Identify a figure that completes the pattern.

2025

Identify a figure that completes the pattern.

  1. A.

    1

  2. B.

    2

  3. C.

    3

  4. D.

    4

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

A figure-completion item built around a circle inscribed in a square is generated by one fixed rule applied repeatedly around the centre. Once that rule — usually a rotation by a fixed angle — is read off from the quadrants that are already drawn, the same rule fixes the missing quadrant exactly; the correct option is simply the one figure that reproduces the resulting shape.

Here the two diameters and the two diagonals of the inscribed circle split the square into four quadrants. Each of the three given quadrants — top-left, top-right and bottom-right — carries the same X-shaped cross together with one curved arc of the circle, and this arc's outward bulge simply rotates 90° clockwise from one quadrant to the next: it bulges near the top in the top-left quadrant, near the right in the top-right quadrant, and near the bottom in the bottom-right quadrant. Rotating this rule by one more 90° step, the missing bottom-left quadrant must carry the identical cross-and-arc design with the bulge now on the left side, exactly completing the circle shown below.

  • A curve that bulges outward near the top-right corner reuses the design already drawn in the top-right quadrant, not the design produced by one more rotation.

  • A curve that sits almost flush against the straight border, with far less separation from it than the curve repeated in the other three quadrants, does not match the pattern.

  • A curve that bulges outward by less than the depth used consistently in the rest of the figure is a shallower curve that falls short of completing the pattern.

  • A curve that bulges outward on the left side by the same depth as the other three quadrants matches the rotation rule used throughout the rest of the figure.

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