18 November 2025 · Shift 2

Word reversal coding Compare NOTEBOOK with KOOBETON letter by letter: the code is simply the word read from its last letter to its first. Check it on RAINBOW: reversing R-A-I-N-B-O-W gives W-O-B-N-I-A-R, exactly the code given, and HEADPHONE behaves the same way. So reverse NEWSPAPER: N-E-W-S-P-A-P-E-R read backwards is R-E-P-A-P-S-W-E-N. So option (b) is correct; the other options disturb the order of the middle letters S, P, A, P.

Letter coding: +1 shift Compare OBSERVATORY with PCTFSWBUPSZ: O→P, B→C, S→T, and finally Y→Z — every letter moves exactly one place forward. MISINTERPRETATION → NJTJOUFSQSFUBUJPO obeys the same +1 rule, which confirms it. Apply +1 to RESPONSIVENESS: R→S, E→F, S→T, P→Q, O→P, N→O, S→T, I→J, V→W, E→F, N→O, E→F, S→T, S→T. The code is therefore SFTQPOTJWFOFTT, so option (b) is correct — the other options merely swap two of these letters.

Situation judgement: management The question names the cause of the delays itself: the employees are unclear about their roles. The first step must therefore remove that unclarity, and defining roles and responsibilities does exactly that — work then flows without overlap or gaps. Warning employees punishes them for a fault of the system, and cutting staff strength worsens a workload that is already slipping. Ignoring the matter until complaints increase only lets the delays grow, so option (b) is correct.

Symbol substitution, BODMAS First replace each symbol by the sign it really stands for. So 4 ? 12 % 6 % 8 becomes $4+12\times 6\times 8$. By BODMAS, all the multiplication is done before the addition: $12\times 6=72$ and $72\times 8=576$. Now add: 4+576=580. So option (b) is correct; adding first would wrongly give $16\times 6\times 8$, which is not among the options.

Situation judgement: mentoring The member is not unwilling but struggling, so what is needed is support, not pressure. Guidance together with a clear statement of what is expected removes the confusion and rebuilds confidence — that is precisely a senior's job. Ignoring the matter lets the work suffer, and pointing out mistakes in front of the team damages the morale that is already low. Taking over the duties permanently stops the member from ever learning the task, so option (b) is correct.

Blood relation: counting males B is the son of C but C is not B's mother, so C has to be B's father — C is male. A and C are a married couple, so A is C's wife — A is female. E is the brother of C, so E is male; F is the brother of A, so F is male as well. D is the daughter of A, so D is female, and B is a son, so B is male. The male members are B, C, E and F — four in all, while A and D are the two females. So option (b) is correct.

Time and work: inverse ratio The work stays the same, so the number of men and the number of days are in inverse proportion — more men means fewer days. Total work $=20\times 16=320$ man-days. Days needed by 32 men $=\frac{320}{32}=10$. The same result comes from $M_1{D}_1=M_2{D}_2$: $20\times 16=32\times D_2$, so $D_2=10$. So the work takes 10 days and option (b) is correct.

Addition of fractions Take the LCM of the denominators 5, 4 and 3, which is 60. Convert each fraction: $\frac{1}{5}=\frac{12}{60}$, $\frac{1}{4}=\frac{15}{60}$, $\frac{1}{3}=\frac{20}{60}$. Now combine: $\frac{12}{60}+\frac{15}{60}-\frac{20}{60}=\frac{12+15-20}{60}$. $\frac{12+15-20}{60}=\frac{7}{60}$, and 7 and 60 have no common factor, so it is already in lowest terms. So option (b) is correct.

Letter series: +4 shift Write the position numbers of the letters: K = 11, O = 15, S = 19, W = 23. The gap is the same at every step: 15-11=4, 19-15=4, 23-19=4. The next position is 23+4=27, but the alphabet has only 26 letters, so continue counting from the beginning: 27-26=1. Position 1 is A, so the missing letter is A and option (c) is correct. X would mean a step of only +1 and V a step of -1, neither of which matches the pattern.

Letter series: −3 shift Position numbers: J = 10, G = 7, D = 4, A = 1. Each term is 3 less than the one before it: 10-3=7, 7-3=4, 4-3=1. The next position would be 1-3=-2, so the count runs off the front of the alphabet and wraps round to its end. Add 26: -2+26=24, and the 24th letter is X. So option (a) is correct.

Word formation from letters First list the letters available in ORGANIZATION with their counts: A×2, G, I×2, N×2, O×2, R, T, Z. RATION needs R, A, T, I, O, N — every one of them is present, so it can be formed. NATION needs two N's, and ORGANIZATION supplies exactly two, so it can also be formed. ZOO needs one Z and two O's, and both O's are available, so it too can be formed. AGONIZE needs an E, and there is no E anywhere in ORGANIZATION, so it cannot be formed. So option (c) is correct.

Alternating number series The terms rise and fall irregularly, which is the signal to split the series into two alternating series. Terms at the odd places are 2, 4, 8, 16 — each is double the previous one. Terms at the even places are 8, 27, 64, ? — these are $2^3$, $3^3$ and $4^3$, so they are consecutive perfect cubes. The question mark stands at the fourth even place, so it must be $5^3$. $5^3=125$, so option (a) is correct; 100 and 49 are squares, not cubes, and 5 is only the base.

Series of growing differences Take the differences between consecutive terms: 100-80=20 and 122-100=22. The difference itself grows by 2 at every step, so the next two differences are 24 and 26. Missing term =122+24=146. Check the last step: 146+26=172, which is exactly the given final term, so the rule holds. So option (b) is correct.

