 reasoning count in the final merit?
No. Paper 1 only shortlists candidates for the physical test. Final merit is based on Paper 2 marks only, plus any NCC bonus. But you cannot reach Paper 2 without clearing Paper 1, and the 15-minute sectional timer makes reasoning the section where most candidates lose time.
How is the 2026 CPO pattern different from the old one?
Paper 1 has halved — from 200 questions in 2 hours to 100 in 1 hour — and Paper 2 is no longer an English-only paper. Reasoning now appears in both papers, so this set practises the Paper 1 form: 25 questions in 15 minutes.
Practice Next for SSC CPO Reasoning
- Pattern: SSC CPO exam pattern 2026
- Syllabus: SSC CPO syllabus 2026
- English set: SSC CPO English questions
- GK set: SSC CPO GK questions
- Previous papers: SSC CPO previous year question paper
- Physical test: SSC CPO physical test 2026
- Cut-off: SSC CPO cut off
- Practice: SSC CPO Paper 1 reasoning sectional mock test 01, SSC CPO Paper 1 full mock test 01, SSC CPO reasoning mock test 01
Sources: house SSC CPO exam pattern note (Paper 1: 100 questions, 100 marks, 1 hour, 25 questions per part, 15-minute sectional timer, 0.25 negative marking; Paper 2: 160 questions, 320 marks; final merit on Paper 2 marks only plus NCC bonus) and house SSC CHSL reasoning questions note for the question-set format. The Question 16 seating puzzle was verified by brute force in code: exactly one arrangement up to rotation satisfies all five conditions. All 20 questions are original and were written for this page. As of 6 November 2026.