Q1. Statement: A significant number of pedestrians, especially children, have been bitten by stray dogs in a mid-sized city over the past year.
Courses of Action: I. The municipal corporation should launch a mass sterilization and vaccination drive for stray dogs. II. The municipal corporation should order the immediate euthanization of all stray dogs found within city limits.
Correct Option A … Explanation: A valid course of action must address the root cause in a practical and reasonable manner. Course I does exactly that — sterilization controls the stray population over time and vaccination removes the rabies risk that makes bites dangerous, which is the standard, workable municipal response. Course II is an extreme and inhumane measure that goes far beyond what the situation demands; mass euthanization of all strays is neither a proportionate nor an acceptable administrative response. Since only I is a sound remedial step, options B, C, D and E are ruled out. Hence, option A.Q2. Statement: A university's placement cell has been circulating outdated job listings, causing several final-year students to miss application deadlines at reputed companies.
Courses of Action: I. The university should shut down its placement cell. II. The university could coordinate directly with recruiting companies.
Correct Option B … Explanation: The problem is stale information, not the existence of the placement cell itself. Course II attacks the cause directly — coordinating with recruiters ensures listings and deadlines are current, restoring the very function students depend on. Course I is an overreaction: shutting the cell down removes the placement support entirely and leaves students worse off than before, which is the classic mark of an invalid course of action. Since only II follows, the remaining combinations fail. Hence, option B.Q3. Statement: An e-commerce company's customer support lines have been overwhelmed since it stopped offering a chatbot option last quarter, resulting in average wait times of over 40 minutes.
Courses of Action: I. The company should reintroduce a chatbot to handle routine queries before they reach human agents. II. The company should hire and train additional customer support staff.
Correct Option E … Explanation: Both steps are reasonable and mutually reinforcing. Course I reverses the identified cause by filtering routine queries away from human agents, which is precisely what changed last quarter. Course II raises the capacity of the support system so that the queries that do reach agents are handled within acceptable time. Neither is extreme, impractical or harmful, and together they reduce wait times from both the demand and the supply side. Option C is wrong because the two are complementary rather than alternatives. Hence, option E.Q4. Statement: A chain of bakeries has reported that nearly a fifth of its daily bread output goes unsold and is discarded by closing time.
Courses of Action: I. The bakery should introduce a discount on unsold bread during the last hour before closing. II. The bakery should focus only on pastries, as it is their most sold product.
Correct Option A … Explanation: Course I is a practical, low-cost measure that converts soon-to-be-discarded stock into sales, cutting waste while recovering revenue — a recognised retail practice for perishables. Course II abandons an entire product line on the strength of one indicator; dropping bread altogether sacrifices the demand that already exists for it and does nothing to solve the underlying problem of over-production. A course of action that eliminates the activity instead of correcting it does not follow. Hence, option A.Q5. Statement: A city's only multiplex cinema has seen ticket sales fall by nearly 35 percent since a popular online streaming service launched in the region two years ago.
Courses of Action: I. The multiplex should permanently reduce ticket prices to match the cost of streaming subscriptions. II. The multiplex should petition the government to ban streaming services within city limits.
Correct Option D … Explanation: Course I is commercially unviable and rests on a false comparison — a per-ticket price cannot be permanently pegged to a monthly subscription covering unlimited content, and such a cut would threaten the multiplex's survival rather than save it. Course II seeks to eliminate a lawful competitor through a ban, which is neither a reasonable business response nor something a cinema can legitimately expect the state to do. Since both are extreme and impractical, neither qualifies as a valid course of action. Hence, option D.Q6. Statement: A software company found that nearly a quarter of new hires leave within their first six months due to unclear job expectations.
Courses of Action: I. The company should design a structured onboarding program for new hires. II. The company should stop hiring new employees.
Correct Option A … Explanation: The stated cause is unclear job expectations, and structured onboarding is the direct remedy — it communicates roles, responsibilities and performance standards from day one, addressing exactly why the attrition occurs. Course II confuses the symptom with the cause: halting recruitment does not clarify expectations and cripples the company's ability to staff itself, making it an extreme and self-defeating step. Hence, option A.Q7. Statement: An online retailer's customer complaints about damaged goods have tripled since it switched to a cheaper packaging material three months ago to cut costs.
Courses of Action: I. The retailer should discontinue selling fragile items through its platform. II. The retailer should revert to using the previously used expensive packaging material for shipments.
Correct Option B … Explanation: The timeline in the statement points clearly to the packaging switch as the cause, so reverting to the material that previously kept goods intact removes the cause directly; the extra packaging cost is also offset by fewer damage claims and returns. Course I eliminates a revenue stream rather than the defect, and it wrongly assumes fragile items are the problem when the real change was in packaging quality. Hence, option B.Q8. Statement: A city's business district has seen a sharp rise in shoplifting incidents over the past six months, with several small retailers reporting significant inventory losses.
