Letter and Symbol Series Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The missing entry is E67.

Read the letters along the rows: Z, X, V go back two places, and T, R, P also go back two places, so the middle row A, C, ? goes forward two places to E.

Read the numbers down the columns: 2, 3, 4 rise by one; 19, 18, 17 fall by one; so the last column 66, ?, 68 needs 67.

Together the entry is E67. E6 and E56 have the right letter but the wrong number, and F69 gets both parts wrong.

Answer: B

The missing letters are STU.

Each group is three consecutive letters, and three letters are skipped between groups:

ABC (skip DEF) GHI (skip JKL) MNO (skip PQR) STU

PQR is the group that is skipped, not the next one. QRS and RST start one or two letters too early, breaking the gap of three letters.

Another check: the first letters A, G, M and S are at positions 1, 7, 13 and 19 in the alphabet, each 6 places after the previous one.

Answer: A

The next term is YREGEA.

Each term is made from the previous one by shifting its letters by -1, +1, +2, +3, ... in turn and then adding an A at the end:

• BOY: B-1 = A, O+1 = P, Y+2 = A (wrapping round), then add A: APAA.
• APAA: A-1 = Z, P+1 = Q, A+2 = C, A+3 = D, then add A: ZQCDA.
• ZQCDA: Z-1 = Y, Q+1 = R, C+2 = E, D+3 = G, A+4 = E, then add A: YREGEA.

Each term is also one letter longer than the one before, so the answer must have six letters, which rules out YRFHE and YREGE. YRDEFA has six letters but does not follow the shifts.

Answer: A

The missing term is Q35B.

Each term has three parts that follow their own rules:

• First letters A, B, E, J, ?, Z are positions 1, 2, 5, 10, ?, 26, rising by 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. The next is \(10 + 7 = 17\), which is Q.
• Numbers 3, 8, 15, 24, ?, 48 are \(n^{2} - 1\) for n = 2 to 7, so the missing one is \(36 - 1 = 35\).
• Last letters Z, Q, J, E, ?, A are positions 26, 17, 10, 5, ?, 1, falling by 9, 7, 5, 3, 1. The missing one is 2, which is B.

That gives Q35B. The options with R or 36 break the first two patterns, and C breaks the third.

Answer: C

The missing letters are CACAC.

Filling the blanks in order gives the groups

ABCB, BCAC, CABA, ABCB

Each group is a rotation of ABC followed by its own middle letter: ABC + B, BCA + C, CAB + A, and then the cycle returns to ABC + B.

The other options break a group: CCAAC makes the second group BCCC, CBABC makes it BCBC, and BCCAB makes the very first group ABBB.

Answer: C

The missing term is GWH.

Each term has three letters, and each position follows its own pattern:

• First letters: A, C, E, ?, I, every second letter, so the gap is G.
• Middle letters: Z, Y, X, ?, V, counting backwards, so the gap is W.
• Last letters: B, D, F, ?, J, every second letter, so the gap is H.

Together they give GWH. GUH has the right outer letters but skips W and jumps to U. GHU and GHW put the letters in the wrong positions: the middle letter must come from the backward run Z, Y, X, W.

Answer: B

The missing letter is Y.

Replace the letters by their positions in the alphabet: A = 1, D = 4, I = 9, P = 16. These are the perfect squares \(1^2, 2^2, 3^2, 4^2\), so the next term is \(5^2 = 25\), the letter Y.

The gaps confirm it: 3, 5, 7 and then 9 letters, the odd numbers in turn, and \(16 + 9 = 25\). X (24) and W (23) fall short of 25, and Z (26) overshoots.

Answer: B

The next group is JMQ.

Write each letter's position in the alphabet. Each position rises by 2 from one group to the next:

\[ \begin{aligned} \text{BEI} &= 2,\ 5,\ 9 \\ \text{DGK} &= 4,\ 7,\ 11 \\ \text{FIM} &= 6,\ 9,\ 13 \\ \text{HKO} &= 8,\ 11,\ 15 \\ \text{next} &= 10,\ 13,\ 17 = \text{JMQ} \end{aligned} \]

Within each group the gaps are also fixed, +3 then +4 (B to E to I). JMN and JMP get the third letter wrong (14 and 16 instead of 17), and JPQ breaks the +3 step from J.

Answer: A

The missing letter is U.

Write the letters as their positions in the alphabet: A = 1, G = 7, L = 12, P = 16, S = 19. The gaps between them are 6, 5, 4 and 3, falling by one each time.

The next gap is therefore 2, giving 19 + 2 = 21, which is U.

Y (25), X (24) and W (23) would need gaps of 6, 5 or 4, which breaks the falling pattern.

Writing out a few anchor positions (E 5, J 10, O 15, T 20, Y 25) makes series like this quick to check.

Answer: A

The next term is TUD.

Each term is a pair of consecutive letters followed by a letter of a running series. The pairs are NO, PQ, RS, so the next pair is TU, each pair starting two letters after the last. The third letters run A, B, C, so the next is D.

That gives TUD. None of ENU, FNQ or DJU continues either the pair sequence or the A, B, C, D sequence.