Q&A: practice questions with answers

Concept: Facing the centre, 'right' means anticlockwise and 'left' means clockwise.

1. Fix S. Three people between S and A from S's right ⇒ A is the 4th seat anticlockwise from S, i.e. the 2nd seat clockwise.
2. Two people between A and B in a 6-seat circle ⇒ B is exactly opposite A.
3. Three seats remain for C, R, T. R must be on C's immediate right (one seat anticlockwise of C); only one placement avoids S and A, which leaves T at the seat just clockwise of S.
4. From A's left (clockwise) we meet 4 people before reaching T.

Trick: In a circle of n, 'k people between from one side' = n − 2 − k people from the other side. Here 6 − 2 − 0 = 4.

Answer: (A) Four

Concept: Check the gaps between terms; here they grow as consecutive odd numbers.

1. Step-ups along 450 → 451 → 454 → 459 → 466 are +1, +3, +5, +7.
2. Next gap = 9.
3. ? = $466+9=475$.

Trick: Adding 1, 3, 5, 7… means the term = $450+n^2$. $450+5^2=475$ – one step.

Answer: (B) 475

Concept: Code = 2 × (sum of reverse alphabet positions, A = 26 … Z = 1).

1. XHOS: $3+19+12+8=42$; $42\times 2=84$ ✔
2. CRFY: $24+9+21+2=56$; $56\times 2=112$ ✔
3. ZIOE: $1+18+12+22=53$; $53\times 2=106$.

Trick: $\text{Reverse value}=27-\text{forward value}$. Sum of reverse values of a 4-letter word = $108-\text{forward sum}$. ZIOE forward = $26+9+15+5=55$ ⇒ $108-55=53$ ⇒ 106.

Answer: (B) 106

Concept: Letters shared by two words take the digits shared by their codes.

1. PAIR and REAP share P, A, R; codes 7643 and 7536 share 7, 6, 3.
2. PAIR's extra letter I gets the extra digit 4.
3. REAP's extra letter E gets the extra digit 5.

Trick: Just find the one letter present only in REAP (E) and the one digit present only in 7536 (5) – no full decoding needed.

Answer: (D) 5

Concept: All + All gives All; All + No gives No.

1. All pianists are musicians + all musicians are singers ⇒ all pianists are singers.
2. All pianists are singers + no singer is a composer ⇒ no pianist is a composer. (I) follows.
3. 'All pianists are singers' can be converted to 'Some singers are pianists'. (II) follows.

Trick: Whenever 'All A are B' is true, 'Some B are A' is automatically true – tick such a conclusion at once.

Answer: (B) Both conclusions (I) and (II) follow.

Concept: Each fold doubles every cut; open the folds in reverse order, mirroring across each crease.

1. Bottom half goes up, then right half goes left ⇒ the cut is made on the top-left quarter; two folds ⇒ every cut appears 4 times.
2. The small rectangle is near the outer edge, away from the creases ⇒ its 4 copies sit near the 4 outer corners.
3. The slanting cut is at the corner where both creases meet (sheet centre) ⇒ it opens into one full diamond at the centre.

Trick: A cut touching both creases becomes ONE shape at the centre; a cut away from creases becomes 4 separate shapes. Option (C) alone shows this.

Answer: (C)

Concept: Measure each letter's shift from the first letter.

1. UVQ: U+1 = V, U−4 = Q.
2. WXS: W+1 = X, W−4 = S; IJE: I+1 = J, I−4 = E.
3. IMH: I+4 = M, I−1 = H – the shifts are reversed, so it is the odd one.

Trick: In three options the first two letters are consecutive (UV, WX, IJ). The cluster without that pair (IM) is the odd one – found in 5 seconds.

Answer: (B) IMH

Concept: Find the length of the repeating unit and fill the gaps from it.

1. 12 places; given: _ _ T B _ N A _ B M _ A.
2. B is at places 4 and 9 ⇒ the pattern repeats every 5 letters.
3. Unit = N A T B M ⇒ NATBM NATBM NA.
4. Blanks (1, 2, 5, 8, 11) = N, A, M, T, N.

Trick: Distance between two same letters (B…B = 5) gives the block length directly. Then check options: only NAMTN fits.

Answer: (A) NAMTN

Concept: Decode each symbol, then trace back from the target person.

1. T / A: T is A's father.
2. S : T: S is T's wife ⇒ S is A's mother.
3. B ! S: B is S's brother ⇒ A's mother's brother (maternal uncle).
4. P < B: P is B's son ⇒ P = mother's brother's son.

Trick: Read the chain from the right end (A) and add one relation at a time: father → mother → mother's brother → his son.

Answer: (C) Mother's brother's son

Concept: Place the persons with fixed seats first, then the conditional ones.