Courses of Action: I. Install visible security cameras in stores. II. Increase police foot patrols in the district during business hours. III. Encourage retailers to share incident data to identify repeat offenders.
Correct Option E … Explanation: All three steps are reasonable, feasible and complementary. Visible cameras deter theft and provide evidence, increased patrols raise the perceived risk of being caught during business hours, and shared incident data helps retailers identify organised or repeat offenders who move between shops. None of the three is extreme, disproportionate or impractical, and together they form a layered response covering deterrence, enforcement and intelligence. Hence, option E.Q9. Statement: A manufacturing unit has recorded a rise in workplace injuries over the past year, most of which occurred on machines that had not been serviced in over 18 months.
Courses of Action: I. Establish a mandatory periodic maintenance schedule for all machinery. II. Provide refresher safety training to machine operators. III. Replace all existing machinery with newer models to eliminate the possibility of equipment-related injuries.
Correct Option C … Explanation: The statement links the injuries to machines left unserviced for over 18 months, so a mandatory maintenance schedule (I) addresses the cause head-on, while refresher training (II) is a reasonable supporting measure that reduces operator error around machinery. Course III is extreme and financially disproportionate — wholesale replacement of all machinery is unnecessary when servicing is the identified gap, and its claim of eliminating the possibility of injury is an overstatement, since new machines also require maintenance and safe handling. Hence, option C.Q10. Statement: Agriculture employs close to half of a country's workforce but contributes only around a fifth of its GDP, indicating low productivity per worker in the sector.
Courses of Action: I. Discourage people from taking up agriculture as an occupation. II. Provide incentives and training to help farmers adopt more productive techniques. III. Actively discourage growth in other sectors of the economy.
Correct Option B … Explanation: The problem identified is low productivity per worker, and Course II attacks it directly by equipping farmers with better techniques and the incentives to adopt them, raising output per worker. Course I merely pushes people away from an occupation without improving the sector or guaranteeing alternative livelihoods, and is coercive besides. Course III is actively harmful — suppressing other sectors would shrink the economy rather than correct the imbalance. Hence, option B.Q11. Statement: A large residential society has reported that nearly 20 percent of its edible food waste, discarded from its cafeterias, could have been consumed.
Courses of Action: I. Require the cafeterias to donate surplus edible food to local charities before disposal. II. Run awareness campaigns among residents to avoid ordering food from outside. III. Prohibit cafeterias from preparing more food than the estimated daily demand.
Correct Option D … Explanation: Course I is a workable step that redirects still-edible surplus to people who can use it, which is precisely the waste the statement describes. Course II is irrelevant to the stated problem — residents ordering from outside is not identified as the cause of cafeteria surplus, and restricting personal food choices does not reduce edible waste. Course III is impractical as an absolute prohibition, since daily demand can only be estimated and a hard cap risks shortages for residents. Since only I follows, the other combinations fail. Hence, option D.Q12. Statement: A regional airline has faced a wave of cancellations and refund requests after several flights were delayed by over six hours in the past month due to a shortage of available aircrew.
Courses of Action: I. Hire and train additional aircrew to build a buffer against shortages. II. Improve crew scheduling systems to better anticipate and prevent shortages. III. Offer proactive compensation and rebooking options to affected passengers. IV. Significantly reduce the airline's total number of daily flights.
Correct Option B … Explanation: Courses I and II address the cause from both sides — more trained crew creates a buffer against absences, while better scheduling prevents avoidable gaps from arising in the first place. Course III addresses the immediate consequence by retaining passengers who have already been affected, which is necessary given the wave of cancellations and refunds. Course IV is extreme: cutting flights significantly shrinks the airline's business and revenue in order to fit a staffing gap that can be closed, making it a concession to the problem rather than a solution. Hence, option B.Q13. Statement: A telecom company has seen a spike in customer churn after a billing software update caused numerous customers to be overcharged on their monthly statements.
Courses of Action: I. Issue immediate refunds and public clarification to affected customers. II. Offer a loyalty discount to all customers to rebuild goodwill. III. Audit and fix the billing software to prevent recurring overcharges. IV. Discontinue billing through software and revert to manual billing.
Correct Option A … Explanation: Course I remedies the harm already done — refunds plus a public clarification restore trust with the very customers who were overcharged and are leaving. Course III removes the cause by auditing and repairing the faulty update so the error does not recur. Course II is a blanket, costly giveaway to all customers including those never affected, and it does not address either the overcharging or the software defect. Course IV is regressive and impractical, since abandoning software billing for manual processing would create fresh errors and delays at scale. Hence, option A.Q14. A city has experienced a sharp increase in dengue cases over the past two monsoon seasons. Health officials have traced the outbreak primarily to stagnant water collecting in construction sites, discarded containers, and blocked drains, which serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action to reduce the dengue outbreak?