Letter analogy: mixed shifts Write the position numbers of EFPK: E = 5, F = 6, P = 16, K = 11; and of HASF: H = 8, A = 1, S = 19, F = 6. Compare them place by place: $5\to 8$ is +3, $6\to 1$ is -5, $16\to 19$ is +3, $11\to 6$ is -5. So the first and third letters move 3 forward while the second and fourth move 5 backward. Apply the same rule to GERN: G=7 gives $7+3=10\to J$, and E=5 gives 5-5=0, which wraps round to $0+26=26\to Z$. R=18 gives $18+3=21\to U$, and N=14 gives $14-5=9\to I$. The required group is JZUI, so option (d) is correct — option (b) has U and Z interchanged and (c) ends in L.

Letter analogy: opposite letters Test the opposite-letter rule: a letter at position n is replaced by the letter at position 27-n (A↔Z, B↔Y, and so on). For STEM: S=19 gives $27-19=8\to H$; T=20 gives $7\to G$; E=5 gives $22\to V$; M=13 gives $14\to N$ — exactly HGVN. Apply the same rule to DEAR: D=4 gives $27-4=23\to W$; E=5 gives $22\to V$. A=1 gives $26\to Z$; R=18 gives $9\to I$. The required group is WVZI, so option (d) is correct.

Address matching Read the given address in small pieces and compare each option piece by piece, watching the full stops and the Roman numeral. Option (a) writes the phase as 'Phase 5', while the given address uses the Roman numeral 'Phase V'. Option (b) writes 'Gate No 2' and drops the full stop after 'No'. Option (c) writes 'G.T. Park' with two full stops, whereas the given address has 'GT Park' without them. Option (d) repeats every word, every comma and every full stop exactly as given, so option (d) is the answer.

Situational judgement Judgement questions are decided by the rule of professional conduct: act on facts, through the proper channel, without humiliating anyone. Ignoring the matter (a) lets a false claim stand on the official record and is unfair to the person who actually did the work. Confronting the colleague publicly (b) turns a workplace issue into a scene and still leaves the record uncorrected, while discussing it casually with others (d) is only gossip and damages reputations without any check on the facts. Placing the facts before the concerned authority corrects the record through the recognised channel and protects both persons, so option (c) is the answer.

Letter series completion Count the places in the string: there are 18 in all (letters plus blanks), so split it into three blocks of six. Block 3 shows B, T, T in its first three places and block 2 shows T, G, H, K in its last four, so the repeating unit must be B T T G H K. Filling that unit into each block gives T in block 1, then B and T in block 2, then G, H and K in block 3. Reading the blanks in order gives T, B, T, G, H, K, so option (d) is the answer.

Number series The terms rise slowly, so take the difference between consecutive terms. The differences are $0.9,1.5,2.1,2.7$, and these themselves grow by a constant 0.6 each time. So the next difference is 2.7+0.6=3.3. Next term =7.6+3.3=10.9, so option (b) is the answer.

Logical inference 'Only X are eligible' makes X a necessary condition: nobody outside X can be promoted, so every promoted person lies inside X. Rohan was promoted, so he must have been eligible, and eligibility demands experience of more than five years. Option (a) fixes the experience at exactly five years, which 'more than five' rules out; (c) and (d) bring in seniority and efficiency that the statement never mentions. Only the experience condition follows for certain, so option (b) is the answer.

Logical inference The statement lays down a compulsory condition at the booth: a registered voter has to carry a valid voter ID. Seema has entered the booth without one, so the condition that voting requires is simply not met in her case. Option (a) goes too far - a genuine registered voter may have left the card at home; (b) invents a reason and (c) judges her character, neither of which the statement supplies. Only the consequence of failing the stated condition follows, so option (d) is the answer.

Direction sense Take north as the upward direction and plot the walk leg by leg. The first leg is 30 km north. A right turn from north makes him face east, so the 50 km leg runs east. A right turn from east makes him face south, so the last 30 km leg runs south and exactly cancels the first 30 km northward leg. What is left is the 50 km eastward leg alone, so he is 50 km east of the starting point and option (a) is the answer.

Odd one out All four are famous technology companies, so a sharper link has to be found that ties exactly three of them together. Google, Facebook and Twitter were born as internet-based platforms - a search engine and two social-media services - and their earnings come mainly from advertising shown on those platforms. Microsoft, in contrast, grew on packaged software products such as Windows and Office that run on the user's own machine, not on an internet platform. Microsoft is therefore the one outside the group, so option (a) is the answer.

Letter-number analogy In each pair treat the number and the two letters separately, and check what operation carries the left side to the right side. In (a) $58\times 2=116$ with S$\to$T and B$\to$C; in (c) $107\times 2=214$ with B$\to$C and S$\to$T; in (d) $135\times 2=270$ with C$\to$D and T$\to$U. So the common rule is: double the number and move each letter one step forward. In (b) the letters obey the rule (T$\to$U, C$\to$D) but $94\times 3=282$, so the number is tripled instead of doubled. Option (b) therefore breaks the pattern and is the answer.

Word formation First list the stock of letters available in DEMOCRACY: D, E, M, O, C, R, A, C, Y (the letter C is available twice). CORE needs C, O, R, E; MAYOR needs M, A, Y, O, R; READ needs R, E, A, D - every one of these letters is in the stock. CANDY needs the letter N, and there is no N anywhere in DEMOCRACY. Hence CANDY cannot be formed and option (c) is the answer.