Logical reasoning tests: how to crack abstract patterns
The short answer: logical (also called inductive or diagrammatic) reasoning tests show you a sequence or grid of abstract shapes and ask what comes next. Every question, however alien it looks, is built from a small library of rules: rotation, movement, counting, size, shading and alternation, applied one at a time or stacked together. Once you can name those rules, you stop staring at shapes and start checking a mental list. That skill is almost entirely trainable.
What the test looks like
The most common formats are a horizontal sequence of frames with the next frame missing, a 3×3 matrix with one cell blank, odd-one-out sets, and A-is-to-B analogies. You pick the answer from four or five options, usually with under a minute per question. Providers using these formats include SHL (inductive reasoning), Korn Ferry (elements logical), Saville (diagrammatic) and Talogy. Because no language or maths is involved, employers treat these as the purest measure of raw reasoning, which is exactly why they feel hardest cold. (Capply is independent and not affiliated with any provider.)
The rule library
Nearly every question combines one to four of these:
- Rotation: a shape turns by a fixed angle each frame, clockwise or anticlockwise.
- Movement: an element steps around positions in the frame, often wrapping around when it reaches the edge.
- Counting: the number of sides, dots or shapes increases or decreases by a fixed amount.
- Size and shading: elements grow, shrink, or cycle through fill states (filled, hollow, striped).
- Alternation: a property flips every other frame, so check odd and even frames as two separate tracks.
- Appearance and disappearance: elements are added or removed on a schedule, or two elements swap roles.
Easy questions apply one rule. Hard questions stack three or four rules on different elements at once, so the skill becomes tracking each element separately rather than the frame as a whole.
A method for any pattern question
- Isolate one element (one shape, one dot) and follow it across all frames. Ignore everything else.
- Name its rule from the library above.
- Repeat for the next element until every moving part has a rule.
- Project one frame forward and eliminate options that break any rule. Distractors are built to satisfy some rules but not all, so elimination is usually faster than construction.
How to get good at it
Volume and review. Each practice question you review adds to your internal rule library, and recognition gets faster every session. Practise timed, at a difficulty that stretches you, and when you miss a question, identify which rule you failed to spot rather than just reading the answer. Our psychometric test prep guide covers how to structure the fortnight before a real test.
Train pattern recognition properly
Capply's logical reasoning bank spans every rule type across four difficulty tiers, adapts to your level and explains the rule behind every answer.
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