How to Crack Puzzle Questions in Competitive Exams

Every student goes through competitive exams once in their lives. And facing these examinations is not an easy task as it months to prepare. The question papers are framed in a way that it leads a candidate to think inquisitively and answer professionally. In every question papers of competitive examinations, subjective, objective-based questions are essentially included in order to check the student’s intelligence. At the same time, puzzle-based questions are equally put in question papers to check the mental strength of a student. In this blog, you will come to know how to crack puzzle questions in competitive examinations. 

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Puzzle Questions in Competitive Exams

There are various competitive examinations like CAT, MAT, XAT, SNAP, GRE, GMAT,  Bank PO, SSC which are putting reasoning and puzzle questions for students to check their mental strength in order to prepare them for next level. It is a fact that puzzle questions have been successfully helping students in fetching good marks in any competitive examinations like the banking sector, SSC or any other examination for that matter. Nowadays every competitive based examination include puzzle questions in order to check students ability which helps them enhance their skills. Do you know puzzle and reasoning questions are mostly ask you related to blood relations, arrangements, inequalities?   

Puzzle Questions Topics 

On the basis of various topics, many competitive examinations include puzzle questions. Let’s list what are the main topics where you can expect puzzle or reasoning questions:

• Number Puzzles with Missing letters puzzles
• Sudoku
• Logical puzzles
• Playing cards puzzles
• Clock puzzles with Solution
• Analytical Puzzles

How to Crack Puzzle Questions? 

In order to set a distinctive space and create a milestone after cracking a competitive examination, all you need to know the main steps of cracking puzzle based questions.  The basic criteria of cracking puzzle questions is to practice loads of reasoning based questions and puzzles on continuous times. 

1. Take a quick glance at the questions. The first and the foremost parament which you have to follow is taking a glance at all the questions including puzzle questions which are included in the question paper. Read every question very carefully. Sometimes questions may worry you like and are tricky in nature where the clue is right there, for example, “My father has only one child and the only son has a blue car” which means I am a son (not a daughter) and have a blue car.
   
2. Idea generation: Once you are done with the first part of thoroughly reading the question paper, then your idea generation plays a pivotal role which will help you understand the theme of the problem and ultimately simplify your work. It is important to mention that in order to know the choices in problems and entire data analysis section, many times 3 out of 4 choices should be easily eliminated and the fourth one turns to be an answer. 
   
3. You need to select the data which will give you concrete information. There are three parameters in data selection:

• Useful secondary information: It is important to know that your first sentences will provide you with general information related to the subject. This is known as useful secondary information. 
• Actual information: Once you are trying solving the problems you can to keep in mind the useful secondary information. You need to begin with actual information when you are solving the problems. 
• Negative Information: There are some parts in the actual information which include negative information. It is important to know that negative information does not educate us anything but it provides us with a change of eliminating the possibility. Let’s simplify this further, sentences like “N is not the mother of S” or “T is not a hill-station” are known as negative information.

Logical Puzzle Question and Answers

Directions: Choose the word Opposite in meaning to the given word. 

Q1. A large volume of water is gushing through a pipe which narrows at the outlet. At which point, A, B, C, or D will the water flow fastest?

Ans: C

Sol: The water flows fastest at the narrowest point. 

Q2. SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY

What day comes three days after the day which comes two days after the day which comes immediately after the day which comes two days after Monday? 

Ans: Tuesday

Sol: Tuesday

Attempt the next three yourself!

Q3. Gordon is twice as old as Tony was when Gordon was as old as Tony is now. The combined age of Gordon and Tony is 112 years. How old are Gordon and Tony now? 

Q4. A bag of potatoes weighs 50 lbs divided by half of its weight. How much does the bag of potatoes weigh?

Q5. In a party of 35 people, there are twice as many women as children and twice as many children as men. How many of each are there? 

Banking Puzzle Questions and Answers

Q1. At the end of the day, one market stall had 16 apples and 48 oranges left. Another market stall had 36 apples and 24 oranges left. What is the difference between the percentages of apples left in the two market stalls?

Ans: 35%

Sol: First stall 16 out of 64 = 25%

Second stall 36 out of 60  = 60%

Difference in percentages = 35%

Q2. In a consignment of eggs, 52 were cracked, which was 12 percent of the total consignment. How many eggs were in the consignment?

Ans: 4600

Sol: (552/12) x 100 = 4600

Attempt the next three yourself!

Q3. In a right-angled triangle, if the lengths of the two shortest sides are whole numbers exactly and the length of the hypotenuse is 40 cm, what are the lengths of the two shortest sides?

Q4. In a 15’s year time the combined age of my four brothers will be 107. What will it be in six year’s time?

Q5. How many cases do you need if you have to pack 112 pairs of shoes into cases that each hold 28 shoes? 

Sequence Puzzle Questions and Answers

Q1. Which yield should replace the question mark?

Ans: E 

Sol: Each line across and down contains one of the three symbols is black, and one side is upside down. 

Q2. Which is the missing tile?

Ans: C

Sol: In each row and column only lines that are common to the first two squares are carried forward for the final square. 

Attempt the next three yourself!

Q3. Which is the missing tile?

Q4. What comes next?

Q5. Which is the missing tile?

Solved Questions With Answers 

Q1. Which Number replaces Question Mark?

A. 9

B. 34

C. 21

D. 11

Answer with Explanation

The answer is 9. BECAUSE in each square of the diagram, the sum of the numbers is always 22.

Q2. Which number replaces the Question Mark? 

A. 4

B. 7

C. 9

D. 11

Answer with Explanation 

The answer is 4. Because Working in Columns, the sum of the numbers in each column in always 14. 

Q3. What letter replaces the Question Mark? 

A. 7

B. 9

C. 6

D. 1

Answer with Explanation 

The answer is 6. Because the numbers in each row and column add up to 15. 

Q4. What number replaces the question mark? 

A. 12 

B. 16

C. 23

D. 34

Answer with Explanation 

The Answer is 16. Because moving clockwise, around alternate segments in the chain, one sequence decreases by 1,2,3, and 4 each time, while the other increases by 2,3,4 and 5. 

Q5. What is missing from the hexagon? 

A. 44

B. 40 

C. 31

D. 21

Answer with Explanation 

The Answer is 40. Because moving from left to right, numbers increase by 2,3,4 and 5. 

Important points to remember 

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• Collect all the direct information. 
• Then you need to arrange all the direct information in a tabular formation.
• Identify all the negative information and put it in your table as per the given data. 
• Find other facts from indirect information. 
• There will be more than one possibility in some condition. 
• As per the different possibilities you need to arrange them in different tables. 
• You should reject all the negative information which will violate information in the puzzle. 
• After following this process, you will surely get the correct answer.  
• It is important to know that most of the puzzle questions are tricky in nature, so need to be careful with every word and sentences.

Also read: Types of Reasoning Questions in Competitive Exams

Other Topics

You should have firm command in following parameters which will help you cracking puzzle questions more easily. 

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Reading Comprehension
• Verbal Reasoning
• Logical Reasoning

Also read: Blood Relations Questions For Competitive Exams

It is important that while appearing for any competitive examinations and solving puzzle questions, you remember Sherlock Holmes who says, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however impossible, must be the truth.” Apart from that your determination and continuous practice would be a key factor in cracking puzzle questions in competitive exams. Are you still pondering how you will crack these questions? Then book your 30 minutes of a counselling session at Leverage Edu your one-stop solution where our dedicated team of experts will help you resolve your queries.