The rules in a matrix reasoning test.
Every task in a matrix reasoning test is governed by one or more rules. There are not endlessly many; there are fourteen. Anyone who recognises them does not have to search.
A task is a grid of three by three cells where the ninth is missing. The rules say how the cells relate: something grows, something is distributed, something is mirrored. On the easiest tasks one rule applies. On the hardest, three or four apply at once, and the options differ in a single detail.
Below are the seventeen rules that change something, each with a solved example. The eighteenth, constant, means that a property stands still in every cell, and it has no page of its own. The examples are the same ones the app shows after a wrong answer.
More about the format: what a matrix reasoning test is and how logical reasoning tests are used in recruitment.
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Step by step change
The size decreases by 1 step to the right and does not change downwards.
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Three values distributed
Three sets of arrows each appear once in every row and every column.
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Patterns combined
The third cell is the first two laid on top of each other. Every line is kept. This holds in rows and columns.
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Patterns cancelling out
The third cell is the first two laid on top of each other, but lines present in both disappear. This holds in rows and columns.
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Patterns in common
The third cell is what the first two have in common: only sectors filled in both are kept. This holds in rows and columns.
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Arithmetic on the number
The number of dots on the other side of the line in the third cell is the difference between the first two: 3 − 2 = 1. This holds in every row.
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Movement along a path
The figure alternates between standing and lying with every step to the right and every step downwards.
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Mirroring
The third cell in every row is the first one with the symbols in reverse order.
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Rotation of the whole cell
The whole content of the cell rotates 180 degrees clockwise to the right and 90 degrees downwards.
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Nested figures
The inner figure is circle, heptagon and octagon, once in every row and every column.
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Number of sides
The number of corners decreases by 1 to the right and 1 downwards.
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Degree of fill
The filled share decreases by 25 percentage points to the right and 25 downwards.
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Conditional rule
The first symbol determines the second symbol: plus means plus, dot means dot and ring means ring.
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Covariation
The number of figures and their size are linked: the more figures, the smaller they are.
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Slot by slot combination
The third cell is worked out slot by slot from the first two: two equal symbols become a flag pointing left, a flag pointing left changes nothing, and two different ones among a star, a square and a circle become the third. This holds in rows and columns.
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Growing step
The direction rotates clockwise, 45° in the first step and 90° in the next, both to the right and downwards.
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Turn and change in the cross
The symbols move 90° counterclockwise with every step to the right and 90° clockwise with every step downwards, and with every step each symbol changes to the next: a flag pointing right becomes a flag pointing left, a flag pointing left becomes a square and a square becomes a flag pointing right.
Practise for real.
In the app the tasks are generated on the phone and the answer explains every rule. Five tasks are free; the rest unlocks with a one-time purchase.
Get it on the App StoreRequires an iPhone with iOS 17 or later.