An inductive reasoning test measures how well you work out the rule behind a sequence of shapes or patterns and then apply it. There are no words or numbers to lean on: you are shown a series of figures, you infer the rule that generates them, and you choose the option that follows it. Employers use the format because inferring a rule from limited evidence is close to what people actually do when they meet an unfamiliar problem at work.
You may meet the same style of question under a different name. Figurative reasoning, abstract reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning and logical reasoning are all labels used for shape based tests, and the underlying task changes very little between them.
What an inductive reasoning test measures
Inductive reasoning tests are popular with employers looking for logic, a natural aptitude for problem solving and the ability to stay calm under pressure.
Because the questions use shapes rather than words and numbers, they remove much of the advantage held by candidates with a stronger language or maths background. That is a large part of why employers like them.
The tests are almost always tightly timed, and the difficulty usually comes from the number of rules running at once rather than from any single rule being hard.
Inductive reasoning vs deductive reasoning
The two run in opposite directions. Inductive reasoning starts from specific observations and generalises to a rule: you see four figures and work out what governs them. Deductive reasoning starts from a stated rule and applies it to a specific case.
An inductive answer is therefore never certain in the way a deductive one is. It is the best rule that fits the evidence you were given, which is exactly why an inductive question can offer a plausible wrong answer that fits three figures out of four.
Inductive reasoning test examples
Three worked examples, in the order the difficulty normally builds.
Example 1: one rule. Four boxes each contain a single arrow. In box 1 it points up, in box 2 right, in box 3 down, in box 4 left. What belongs in box 5?
The arrow turns 90 degrees clockwise at every step. Four steps complete a full turn, so box 5 returns to an arrow pointing up.
Example 2: two rules at once. Box 1 holds two dots inside a triangle, box 2 four dots inside a square, box 3 six dots inside a pentagon, box 4 eight dots inside a hexagon. What belongs in box 5?
Two rules run side by side. The dot count rises by two at each step, and the shape gains one side at each step. Box 5 is ten dots inside a heptagon, the seven sided shape. A candidate who spots only one of the two rules will find an option that satisfies it and get the question wrong, which is precisely what the distractors are built for.
Example 3: rules on different cycles. A triangle flips between pointing up and pointing down at every step, while its shading changes only every second step. Box 1 is up and shaded, box 2 down and shaded, box 3 up and unshaded, box 4 down and unshaded. What belongs in box 5?
Handle each rule on its own clock. The flip rule has a two step cycle, so box 5 points up. The shading rule switches every two steps, so after two unshaded boxes it switches back, and box 5 is shaded. The answer is an upward pointing triangle, shaded.
Once you can separate rules running on different cycles, most inductive questions become bookkeeping rather than inspiration. Our abstract reasoning tests and diagrammatic reasoning tests drill the same skill against the clock.
What to look for in every question
The rules used in these tests come from a short list: rotation, reflection, an element moving around the figure, a count going up or down, shading or colour switching, size changing, and an element being added or removed. Running that list in the same order on every question is what turns a slow guess into a fast answer.
How to prepare for an inductive reasoning test
Five things make the biggest difference before test day.
Step 1: Familiarise yourself with the test format
Find out the duration, the number of questions and the number of options per question before the day. Dividing the time by the number of questions gives you a seconds per question budget, and that single number is the most useful thing you can carry into the test.
If you know which provider is setting the test, work through practice questions in that style. The visual conventions and the rule set vary between publishers even where the difficulty does not.
Check two things in particular: whether the test adapts its difficulty to your answers, and whether you can flag a question and come back to it. Both change how you should spend your time, and neither is something you want to discover in the first minute.
Step 2: Employ a process of elimination
When the correct answer is not obvious, stop hunting for it and start rejecting options instead.
Take one feature of the sequence at a time, the count of elements for instance, and strike out every option that fails on that feature alone. Then move to the next feature and repeat. Two or three passes usually leaves one option standing, and it is considerably faster than trying to hold the whole rule in your head while you scan the answers.
Even where elimination does not get you to a single option, guessing from what is left beats guessing from the full list.
Step 3: Break each problem down into its parts
Look at one attribute at a time rather than at the figure as a whole.
Go through them in a fixed order: position, rotation, count, shading, size, then anything added or removed. Using the same order on every question means you stop rediscovering your own method each time, and that is where most of the lost seconds go.
Where two rules run at once, note each one separately before you look at the options. A rule you have written down cannot be forgotten halfway through the answer list, which is how questions with two simultaneous rules are usually lost.
Step 4: Don't get tripped up
Expect at least one option in every question to sit very close to the correct answer. That is deliberate. Distractors are usually built by taking the right figure and changing one thing about it.
So look specifically for mirror images, rotations in the wrong direction, and counts that are one out. An option that satisfies every rule but one is the commonest trap in this format, and it is the one that punishes speed.
Before you commit, check your chosen option against every rule you identified, not only the rule that led you to it. That final check costs a couple of seconds and catches the near miss answers.
Step 5: Look at how the question was constructed
In many cases you can reach the answer by asking how the question was built rather than what the sequence means.
Multiple choice options in these tests are typically generated from the correct figure by manipulating it: rotating a part, reflecting it, changing a count, swapping a shading. If four of the options look like variations on one underlying figure, that figure is usually the answer.
This is the fallback for when the sequence itself defeats you and the clock is running.
Practice inductive reasoning questions
Preparation only pays if it is timed. Sit a full set against the clock, then go back over every question you got wrong or guessed and identify which rule you missed, rather than simply reading the answer.
Work through our inductive reasoning tests first, then read our further tips for inductive reasoning tests for how to handle questions once you are in the test itself.
