Logical Reasoning Topics With Helpful Example Answers

Updated 14 December 2022

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Logical reasoning questions help employers understand your thought process and gauge your ability to process complex information. You are likely to come across different logical reasoning questions during your interview or while writing entrance examinations. Understanding the different questions and preparing for reasoning questions beforehand can increase your chances of clearing the entrance exam and getting hired for a desirable job. In this article, we discuss what logical reasoning topics are, understand the steps required to solve reasoning questions and explore the various reasoning questions with examples to help you solve them.

What Are Logical Reasoning Topics?

Logical reasoning topics comprise questions that test a candidate's ability to understand and logically find a solution to a problem. By asking logical reasoning questions, employers can understand a candidate's cognitive ability and analytical skills. Logical reasoning questions for various entrance test and interviews gives employers a great way to gauge how you use resources, ask questions and work under pressure. When appearing for an interview or online examination, you may come across some of the following reasoning topics:

Blood relations
Alphanumeric series
Reasoning analogies
Clocks
Coding-decoding
Deductive reasoning
Data sufficiency
Figure matrix
Puzzles
Order and ranking
Statement and conclusion

Types Of Logical Reasoning Topics

Here are two types of logical reasoning questions you are likely to come across in your interview or during an entrance examination:

1. Verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning is a test of skills rather than being a test of knowledge. Some commonly asked questions in verbal reasoning are decoding codes based on numbers and words, spotting letter differences, order and ranking, among others. An employer understands your critical thinking ability through these questions and determines what logic you apply to solve problems expressed in words. Through verbal reasoning questions, an employer help in gauging your skills in extracting information and its implication in a sentence.

2. Non-verbal reasoning

Verbal reasoning works with words and non-verbal reasoning questions work with figures, pictures and diagrams. An employer asks different non-verbal reasoning questions to test a candidate's ability to analyse visual information and solve a problem. It helps in understanding how you deduce and induce logic to solve problems. Without limitation of the language skills, employers expect a candidate to analyse the information visually and mentally. Some commonly asked non-verbal reasoning questions are identifying mirror images of a shape, finding the next shape in a sequence, identifying how shapes look upon rotation and understanding how a shape looks when folded.

How To Solve Logical Reasoning Questions?

Here are some steps for solving logical reasoning questions:

1. Read and analyse the information

The first step toward solving a logical reasoning question is reading the information given and analysing it. Convert your written cues into visual cues so that you do not waste time rereading the same information. When reading a question, never make assumptions that a question does not provide.

2. Use elimination technique

When you are short of time, focus on using the elimination technique to eliminate wrong answer choices. To do this, read a question or pattern and look at the answers. Find patterns or numbers that do not match the questions. For instance, if every pattern contains a rectangle and only one pattern does not, it is likely an incorrect option. Eliminating the wrong answers can help you solve logical reasoning problems faster. Also, keep in mind you may not be able to apply the elimination technique in every logical reasoning question.

3. Establish a pattern

When looking at a sequence or series-based question, focus on understanding the pattern a sequence follows. Understanding the pattern is essential to solve any logical reasoning problem. Though you may come across many patterns, work out each pattern to find the right solution. Also, when establishing a pattern, check whether the pattern established works forward and backwards.

4. Keep track of potential distractions

Often, to confuse a candidate, employers add distractions to a logical reasoning question. The presence of distractions can cause the fault to appear in your logic. So, when reading a logical reasoning question, assess every information and ignore the one that is not useful.

5. Keep practicing

The more you can think logically, the higher are your chances of solving logical reasoning questions. So, practice thinking logically and solve different reasoning problems before appearing for your interview. Practice tests can help you refine your skill set and give you the confidence to answer questions. When you solve different problems, it becomes easier to understand your strengths and weaknesses and work on them.

6. Keep track of the time

Most logical reasoning tests are time-based. So, never spend too much time trying to solve a single problem. Otherwise, you may not have enough time to complete all the questions. Before attempting the questions, analyse the time you have and allot time for every question and move to the next if you cannot solve it.

Logic Reasoning Questions With Sample Answers

Here are a few types of reasoning questions you are likely to encounter in your interview or entrance examinations:

1. Alphanumeric series

The alphanumeric series comprises numbers and alphabets and you find out the missing number of alphabets. By understanding the logic behind the series, you answer questions related to the alphanumeric series. An alphanumeric series question may be something like:

How many consonants in the series have a symbol succeeding and a vowel preceding it?
M * J E % N ( Z A I W U @ + T / B Y

Example: The question asks for the following arrangement: vowel consonants' symbol. From the alphanumeric series given above, there are no consonants.

2. Blood relations

In blood relation questions, you have information about the types of relationships in a group of people. To solve such problems, consider your family and relationship. You can even draw a generation wise character tree listing all the information mentioned in the question. A blood relations question may be something like:

Pointing to a family photograph, Jiyanshi said, “She is the daughter of the only daughter of my mother.” How does Jiyanshi relates to the girl?

Example: The girl in the photograph is the only daughter of the only daughter of Jiyanshi. So, Jiyanshi is the mother of the girl.

3. Ranking and ordering

In ordering and ranking questions, you count the rank of a person or thing from top to bottom or left to right or vice versa. A ranking and ordering question may be something like:

56 people are sitting in a row. Reyansh is the 35th person from the right side of the row. Honey is the 27th person from the left side of the row. How many people are sitting between Honey and Reyansh?

Example: The number of people sitting between Reyansh and Honey is (35 + 27) – 56 – 2 = 4.

4. Coding and decoding questions

In coding and decoding questions, the employer codes one or two words using the same encryption logic. They may also use pattern coding. In such questions, a candidate first finds the encryption method and decodes a word using the encryption logic. You cannot use trial and error or eliminate the answer choices as you first encode the logic. A coding and decoding question may be something like:

In a certain language, people code WHITE as CRGFU. How would the same people code the word, TIGER?

Example: When converting WHITE as CRGFU, people have first reversed the order of the words to make it ETIHW, then subtracted two from it to get CRGFU. So, following the same logic with TIGER and reversing the letters, we get REGIT. After subtracting two from it, the coded word is PCEGR.

Related: How To Use Deductive Reasoning

5. Syllogism questions

In such questions, an employer gives two or more statements, followed by two or more conclusions. You find out which conclusions logically follow the statements provided. The statements are correct even when there is a slight variation from the commonly known facts. You solve such problems after drawing a Venn diagram.

6. Reasoning analogies questions

In reasoning analogies questions, you find out how two objects or things are similar to dissimilar in certain aspects. Reasoning analogy questions aim to understand how a candidate can discover the relationship between two different pairs of objects. Reasoning analogies may be a letter or word-based analogy, numerical analogy, image-based or general knowledge analogy. A reasoning analogies question may be something like:

If MYU: PBX, find RAJ: ?

Example: The pattern followed in the first pair is adding two letters to every letter. For instance, by adding two letters to M, you get P. Adding two to Y, you get B and adding two to U, you get X. So, following the same logic, to RAJ, you get UDM.