Select the suitable figure from the four alternatives that would complete the…

Concept: In a figure-matrix (3×3 pattern-completion) question, each row is built around one fixed ‘anchor’ shape, and a second, easily counted element attached to it grows by a constant step (usually +1) as you move from the first cell to the third across that row. The missing figure must keep its own row's anchor shape and continue that row's own numeric step — a figure that borrows a shape from a different row, or gets the count wrong, cannot be the answer.

Application: trace each row's growth step by step.

1. Row 1 (star row): the star stays fixed while the attached circles grow 1 → 2 → 3 across the three cells.

2. Row 2 (circle row): the large circle stays fixed while the attached small circles grow 1 → 2 → 3 across the three cells, the same step as row 1.

3. Row 3 (square row): the first cell shows the large square with 1 small square, the second cell shows it with 2 small squares — so, by the same rule, the missing third cell must show the large square with 3 small squares.

Cross-check: the figure with a large square and three small squares beside it is the only option that keeps the square as the row's anchor shape and lands on exactly the count the row's own step demands; every other option breaks the row's own rule:

• The figure combining a large circle, two smaller circles and a small square swaps in the circle row's shape and adds an unrelated square instead of continuing the square row on its own.

• The figure pairing a star with a single small square borrows the star from the first row and shows only one repetition, not three.

• The figure with two overlapping circles and a small square again uses the circle row's shape and stops at two repetitions instead of three.