Watch the number of sides, the shading and the dot. What does the missing box look like? Four boxes in a row, then a fifth box marked with a question mark. Box 1: a shaded square, with a dot at the bottom-left corner. Box 2: an unshaded pentagon, with a dot at the middle of the bottom edge. Box 3: a shaded hexagon, with a dot at the bottom-right corner. Box 4: an unshaded heptagon, with a dot at the middle of the right edge.

Figure 1 (A box containing a shaded octagon, with a dot at the top-right corner.)

Watch the number of sides, the shading and the…

Watch the number of sides, the shading and the dot.

HardOriginal question

Watch the number of sides, the shading and the dot. What does the missing box look like?

Figure 1

Correct answerYour answerFigure 2 A box containing a shaded heptagon, with a dot at the top-right corner.

Correct answerYour answerFigure 3 A box containing a shaded octagon, with a dot at the middle of the right edge.

Correct answerYour answerFigure 4 A box containing an unshaded octagon, with a dot at the top-right corner.

Correct answerYour answer

Show the answer and explanation

CorrectNot quiteAnswer A

Correct answer: A

The shape gains one side each time: square, pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, so next comes a octagon.
Shaded and unshaded shapes alternate, starting shaded, so the fifth shape is shaded.
The dot moves 1 place anticlockwise round the box each time (the 4 corners and 4 edge midpoints are the 8 places): from the middle of the right edge it goes to the top-right corner.
Figure 1 shows a shaded octagon, with a dot at the top-right corner.

Worth noting

Track one element at a time across all four boxes, and check each option against every rule; each wrong figure here breaks exactly one of them.

Ten questions from Non-verbal Reasoning, at your own pace.

Ten questions from Non-verbal Reasoning, at your own pace.