1. Three to the left of T ⇒ T = seat 4. Only B to the right of A ⇒ A = 6, B = 7.
2. Three between A and S ⇒ S = 2.
3. Seats 1, 3, 5 left; M < L < N ⇒ M = 1, L = 3, N = 5.
4. Between M (1) and N (5): S, L, T = 3 persons.

Trick: People between seats p and q = |p − q| − 1 = 5 − 1 − 1 = 3.

Answer: (A) Three

Concept: Find the shift of each letter position and apply the same shifts.

1. S→P (−3), H→J (+2), M→O (+2), A→X (−3).
2. Check: R→O (−3), B→D (+2), U→W (+2), X→U (−3) ✔
3. For NCTV: K (= N back 3), E (= C ahead 2), V (= T ahead 2), S (= V back 3) ⇒ KEVS.

Trick: Work out only the first letter: N − 3 = K. Only option (B) starts with K.

Answer: (B) KEVS

Concept: Each letter moves 5 places back in every next term (wrapping after A to Z).

1. 1st letters: A → V → Q → L → G.
2. 2nd letters: T → O → J → E → Z (E − 5 wraps to Z).
3. 3rd letters: E → Z → U → P → K.
4. Next term = GZK.

Trick: For backward wrap, add 26: E = 5 ⇒ $5-5=0$ ⇒ 26 = Z. Options differ only by G/H, Z/Y, K/L – one check each.

Answer: (B) GZK

Concept: Write the word and its alphabetical arrangement one below the other and compare place by place.

1. Word: C L I M B E R
2. Sorted: B C E I L M R
3. Only the 7th letter R matches.

Trick: First check the last letter: if the word's last letter is its alphabetically biggest letter (R here), it surely stays put.

Answer: (D) One

Concept: Same position-wise shifts apply to the new cluster.

1. PWGZ → RZIC: +2, +3, +2, +3.
2. Check UELO → WHNR: +2, +3, +2, +3 ✔
3. For JDVB: L (J ahead 2), G (D ahead 3), X (V ahead 2), E (B ahead 3) ⇒ LGXE.

Trick: J + 2 = L – only option (C) begins with L, so stop there.

Answer: (C) LGXE

Concept: The given figure must appear inside an option with the same size, shape and orientation.

1. (X) = a square with a right-angled triangle on its top-right corner; one leg goes up, one goes right, each equal to the square's side.
2. In (C), the lower-left small square of the big square, the upper half of the vertical middle line, the right half of the horizontal middle line and the slant between them form exactly (X).
3. (A), (B), (D) have no such triangle sitting on a square's corner.

Trick: Search for the most unusual line of (X) – here the slanting side – in each option first; it quickly removes wrong choices.

Answer: (C)

Concept: Two folds ⇒ every cut appears 4 times, mirrored across both creases.

1. Count: 1 star + 2 circles become 4 stars + 8 circles ⇒ (B) (one star) and (C) (four circles) are out.
2. The circles lie next to the creases, so after opening they form pairs at the middle of the top, bottom, left and right edges – none at the corners.
3. (D) puts circles at corners/centre, so it is out; (A) matches.

Trick: Count first: number of holes after opening = $\text{holes cut}\times 2^{\text{number of folds}}$. Counting alone removes two options here.

Answer: (A)

Concept: The same four signs (+, −, ÷, ×) lie on a diagonal; only their order changes in a fixed cycle.

1. Read bottom-left to top-right: Fig 1: + − ÷ ×; Fig 2: − + × ÷; Fig 3: × ÷ − +; Fig 4: ÷ × + −.
2. Changes alternate: swap within pairs, then swap the two pairs, then swap within pairs again.
3. Next step = swap the pairs: ÷ × + − → + − ÷ ×.

Trick: Two 'swap' operations applied twice bring you back to the start – figure 5 is the same as figure 1.

Answer: (B)

Concept: Replace the signs first, then solve by BODMAS.

1. − ↔ ÷ and × ↔ +: $32+49-7\times 4÷3$ becomes $32\times 49÷7+4-3$.
2. $49÷7=7$; $32\times 7=224$.
3. $224+4-3=225$.

Trick: Divide early: $49÷7=7$ avoids the big product $32\times 49$. Unit digit check: $4+4-3$ ⇒ ends in 5 ⇒ only 225.

Answer: (A) 225

Concept: Show 'is a kind of' as a circle inside another, and unrelated things as separate circles.

1. Bread is a type of food ⇒ Bread circle inside Food circle.
2. Wool is not food at all ⇒ a separate circle, touching neither.
3. Only option (A) shows one circle inside another plus one apart.

Trick: Ask 'Is every X a Y?' for each pair – yes = inside, no link = separate, some = overlap.

Answer: (A)

Concept: Differences form a doubling pattern.

1. Differences: 4, 8, 16, 32 (each ×2).
2. Next difference = $32\times 2=64$.
3. ? = $96+64=160$.

Trick: Subtract 32 from every term: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 – a pure doubling series. Next = 128, so ? = $128+32=160$.

Answer: (D) 160