How to ace Number Puzzles in Reasoning for SSC

The logical reasoning section of any exam tests your logical thinking ability or decision-making skills but the reasoning section for SSC also tests your numerical skills. Number puzzles for SSC which are asked in the Reasoning section include grid based questions, similar and unsimilar sets of numbers, odd one out, etc. There are different concepts used to solve these number puzzles for SSC which are listed below.

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1. Difference between the numbers following some pattern:

For example: 379, 390, 412, 445, ? , 544

Difference between the terms are 390 – 379 = 11, 412 – 390 = 22, 445 – 412 = 33 and so on.

So, we can see that the difference between consecutive terms here are consecutive multiples of 11.

2. Squares and cubes

For example: 441, 576, 729, 900, ?

441 = 21², 576 = 24², 729 = 27², 900 = 30²

So next term will be 33² = 1089.

3. Using AP (arithmetic progressions) or GP (geometric progressions).

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Examples shown above are just for reference. These types of concepts will be used in different ways in the actual questions. We will look at some examples to understand the usage of such concepts better.

To solve these questions in less time, one needs to take command over basic number-based techniques like calculation speed, learning squares of numbers from 1-30 and cubes of numbers from 1-20, the basic concept of AP-GP, multiplication tables, etc.

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Some examples of how to solve number puzzles for SSC:

Q1. Find the missing number from the given responses.

191	573	364	400
A	232	349	523
652	342	B	703
333	576	486	423

a) A=630, B=291

b) A=620, B=281

c) A=620, B=291

d) A=630, B=281

Answer key: a

Solution:

191+573 = 364+400

333+576 = 486+423

A+232 = 349+513

A = 630

652+342 = B+703

B = 291

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Q2. Find the missing number from the given responses.

193	199	368
298	346	413
325	?	221
272	267	334

a) 301

b) 193

c) 256

d) 276

Answer key: c

Solution:

Element in the fourth row is the average of the elements in the top three rows.

(193+298+325)/3 = 272

(368+413+221)/3 = 334

(199+346+N)/3 = 267

545+N = 801

N = 256

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Q3. Select the set in which the numbers are related in the same way as are the numbers of the following set.

(5,2,30)

(a) (5, 1, 29)

(b) (9, 2, 87)

(c) (4, 3, 28)

(d) (7, 8, 114)

Answer key: d

Solution:

The pattern followed is:

5² + 2² + 1 = 25 + 4 + 1 = 30

Similarly, 7² + 8² + 1 = 49 + 64 + 1 = 114

We hope this post helps you in your preparation for the upcoming exams. For more such articles, stay tuned with Oliveboard.

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