🧠 Deductive Reasoning Test

What a deductive reasoning test measures

Deductive reasoning runs the opposite way to inductive reasoning. You are given the rule up front and you have to work out what must follow. There is no estimating and no judgement call: a conclusion either follows necessarily from the information or it does not, and the whole skill is in tracking the constraints without losing one along the way.

Employers use logic puzzles of this kind for analyst, engineering, technology and graduate roles, where the work involves applying fixed rules to messy detail. It is also the most trainable of the reasoning formats: the techniques are mechanical and hold whatever the puzzle's surface dressing happens to be.

The format on Job Tests Portal

The practice test is a grid puzzle. A square grid is partly filled with shapes, one rule governs the whole board — no shape may repeat in any row or column — and one target cell is marked. You work out which shape belongs in it. This run is open-ended rather than fixed-length: on the test page you set a duration between 1 and 60 minutes and answer as many puzzles as you can before the timer expires.

• You also pick a starting level, from 1 (Easy) to 5 (Master).
• Difficulty then adapts: two correct answers in a row move you up a level, and one wrong answer moves you back down.
• Boards are 4x4 or 5x5, and the deduction steps needed rise from one at level 1 to four at level 5.
• Harder levels are worth more points and allow more time per puzzle.
• A walkthrough on the same page animates five worked puzzles: Cross-Referencing, Indirect Logic, Logic Chain, Sparse Logic and Master Logic.

Question types, with worked examples

1. Cross-referencing

In a 4x4 grid of star, circle, square and triangle, the target is row 3, column 2. Row 3 already contains a circle and a square. Column 2 already contains a circle, a triangle and a square.

Answer: Star

Why: Row 3 is missing star and triangle, so the target is one of those two. Column 2 is missing only star. The one shape that satisfies both constraints is the star. Cross-referencing is always this shape: list what the row still needs, list what the column still needs, and take the overlap.

2. Indirect logic

The target is row 3, column 3. Row 3 still needs a star and a circle. Column 3 also still needs a star and a circle, so neither constraint decides it. Row 4 already contains a star, and the cell at row 4, column 3 is empty.

Answer: Star

Why: Start with the helper cell instead. Column 3 needs a star or a circle at row 4, but row 4 already has a star, so that cell must be the circle. Column 3 now has its circle, which leaves only the star for the target. When the target is undecidable, look for a nearby cell that is not.

3. Logic chains and sparse grids

On a 5x5 grid, the target cell has three candidate shapes and no single row or column narrows it further. Two other empty cells each have only two candidates.

Answer: Solve the two-candidate cells first, then re-check the target.

Why: Every cell you fill removes a candidate from its row and its column, which often collapses the target to a single option. Work from the most constrained cell outwards, never from the target inwards.

A practice method for logic grids

1. Read the rule before the grid. One sentence governs every cell, and fixing it in mind stops you inventing extra constraints.
2. Write the missing shapes for the target row and column. Two short lists turn a picture into a solvable intersection problem.
3. Take the overlap. If exactly one shape appears in both lists, you are done. If more than one does, the target is not yet decidable.
4. Hunt for the most constrained empty cell. Not the target — the cell with the fewest options anywhere on the board. Fill it, then return.
5. Re-check after every fill. Each placement changes two lists. Re-reading them is faster than restarting a chain you have half-forgotten.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Guessing at the target early. If two shapes still fit, the information you need is somewhere else on the board.
• Checking the row and forgetting the column. Both constraints apply to every cell, always.
• Adding a rule that is not there. Diagonals, block regions and repeated patterns are not part of the rule unless stated.
• Keeping everything in your head on a 5x5 board. Jot the candidate lists down.

Where to go next

• Start the deductive reasoning practice test — adaptive levels and a timer you set
• Deductive reasoning tutorial — premises, valid conclusions and worked logic examples
• Deductive reasoning explained — more examples and the valid/invalid conclusion rules
• Inductive Reasoning Test — the mirror skill: inferring the rule from examples
• Switch Challenge — tracking abstract transformations
• All cognitive and aptitude tests — browse the full catalogue