Correct Option E … Explanation: The statement itself identifies stagnant water as the primary breeding source, so eliminating that source through regular inspections and clearance drives is the measure that acts on the cause and reduces transmission at scale. Option A offers only partial, individual protection and depends on consistent use. Option B prepares the city to treat cases rather than prevent them. Option C is ineffective, since the vector breeds in and around homes and daytime activity cannot realistically be suspended for a season. Option D is extreme and disproportionate — the problem is water accumulating at construction sites, not construction itself, which regular inspection can fix. Hence, option E.Q15. A regional bank has noticed that a growing number of first-time loan applicants are being rejected due to a lack of formal credit history, even though many have stable incomes and consistent bill payment records through utility and rent payments.
Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the bank?
Correct Option D … Explanation: The gap identified is one of assessment, not of borrower quality — the applicants do have evidence of reliability, just not in the formal credit-bureau format. Using alternative data such as utility and rent payment records lets the bank measure that reliability and lend to creditworthy customers it is currently turning away. Option A excludes even more applicants without improving risk assessment. Option B penalises reliable borrowers for a data gap and invites adverse selection. Option C shifts the burden onto applicants and excludes those without well-credited contacts. Option E forfeits an entire customer segment. Hence, option D.Q16. The rate of childhood obesity is rising, and within a generation, a majority of children and teenagers may be overweight. At the same time, rates of disordered eating driven by fear of weight gain are also increasing among teenagers.
Which of the following would be an effective step to address both trends?
Correct Option C … Explanation: The question demands a single measure that works on both trends at once. Promoting balanced nutrition and reasonable activity establishes healthy habits without framing food or body weight as something to fear, so it addresses rising obesity while avoiding the restriction-and-anxiety cycle that drives disordered eating. Option A stigmatises children by body type and would worsen the second trend. Option B ignores individual needs and imposes exactly the rigid control that can fuel disordered eating. Option D applies a medical intervention where habit formation is called for and heightens fear of weight gain. Option E targets only one side of the problem and does nothing for disordered eating. Hence, option C.Q17. A university's library has reported that a large proportion of students avoid checking out physical books because they find the current cataloguing system confusing and time-consuming to navigate.
Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the library?
Correct Option B … Explanation: The obstacle named is the cataloguing system itself, so redesigning it for clarity and backing it with staff help removes the friction while preserving the collection and access. Option A sacrifices resources to solve a navigation problem. Option C discards physical books entirely rather than making them findable. Option D adds a compulsory hurdle before borrowing, which would further discourage the very behaviour the library wants to encourage. Option E shrinks access instead of improving usability. Hence, option B.Q18. A nation's coastal fishing communities have reported declining fish catches over the past decade, a period that has coincided with a marked increase in unregulated commercial trawling in the same waters.
Which of the following, if implemented, is the most likely to reverse the decline in fish catches?
Correct Option D … Explanation: The decline is tied to unregulated commercial trawling, which depletes stock faster than it can replenish, so regulating and enforcing limits on that activity allows fish populations to recover and catches to rise again. Option A would intensify the very pressure causing depletion. Option B improves infrastructure but not stock. Option C lowers operating costs without adding fish to the water and may again increase fishing effort. Option E raises prices for consumers while leaving the resource problem untouched. Hence, option D.Q19. An electronics manufacturer has found that a specific model of its wireless earphones has a return rate nearly four times higher than its other products, with most returns citing the same battery-related defect within the first month of use.
Which of the following would be the most appropriate course of action for the manufacturer?
Correct Option E … Explanation: Only this option does both necessary things — it removes the cause by fixing the identified battery defect and it remedies the harm to customers already holding faulty units. Option A protects future buyers but leaves existing customers with a defective product. Option B pauses output without correcting anything on its own. Option C compensates for dissatisfaction while the defect persists. Option D reassures customers about a product that remains faulty, increasing warranty liability instead of reducing failures. Hence, option E.Q20. A utility company recently reduced the frequency of its billing notifications to cut costs. Since then, it has reported that a growing number of customers are missing their electricity bill payment deadlines.
Which of the following would be the most appropriate step for the utility company?
Correct Option C … Explanation: The missed deadlines began after notifications were reduced, so restoring frequent reminders across multiple channels reverses the cause and is far cheaper than the collection costs and revenue delays it prevents. Option A is punitive and disproportionate for customers who simply were not informed. Option B penalises customers for the company's own change in practice. Option D imposes a large lump-sum burden that would worsen non-payment. Option E repeats the original mistake by further reducing billing touchpoints. Hence, option C.
