Select the figure that will come next in the following figure series.

Concept

In a figure-series, treat the 8 marked cells of the box — the four corners and the four edge-midpoints — as points on a ring. Each shape advances by its own fixed number of these cells, in its own fixed direction, every frame; once that step size is confirmed from two consecutive frames, applying it once more predicts the next frame exactly.

Application

Track each shape across the three given boxes (positions named by where they sit inside the box):

• Star: middle-left → top-centre → middle-right. It advances two cells clockwise every frame, so next it lands at bottom-centre.

• Oval: top-centre → middle-left → bottom-centre. It moves two cells anticlockwise every frame, so next it lands at middle-right.

• Diamond: bottom-centre → top-right → middle-left. It advances a fixed step every frame (three cells anticlockwise), so next it lands at the bottom-right corner.

• Down-arrow: middle-right → bottom-right → bottom-centre (sharing the bottom edge with the oval in this frame). It advances one cell clockwise every frame, so next it lands at bottom-left.

Cross-check

The first two boxes alone fix every shape's step unambiguously, since no two shapes share a cell there: the star's middle-left-to-top-centre move and the down-arrow's middle-right-to-bottom-right move each cover exactly one named cell, and the oval's and diamond's moves are equally clear. Applying each shape's confirmed step a second time reproduces the third box exactly — including the down-arrow and oval both arriving at bottom-centre together, which is why that box shows them side by side. Applying the same steps once more, independently for each shape, is what fixes the fourth figure.

Result

Combining every shape's own fixed step gives one figure that satisfies all four simultaneously: the down-arrow at bottom-left, the oval at middle-right, the star at bottom-centre, and the diamond at the bottom-right corner. Every other figure breaks exactly one of these — either the diamond fails to advance at all, the diamond reverses to an earlier cell, or the down-arrow advances one cell too many.